The Painted Serpent

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This subforum is for small businesses that do not require extensive subforums for organization. These Small Business Sheets are simply posted records of what a business is for, its expenses, its debt and the profit it makes.

The Painted Serpent

Postby Adrian Morealis on February 20th, 2016, 5:17 pm

The Painted Serpent

Image


Business Type: Service
Services Offered: Illustration/Portraiture/Conceptualization
Base Skill: Artist, 4gm/day
Skill Bonus: Competent, 6gm/day
Sales Bonus: 1gm/day
Total Income: 7gm/day, 630gm/season

Concept: A nondescript building on the eastern bank of Kenash, the Painted Serpent is a business that caters to those in need of visual representation. Although technically an artist's shop, the Serpent is tailored more to the practical uses of visual mediums, such as aesthetic conceptualization, portraiture, manuscript illustration and location layouts. While there may be the odd piece for sale that is purely artistic and creative and meant to be hung on a wall, they are rare and only sold on a case-by-case basis; the majority of the Serpent's business comes from individuals needing specific images for specific occasions. Words are often insufficient to describe something from afar, and to those that do not have artistic talent, the Serpent sells the skills they need.

Debt:
Building :
Shop, elaborateThis is considered to be one of the more professional shops reserved for more successful merchants. It includes a large front window with polished wood floors, finely crafted shelves and glass cases. There is a small back room as well and at least two clerks are required to operate it or if self-operated by owner, one clerk would be needed. -2000gm
Bedroom, simpleContains two smaller bedrooms with rough furnishings. There is a straw bed, one chest of drawers and simple mirror. Each of the two small rooms has a rough bench and small table. There is one privy for both of the smaller rooms. -350gm
Storage, simpleAn empty room with rough walls and unfinished floor. Sometimes made into a vault with the addition of stone or masonry walls, locks and traps. -250gm
Workshop, simpleUsed by the majority of professional craftsman; includes basic tools and equipment for a specific trade. -600gm
Common area, simpleThis is a plain room or equivalent sized space containing a few benches and generic artwork or tapestries. This structural component may be purchased to for balconies, meeting areas or just an all-purpose room. -250gm
(Animation) Magical laboratory, simpleIncludes a wood or stone floor with a small library of mystical writing, a desk and a lab table. There are crude furnishings and a basin with an open barrel of water. Also included is a fireplace. Basic tools, materials and equipment for specialized magic use can be included in the purchase of a lab for an additional 25% of the structure's cost. Thus if one were to want a simple lab specialized for alchemy, the cost would be the base of 1,500 gm plus 25% (375 gm) for a total of 1,875 gm. Note that this specialized equipment does not include the actual ingredients for producing items related to various types of World Magic such as Magecraft, Malediction, etc. What is included along with the basic equipment and tools is design, layout and overall structural changes to accommodate the desired magical discipline. -1875gm


Total: 5325gm
-25% for single purchase = –1331.25gm

Total:
3993.75gm for the building of the Painted Serpent

Materials :
Hearth, good -6gm
(2) Paintbrush, tiny -1gm
(10) Paintbrush, small -1gm
(5) Paintbrush, medium -4sm
(5) Paintbrush, large -3sm
(10) Ink sticks -4sm
(20) Charcoal sticks -1sm
(25) Paper, sheet -10gm
(50) Parchment, sheet -10gm


Total:
29.6gm


Total Debt:
4023.56, owed to the Morealis Dynasty, to be paid back within 2 years.


Business Concept :
First off, the Painted Serpent will not be a traditional artist’s shop, meaning that people don’t just walk into the store, see a picture they like and buy it to take home. Upon entering the shop, there will be some examples of art hung on the walls, but these are not for sale. They are instead meant to be demonstrations of the artist’s skill, and therefore give potential clients a broad spectrum of things to choose from.

Most of the profit would come from people in need of a specific image, for a specific occasion. The Painted Serpent is, at its core, more of a contracting business than it is an actual shopping place. In the more “educated” places, such as Kenash, imagery can be essential to have on hand, while the skill itself is a bit scarce and its low income has the potential to frighten off many people who would otherwise do it for a living.

Here are a few ideas of what the Painted Serpent’s services could include:

The Sitai Dynasty is arranging a long-distance marriage between one of their daughters and an especially influential Syliran Knight. As the two have never met, the Sitai need someone to draw a highly detailed picture of their daughter that they can send to her potential husband.

A Freeborn architect wants to impress the Radacke with an architectural plan they have made, but their version is grubby, smudged and raggedy. The Freeborn needs someone to reliably ink the plan onto fancy paper and make it look presentable.

A writer just wrote a book about herbs and useful plants. Since proper identification is very important, and they have no artistic ability, they need an artist to illustrate every single plant they talk about. In every single copy of their book.

Someone just won a horse race. They want a picture/painting of themselves atop their racehorse to commemorate the event.

A painting of a raven has made the Dynasties sigh. Suddenly, ravens are the “in” thing of the season and everyone wants a picture with a raven in it.

A Freeborn wants to ask for a loan from a Dynasty to start up a business, but wants to make the idea look attractive. She wants an artist to make a beautiful picture of her imagined store-front and some of her wares to increase her chances of approval.

The above-mentioned freeborn successfully got their business approved and built, and they've just carved a sign for that shop. They now need that sign to be painted.

A rival artist has begun to set up shop in Kenash. Offer them the chance to work at the Painted Serpent. If they refuse, crush them.

A Morealis mother has decided that she wants her daughter to be more cultured and well-rounded. She hires an artist to teach her daughter to draw.


Since there are no other artist shops in Kenash, I’m hoping to gain a corner market as the go-to person for portraits and images, whatever the need. This will, of course mean that the main artist and proprietor(Adrian) will lean towards a more realistic style in terms of subject, although might deviate into different styles when it comes to background and detail. The most major element, however, is that he isn’t advertising himself as a visionary painter with new and edgy pictures to sell, but as a professionally skilled artist who is selling his skill. He won’t usually sell his own work unless the circumstances are weird, and will stick mostly to drawing what other people need drawn. Since this will cause him to become acquainted with both Dynasty brats and up-and-coming Freeborn, I’m also hope that this will give him the opportunity to develop good will amongst fellow businesspeople, generating more invitations to parties and therefore more chances to impress potential clients.
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Adrian Morealis
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Posts: 14
Words: 7381
Joined roleplay: August 7th, 2015, 10:49 pm
Location: Kenash
Race: Human
Character sheet
Plotnotes

The Painted Serpent

Postby Gillar on February 23rd, 2016, 2:22 am

Image
I am seeing a couple of things that stand out as potential issues. First, your income in relation to your debt leaves you with 127 gm income per season after your payment on the debt. This isn't enough to cover a Common lifestyle which leaves your character at the upper end of Poor.

For reference, a Poor lifestyle involves: sleeping in a tent either in or on the outskirts of a city or somewhere in the wilds. It may also include renting the occasional low-end room at an inn. Bathing oneself is often done either in streams and lakes in the wilds or via occasional visits to a bathhouse. Health is still not that great but better than those in squalor. Clothing is somewhat better than that found in squalor with sackcloth, cotton or linen being most common along with fur. Food and drink is usually found in taverns or inns along with a bit of begging and/or stealing.

My issue here is that as a Dynasty character, this form of lifestyle doesn't exactly fit. One of the requirements of playing a Dynasty character in Kenash is to maintain a Good style of life, which means a living expense of 450GM per season. This is usually accomplished by having a modest starting business from which a character can expand and grow as their skills increase and as their thread-work evolves.

The second issue is the addition of an Animation lab when the character does not have the Animation skill. Also, purchasing this lab doesn't make sense for the business due to the lack of the skill and due to it having nothing to do with the business itself.

If there was a thread or threads where you established the desire to get involved in animation and somehow related it as an integral part of your business, then I could see eventually building an add-on to this business. As a starting business however and as a prospective business owner with no knowledge of animation, I can't approve that component as part of the business. Right now it just looks like its added on to give the character a place to train up a magical skill they don't yet possess and have it paid for as a part of the business loan.
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Gillar
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The Painted Serpent

Postby Adrian Morealis on March 1st, 2016, 3:51 pm

I see what you're saying, and I was hoping that the leftovers for Adrian's loan would at least be enough to carry him for a single season. The Painted Serpent as it is right now isn't something I expect to be permanent; with luck its current form would only be necessary for a single season.

What I originally intended for Adrian to do was to ply a business with magical creations. However, the update to the price list says that freelance mages can't find work and must have a specific employer to get full wages. The Painted Serpent, essentially, is meant to be a buffer until Adrian can find such an employer. My thoughts right now are something along the lines of the Midnight Market, but getting involved with them would almost certainly require in-character threading of some sort for Adrian to get a foothold. If I can get Adrian reliably employed in the summer, then he should be making enough to handle all the expenses required without dipping into the leftovers from his loan again.

As for the lack of animation, that was an oversight on his character sheet. I've fixed it now.
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Adrian Morealis
Player
 
Posts: 14
Words: 7381
Joined roleplay: August 7th, 2015, 10:49 pm
Location: Kenash
Race: Human
Character sheet
Plotnotes

The Painted Serpent

Postby Gillar on March 4th, 2016, 5:07 am

Image
You've addressed the issue of the Animation Lab by taking a handful of points in Animation except that having an Animation lab in your art-related business still doesn't fit with the initial business. Your business, according to the provided concept, is one dealing with art and art-related items/services. While you have taken care of the lack of skill, your business concept/design has nothing to do with Animation.

As I mentioned before, it still looks like you are trying to get an magic lab thrown in with the rest of your business loan when it has nothing to do with the business.

Also, your debt still sits at being much higher than what is allowed for a Dynasty character. Your debt is 4,023 gm to be repaid in 2 years. At 630 gm per season income before paying debt that only leaves you a final income of 127 gm per season after paying debt and BEFORE subtracting the 450 gm per season that must be spent on having a Good lifestyle.

Basically, you can't afford this business. My suggestion, first, drop the Animation lab since it is too expensive and doesn't fit the business anyway. Second, go with a Simple Shop instead of an Elaborate Shop. Combined, you will save around 3,000 gm, have a starting business from which to grow and be able to afford the required lifestyle.
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