Board Thread:Midian Ideas/@comment-24302820-20160924050544

I've posted some other skills recently, to support the work we're doing on Conquest, but I'm not a hundred percent sure on this one just yet.

Business

Technical

Proficiency [Knowledge]

400 hours

Business acumen allows one to properly run a shop, restaurant, retail store, shipping company, or similar concern. I won't lie, this is mostly accounting. There's a lot of maths involved with this skill. You can keep the books in order, track expenses, and maximise profits. By finding and managing the ways in which a business makes and spends its money, you can minimise loss and improve the business's strengths in order to increase the income flow. As a general guideline, craftsmen and merchants make a 50% gross profit percentage. That is, their take-home earnings are about equal to what the raw goods and equipment or wholesale items cost them. Results on this skill check above twenty add 1/20th of the mercantile level for that business for every additional point. Likewise, rolling less than ten on the skill check decreases profits by the same amount, and yes, this number can potentially be quite negative. For shops that do not have a listed mercantile level, use 10% profit/loss if it's of a more common type business, or 50% profit/loss if it is a rare or unique business. This skill can be attempted unskilled (at the standard -5 penalty) and indeed most proprietors do so. A good basic understanding of the business at hand--that is, having the relevant skill, or a partner who does--grants you a familiarity bonus. You gain a +2 for every level of the relevant apprenticeship, every two points of a proficiency, or a flat +3 for basic skills. Note that the Business skill is mostly the backroom work, rather than the actual selling of goods (which is the merchant skill) nor of handling employees (the management skill). 