Rule: Franchise tasks & Downtime activities

As talked about in the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide, downtime activities allow players and DMs to make the breaks between adventures into a compelling part of the campaign. In between the highlights of slogging through dungeons, infiltrating death cults, and being generally heroic, characters can practice professions, engage in research, create special items, and indulge other activities beyond adventuring.
Because an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign is focused on the franchise, downtime is typically a big part of the game. (The adventure that makes up chapter 4 of this book, "The Orrery of the Wanderer," sets up downtime options between adventure episodes as a key component of the campaign.) But an Acq Inc campaign offers even more robust options for characters who want to get things done outside adventuring time, because the heroes of an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign have something that most adventurers don't—a well-paid (okay, an occasionally paid) staff.
In addition to the downtime activities characters undertake on their own, the hard-working subemployees and interns of a franchise can carry out orders and further the characters' goals through research, crafting, social encounters, and so forth. This lets the players direct behind-the-scenes activities even as the characters focus on the more rarefied pursuits of killing monsters and taking their stuff. Before your party sets out for the Fortress of Eternal Peril, an intern can be sent to research that magic book found in a previous adventure. Your majordomo might spend time currying favor with nobles as a means of expanding the franchise's reputation. And what could be more fun (for you) than to have the staff engage in a bit of dangerous criminal activity? If they're successful, the franchise gets the profits! And if they get caught, who are these people you barely know?

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Franchise Tasks in the Campaign

By allowing franchise tasks to take place not just during downtime but while the characters are adventuring, it's possible for players in an Acquisitions Incorporated game to try to push the pace of the campaign. Characters might try to avoid taking downtime of their own in favor of having franchise employees take care of all that boring not-adventuring stuff. But because an Acq Inc campaign makes great use of social encounters, research, and intrigue, players should be encouraged to not treat downtime as optional. Moreover, DMs can and will make use of rivalries and complications during franchise tasks to drag characters into that part of the game.

Between Adventures

Using the traditional approach to downtime, franchise tasks can be run at set break points during the campaign. When the characters return from adventuring, they take on some of the responsibility for bookkeeping, maintenance, long-term planning, and the like, making franchise staff available for other activities under the characters' guidance. In this model, characters and staff run downtime simultaneously between sessions of adventuring. This follows the standard approach of using downtime to advance the timeline of the campaign.

Ongoing Activities

A more wide-open approach to franchise tasks sees the characters direct those activities at any point during the campaign, alongside traditional adventuring. During any game session, the players can decide to focus on what the franchise staff are up to by setting assignments, giving orders, and making checks to determine the success of franchise tasks. If those tasks tie strongly into the adventure, franchise tasks can effectively become a fourth pillar of an Acquisitions Incorporated game, alongside exploration, social interaction, and combat.

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Selecting Franchise Tasks

Whether franchise tasks are undertaken during regular downtime or alongside other adventuring activities, a franchise's rank puts a hard limit on the number of tasks the franchise's staff can undertake. See the "Franchise Advancement" section in the AI book. (This limit is only for franchise tasks undertaken by staff. The characters are free to undertake whatever downtime activities the DM allows, as normal.)
For each available franchise task slot, players can allocate one or more staff members to a chosen franchise task. Those tasks can include any of the downtime activities in the Player's Handbook or the Dungeon Master's Guide, the new and revised downtime activities in Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and the new activities in this section. When all of a franchise's task slots are filled, one of those tasks must be completed before staff can be allocated to a new franchise task. (The one exception to this rule is the running a franchise activity, presented later in this section. That activity must be performed by a franchise, but does not require that specific characters or staff members be allocated to it.)
Staff allocated to a franchise task are no longer available for other needs, including other franchise tasks. Any costs or resources associated with a franchise task must be provided by the franchise (which is to say, by the characters).
For example, a rank 2 franchise can undertake two concurrent franchise tasks. If the characters are setting out to explore the Swamp of Lingering Malaise, they might order their majordomo to send messages to various noble families while they're away, carrying out the sowing rumors activity from the Dungeon Master's Guide. The task follows the regular rules for that downtime activity, but is carried out by the majordomo. At the same time, the characters might send out another staff member to engage in the explore territory activity (a new activity detailed below).
“

You can't expect to get everything done yourself. Delegation is key. And the consequences for fumbling a simple task should be real, immediate, and serve as a lesson to others who serve you. No dessert for a tenday! That'll teach 'em.

— Rosie Beestinger

”

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Making Task Checks

When a franchise task requires an ability check, a staff member can use their own ability check modifier to determine success. (This modifier might depend on the staff member's statistics, if an NPC, or it might be based on the franchise's rank. See the "Franchise Advancement" section.) Alternatively, the staff member can use the check modifier of a character overseeing the task and giving the staff member direction. This can encourage the characters to develop closer relationships with franchise staff through roleplaying, and keeps the players involved in staff-focused franchise tasks.

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Franchise Tasks as Narrative

Franchise tasks can be an exciting, story-rich part of a gaming session. Over time, franchise tasks and character downtime activities can expand the story of a franchise and add depth to the characterizations of its NPC staff members. The successes, failures, and complications of franchise tasks might even become pivotal moments in the campaign.
As with all aspects of an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign, franchise tasks are about creating narrative. As such, to make those tasks a part of the campaign story, the DM and the players can work together to break tasks down into distinct scenes using the following guidelines.

Establish Goals

When the characters select a franchise task, the players share their goals for that task with the DM. Having clear motives helps establish the stakes and provides ideas that the DM can weave into the campaign story. The DM might work up a narrative based on the players' initial discussions, and might ask additional questions to help narrow down options.
As an example, consider a group of characters whose franchise headquarters is a submersible ship, and whose staff are largely former pirates. While the characters head out for a mission on the mainland, they direct the ship's staff-member captain to surprise other vessels and liberate goods from them. The DM decides that such acts of piracy fit the shady business practice activity (introduced later in this section), and quickly sketches out a few ideas for the task.

Opening Scene

The DM describes the beginning of the task activity, setting the stage for the NPCs' actions. For the submersible headquarters discussed above, the DM might begin to describe how the ship leaves port in search of easy prey. The captain and crew are in a good mood. There's a storm in the area, but it doesn't threaten the submersible. The DM might ask the players to describe a few undertakings the crew can engage in to pass the time, or might even ask players to temporarily take on the roles of one or more staff members, helping to bring those NPCs to life through roleplaying.

Ability Check Scenes

For each ability check required by a franchise task, the DM describes what's happening, determines the applicable ability, and decides whether a skill or tool proficiency is appropriate (usually as suggested in the activity write-up). Whether the check is made by a staff member or the character who directed or set up the franchise task, a player makes the roll. The DM can encourage roleplaying by asking about what kind of guidance a character provided to the staff member, or what part of the staff member's background makes them good at the task at hand. The DM then describes successive scenes based on checks and roleplaying as the crew members locate a likely target ship and commence their attack.

Concluding Scene

The DM determines the overall outcome for the franchise task, then narrates the outcome to wrap up that small part of the overall story. If the check for the activity indicates any degree of success, the DM describes how the franchise's pirates manage to grab some valuable cargo, in addition to other benefits as noted in the write-up for the shady business practice activity. With treasure aboard, the ship is ready for the characters' eventual return.

Ongoing Story

Rather than treating franchise tasks as isolated episodes, the DM can weave the story of one task into the next, and can tie franchise tasks into the overarching campaign. Doing so assigns importance to franchise tasks, and lets the players understand how the success or failure of those tasks might drive the campaign. Even after a specific franchise task has concluded, the DM can make notes for how that task might tie to future tasks. For the characters running the submersible franchise, the ship that fought off the franchise's pirates might remember a few details about the franchise crew. Or perhaps the plundered vessel belongs to a franchise rival, or even a foreign dignitary the characters will eventually meet, setting up a future plot twist.

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Downtime and Franchise Activities

In addition to the downtime activities found in other books, characters and their franchise staff can undertake the new activities presented in this section, either as regular downtime activities or as franchise tasks that can be undertaken at any time. These activities reflect the central role of the franchise in an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign.
The length of time required for these new downtime or franchise activities varies, from a number of days to one workweek (5 days) or more. All the normal rules for downtime must be followed by the character or NPC undertaking the downtime or franchise activity, including spending 8 hours each day engaged in that activity for the day to count toward the activity's completion. The one exception to this rule is that any costs for a franchise activity are paid for by the characters, even if franchise staff are executing the task.
Some downtime and franchise activities alter a franchise's monthly costs. See the "Franchise Advancement" section in the AI rule-book for how to determine a franchise's base monthly costs.
Here are the activities, sorted by book: Player's Handbook: Crafting, practicing a profession, recuperating, research, training
Dungeon Master's Guide: Building a stronghold, carousing, crafting a magic item, gaining renown, performing sacred rites, running a business, selling magic items, sowing rumors, training to gain levels
Xanathar's Guide to Everything: Buying a magic item, carousing, crafting an item, crime, gambling, pit fighting, relaxation, religious service, research, scribing a spell scroll, selling a magic item, training, work
Aquisition Incorporated: Explore Territory, Franchise Restructuring, Headquarters Modification, Marketeering, Philanthropic Enterprise, Running a Franchise, Scrutineering, Shady Business Practice, Schmoozing, Team Building