DnD campaign

So one of the things that the DMG doesn't give a huge amount of guidance on anyway is crafting things. While certainly for adventuring the goal of crafting is creating exactly the magic item you wanted, but for the Cormyr campaign I think by adding some other more tangible benefits to the crafting system it should create a meaningful way for the player character to spend their time when not adventuring.

An initial list of professions I've come up with:

Writer - novelist, historian, arcanist, religious, playwright
Craftsman - See PHB page 154, or Xanathar's Guide
Musician - soloist, small group, orchestra
Actor

...and more...

While I don't have a good idea of a precise system some of the ways I could see this working are as follows:

Over the course of one 8 hour period you can work on your profession, once per day. During this time you have a chance to improve one aspect of your profession. The different aspects you can improve include:

Skill - overall ability to perform at your craft, increases quality of work long-term and allows the ability to create more intricate and potentially magical objects. Improving in your skill requires a dedication to trying new and/or experimental techniques, or expanding current knowledge.

Popularity - how well you as a tradesman are known and liked throughout the city. Based on your charisma, trade, background, race, and previous interactions, you may be more popular with certain demographics. Improving popularity could involve dedicating time to self-promotion through posters, visiting customers, or spending time in busy areas.

Profitability - ability to make money. By increasing your profitability, you're considering ways to potentially cut costs, decrease time needed to create, as well as bartering.

Masterworking - generalist skills as well as a bit of luck is needed for any successful craftsman. Increasing this skills improves your ability to teach apprentices as well as critical success range when crafting. While difficult to increase, completing masterworks will improve the ability to increase the other pillars.

These four pillars come together to form the basis for the crafting system and for each profession you have, you'll also have a rating in each category.

When you choose to work for 8 hours, you can select one of these categories to improve. In order to improve a skill, a roll of 51 + Rank Modifier on a d100 is required to gain a success. The roll of the d100 is meant to represent how successful you have been given your day of work, as well as in ways you may have been lucky/unlucky. Once you've achieved the required number of successes for a given rank, you'll gain be able to expand one of your crafting pillars. In order to advance between tiers 1->2, and 2->3, you should make sure that at least 3 of the 4 pillars are at their max rank for that tier.

On a roll of a 1, this particular session of work has been extremely unproductive - no roll for gold is made for the work. On a roll of 100 the session of work has been an extreme success and counts double towards the desired pillar. This is considered a critical success and adds a cumulative permanent +1 to all Masterworking rolls.

== Rank            -   Rank Modifier - Required Successes

--------------------------------------------- Tier 1
== Novice          -   0                   -  3
== Tenderfoot    -   5                   -  5
== Journeyman  -   10                 -  7
--------------------------------------------- Tier 2
== Tradesman    -   20                 -  9
== Master           -  35                 -  9
--------------------------------------------- Tier 3
== Grandmaster  -  45                 -  9
== Legend          -  55                 -  ???


When making your d100 profession roll to see if you gain a success for one of the pillars, you should make sure to also add the relevant modifiers.

SKILL:

Quality of tools, facility, materials
Knowledge - Relevant fields of lore, intelligence and wisdom ability scores, quality of tutelage
Inherent Crafting Skill - Racial abilities, relevant ability score associated to craft, character background

POPULARITY:

General notoriety of the craftsman, as well as public image
Location of establishment
Quality and consistency of goods
Socio-economic factors - race, religion, class, background, nationality
Appearance and charisma

PROFITABILITY:

Raw material costs (merchant A vs merchant B prices for example)
Guild/tutor fees
Time needed to create
Time needed to sell
Upkeep costs (shop front, tool maintenance for example)
Bartering skills

MASTERWORKING:

Masterworking could be seen as a combination of raw talent, luck and perseverance.
It's mainly modified by the quality of your master and the quality of your students.

In addition to the pillar modifiers, for every failure result, you accumulate one Fail Stack. Each fail stack translates to a further + 1 bonus to your roll. In the case of the three pillars Skill, Popularity, and Profitability, there are likely a good number of ways you can improve your modifier more quickly than simply grinding fail stacks. However for the case of Masterworking, this is likely one of the only ways you can reliably increase your chance to improve, aside from getting lucky.

=====================
====== Modifiers ========= 
=====================

In this section, the modifiers are designed to reward the players for making good decisions regarding and investing in their profession as well as do appropriate accounting for passive bonuses coming from background and ability scores.

Skill:
Tools, raw materials, and facilities all have 4 different qualities: standard, good, fine, excellent - granting +0,1,2,3 accordingly.
*Side Note : the more cerebral professions, such as writing or playmaking do not hinge nearly as much on this aspect. While these professions will miss out on bonuses in this category, such tradesmen can also rejoice that they do not need to invest in such things either - this can be reflected generally in how much gold a player spends as well as in the profitability of their business*



=====================
====== Benefits: =========
=====================

While the exact benefits will vary between all of the professions, and is something we can hash-out in detail later, I wanted to give an idea of what kind of benefits I'm imaging granting for a given rank.

Skill:

The general idea is that by increasing your Skill, you open up options to create more intricate and complicated objects/stories/performances. This could be considered one of the defining features for tradesmen of different tiers. In Tier 1 your skill limits you to relatively simple items with a limited impact and of potentially questionable quality. Through trying to improve the quality of your goods and pushing your abilities, Tier 2 is where you're able to create goods of solid quality and consistency. These objects have greater impact either through their inherent value or those who use them. Tier 3 is where you skill is sufficient to create highly impactful goods which have a chance to forever change the setting in which they debut.

---------------- Tier 1
Novice          - creating simple weapons
Tenderfoot    - brewing simple salves
Journeyman  - weaving a nice dress
---------------- Tier 2
Tradesman    - ability to write compelling stories with considerable meaning
Master          - Paint a significant event/person that will be remember for generations
---------------- Tier 3
Grandmaster - Perform a play which holds cultural significance for a nation
Legend         -

Popularity:

The general idea is that by increasing popularity you increase your visibility to certain demographics (or potentially all of them). During Tier 1, you are largely required to perform self-promotion and may even seek out customers. Tier 2 is where you've reached critical mass and are known well enough such that those interested know of you. Once reaching Master rank, anyone who is anyone will at least have heard of you, if not own some of your products. Tier 3 your popularity likely outweighs supply as your product is known internationally.

---------------- Tier 1
Novice          - Self promotion through fliers and word-of-mouth
Tenderfoot    - Gain acceptance in a guild/society for your craft
Journeyman  - Partake in exhibitions / public displays, negotiate sponsorships
---------------- Tier 2
Tradesman    - Gain the ability to recruit students
Master          - General public notoriety, your goods are requested at popular gatherings and by nobility/ruling class
---------------- Tier 3
Grandmaster - Personal invites from heads of state, possibility to train students to Tier 2, found own Guild/Society
Legend         -

Profitability

The general idea is how efficiently you can earn money, as well as how conscious and educated you are in terms of business decisions. Tier 1 is essentially developing a profitable system such that you can continue your trade without it costing you too much money. At the lowest tier, you need to understand the basics of how much you're spending before you're even able to set prices, let alone attend the market. By Tier 2 you should be profitable enough such that you might consider opening a shop somewhere. Of course depending on your profit margins that shop might be in the lower district or right along the High Street. You should also be skilled and well-connected enough such that certain markets internationally might be interested in your goods. By Tier 3 your business almost runs itself, such that you can afford to open several different locations and continue to build a business empire.

---------------- Tier 1
Novice          - Accountancy, bartering
Tenderfoot    - Open trade stall in markets
Journeyman  - Renegotiate Trade Deals, ability to export goods regionally
---------------- Tier 2
Tradesman    - Open personal shop
Master          - Ability to export goods internationally
---------------- Tier 3
Grandmaster - Multiple shops/franchising, buy-outs
Legend         -


Masterworking

For each level of Masterworking you complete, you create an appropriate masterwork of that rank. A Novice masterwork would be something relatively simple - a dagger with the craftsman's name carved into it without compromising the quality. While the masterwork for a tradesman would be a potentially important revelation about a historical event now being used as a standard reference. Certainly by the time a craftsman reaches Tier 2, there is scope for the masterwork to be magical in some capacity.

==================
=== Profit Calculation ===
==================

Profitability_Rank( - (raw_material_quantity * raw_material_quality))

Only family members joining the apprentices at Dragon Roost are listed. Families are broken up by line break. Adventuring apprentices are bolded. Relationships are relative to apprentices. Any apprentices without families are not listed.

Aliker
Gardelia, Mother, 36
Henri, Brother, 15
Quentin, Brother, 14
Manon, Sister, 12
Eve, Sister, 10
Jean-Noel, 9
Lucas, Brother, 4

Bandeira
Duda, Mother, 38
Ze, 13
Davi, Twin Brother, 13

Blacktoe
Hercules Dixon, Guardian, 63
Bardin, 16

Blue
Abigail, Sister, 14
Forrest, 11

Botha
Marit Rook, Adoptive Sister, 17
Rylund, 8

Chubb
Eddie, Father, 46
Georgina, Sister, 14
Rudolph, 12
Myria, Sister, 11
Stacee, Sister, 10

Cousteau
Isaac, Brother, 16
Emeric, 13
Gabriel, Brother, 10
Eloise, Sister, 8

De Jager
Edith Kirk, 57, Grandmother
Honest, 13
Felicity Kirk, Cousin, 13
Judith Kirk, Cousin, 11
Phoebe Kirk, Cousin, 10

DeBoys
Dennis, 16
Liam, Brother, 11
Bjorn, Brother, 10

Hawkins
Cecil, 17
Nathaniel, Brother, 13

Hooley
Mose, Father, 39
Eshton, Brother, 14
Felix, 12

Hovland
Rune, Brother, 15
Lina, Sister, 11
Kurt, 10
Elsa, Sister, 9
Greta, Sister, 8
Vera, Sister, 6

Kellar
Sariel, Grandmother, 263
Peter Erydar, 12 (Adopted into family)
Eroan, 11
Althaea, Twin Sister, 11

Lion
Christopher, 14
Howard Wheat, 13 (Adopted Into Family)
Arnold, Brother, 13
Iris, Sister, 12
Percival, Brother, 11

Mullet
Mabel, Mother, 41
Markus, 17

Oatcake
Daria Gaster, Adoptive Sister, 19
Jamy, 15
Galila Gaster, Adoptive Sister, 15

Thunderbelly
Darbic, Father, 68
Garil, 13

Woodbrygge
Eleanor, Mother, 42
Garret, 17

*Keeping with the skipping around idea

Receiving the letter Clunk reads it, smirks and throws it into a fire.  Reaching into his pocket clunk retrieves more paper and pen.  Sitting down to write Clunk begins

~Dear Lord Delphinius

How is this batch of recruits?  Could they become capable soldiers?  Talented adventurers?  Any of them you think could lead?  What(meta) class composition could they have?  Hope all is going well otherwise and that this task is not unwelcome.  Also If you hear any rumors about Asmundr, just know he is doing what he does best ;)
Clunk, FSC

Clunk puts the letter down and hands it over to be delivered.   Clunk sighs at all this inaction and starts to thinking about the passive and thrill of deadly combat, Daydreaming about the blood, the screams Clunk shakes his head and readies himself for Tolbrun.

Acting like an old lady-in-waiting, Asmundr tries to grab Endergaard's hand, "Ohhh aren't you a darling, I can tell why Asmundr has taken such a liking to you, Ah hehehehehehe. I am Asmuralda, I was Queen Chryserys's Lady for the longest time when Asmundr was young, oh he was such a muffin Ah heehhehehehe. I saw that wench Valentine try to work her succubus powers on him, oh but we raised him right, he turned it right around on her ta hehehehehehehehe. Such a nice young boy, he would never betray the trust of those he cared about. Oh no, no to betray his fondness for you with a fiend like Valentine, he couldn't do it, even if she had philter-of-loved him. OH oh my, did I say something I shouldn't TA hehehehehe. Don't tell Asmundr I said that ta haahahahehehehe." Asmuralda does an insight check to determine how Endergaard is reacting: 26.
She curtsies and says, "Well, the little guy" she catches herself, "well I bathed him, and I should know not to call him little guy TA HEHEHEHEHE, Asmur wanted me to give you this"
Asmuralda has her the Stone of Elemental Summoning, "If you ever get in some heated combat, you can fight fire with fire, just toss it at the ground, Ah heheheheheh"

Jean-Noel Aliker, 9 years old

A shy young boy. Powerfully built, and does not tire easily. Seems to be picking up lessons rather quickly. Gets on well with the others.


Grover Andronicus, 14 years old

A tough kid, doesn't mind taking a lot of punishment during sparring sessions. Has trouble making eye contact when speaking.


Ze Bandeira, 13 years old

Nimble in body if not in mind. Never speaks, but has done well spotting and hitting targets during hunts, and does his best to help the others.


Bardin Blacktoe, 16 years old

Very strong young dwarf who worked loading ships. Horribly foul-mouthed and irritable. Working on that.


Forrest Blue, 11 years old

Charming kid who has had some religious training. Often leads other religious apprentices in prayers.


Rylund Botha, 8 years old

Young but very bright. Constantly surprising us with bits of lore he's picked up. Annoys the others with his constant interjections.


Rudolph Chubb, 12 years old

Rather mediocre young halfling. The butt of many jokes for his poxy face a squeaky voice, but takes it in stride.


Emeric Costeau, 13 years old

Strange kid who is always wearing his "lucky" red turban. Has made fast friends with the others.


Honest de Jager, 13 years old

Incredibly weak, has trouble holding a sword. Apparently from some illness as a baby, though he seems particularly healthy now. Solid reflexes, however, and a great intuition.


Dennis DeBoys, 16 years old

An excitable young man hunched over from years of catching rats. Has a highly unusual birthmark, and an uncanny ability to communicate with animals.


Peter Erydar, 12 years old

A very strong young half-elf, who, despite his lazy eye, has done well with the blade. A natural leader, but a bit too impatient with the less capable apprentices.


Cecil Hawkins, 17 years old

A gangly ragamuffin blessed with an incredible intellect. Fluent in Elvish, Dwarvish, Halfling, and Draconic. But for his appearance and shifty character, could be an excellent court functionary.


Felix Hooley, 12 years old

Incredibly well spoken for a 12 year old, and has a knack for figuring people out. Apparently picked up speech patterns from local bards. Particularly fond of Prince Asmundr. Always seeks to be the center of attention.


Kurt Hovland, 10 years old

The best all-around athlete of the group, but also incredibly gentle. Prefers picking flowers to finding marks during hunts. For some reason, has no hair on his head.


Eroan Kellar, 11 years old

Consistently the last man standing during sparring, ready for more after everyone else is exhausted. Despite being an elf, and thus requiring no sleep, will sometimes sneak off during lessons to nap.


Christopher Lion, 14 years old

A stocky young farm boy. In many ways an image of rural youth (even chews grass stalks), but for his incredible ability to recall our lessons. Clearly a very quick learner.

Markus Mullet, 17 years old

Another young man with great endurance and pain tolerance, and an impressive ability to get a read on people and situations. Has trouble taking things seriously, however, and is constantly playing practical jokes on the younger apprentices.


Jamy Oatcake, 15 years old

A clever young man whose late father taught him to cook a wide variety of delicious foods. Despite this, never seems to be satisfied with the amount of food he eats.


Garil Thunderbelly, 13 years old

Weak for a dwarf, but has a knack for interpreting meaning in the landscape. Rarely tires during marching exercises. Has a bad habit of sucking on the ends of his newly forming mustache.


Avenian Venric, 12 years old

This young half-elf is the best marksman of the bunch, and the defacto leader of most hunts. Has a sort of somberness beyond his age.


Howard Wheat, 13 years old

Constantly being challenged by Bardin for title of strongest apprentice. Howard almost always wins. Not very bright, and often gets lost in thought during lessons. A loyal and hardworking boy nonetheless.


Garret Woodbrygge, 17 years old

A nimble young man who prefers lighter weapons. Difficult to outsmart in a fight. Lost one of his eyes to some looters during the undead plague. Serious, untrusting, and fidgety.