Proposed downtime procedure for Tuesday night campaign
TIME
Downtime is conducted in weeks (7 days.) Spending your time and money in downtime provides concrete benefits. Downtime actions are determined by the specific establishments and NPCs available in the city or town you're spending your time in.
WORKING
If you don't want to lose money over downtime, you can get a temporary job and do it. You'll receive money at the end of the week, and then roll 1d6 at the end of the week. On a 1, you have an encounter; if the work is above board, roll on the daytime chart or if it's seedy, roll on the nighttime chart. On a 2, you learn a new rumor for the week. Each job available has a prime requisite, just like a class; you need 8+ to qualify. Pay brackets are based on that prime requisite, so high stats can mean high pay. A relevant secondary skill lets you count that prime requisite as 2 points higher. After each week of work, roll d20 under INT + weeks worked; if you succeed, you gain that job as a secondary skill. If you already have it as a secondary skill, roll d100 under INT + weeks worked; if you succeed, you count as a full hireling of that type.
CAROUSING
If you don't want to work, you can hang around in bars and houses of ill repute, looking for rumors and other, more specific, downtime activities. You can roll up to four carousing dice - each is 1d6, with a 1 indicating a city encounter, a 2 indicating an encounter with one of that establishment's regulars, and a 3 indicating a rumor off that city's table. The city tables contain 8-15 rumors, and seedier and more expensive establishments provide better rumors. A normal establishment rolls encounters on the daytime table, and a seedy one on the nighttime table. It costs money to do this; each establishment has a price per die. You can buy up to four carousing dice in one week. If there's a festival on (for Riverfolk, this occurs on any full moon night,) you can purchase up to two festival dice without counting against the limit; if there's a special festival (for Riverfolk, at the equinoxes, midsummer, and midwinter,) you can purchase an unlimited number of festival dice without counting against the limit.
PRAYER
If you go to the local temple, you can purchase spells, convert, and pray. Conversion generally requires a "donation" of GP value equal to 5% of your total XP - the more important you are, the bigger the donation they expect. Spending the week in reflection and prayer gives a floating reroll of one die to co-religionists if they spend a week in prayer and make a donation of 1% of their total XP - this benefit can't be stacked and can only be obtained once per month. Fixed shrines (which must be built on a water source for Riverfolk, containing the relic of an important figure for Holdmen, having an obelisk atop a piece of buried godflesh OR an astronomical confluence for Nomads, and other stuff for the other minor religions) let you store a single spell that will be cast at enhanced potency (24 hour duration) once per month per faithful.
SEEING A PHYSICIAN
If you can locate a physician's office in the city, you can expend 10 GP per day to recover HP at double normal rate or halve the progress of a disease and 150 GP to recover from unconsciousness in just 3 days. 1 in 6 doctors are quacks, which give no benefit but still take your money. A doctor on retainer costs 300 GP per month.
HENCHMEN
Finding henchmen is costly and time-consuming. Each method of henchman-locating can be tried only once per month, and every method past the first chosen is 5% less effective. It takes 8 days for all located hench-prospects to arrive. These methods are: POSTING NOTICES IN PUBLIC: 50 GP/month, +1d4x10% chance of locating a henchman HIRING A CRIER: 10 GP/month, +1d10% chance of locating a henchman HIRING AGENTS: 300 GP/month, +(1d4+1)x10% chance of locating a henchman DOING IT YOURSELF: While carousing, you can spend 10 GP extra (representing buying people drinks, hanging around more, etc) to get a 1d4% chance to locate a henchman. You can spend up to 50 GP per establishment in this way.
HOLY WATER PRODUCTION
A basin of precious metal must be acquired and filled with water. The water must then have the following spells cast upon it: Create Water, Purify Food And Drink, Bless, Chant, and Prayer. The holy water must be then transferred into 5 GP crystal vials, and can be used.
SPELL RESEARCH
Any character (even clerics!) who can cast spells can conduct spell research. Describe the spell. The DM then (secretly!) determines which level the spell will be. The player expends 200 GP per level of the spell (their estimate) plus a weekly variable of 1d4*100 GP. It takes 1 week per level to complete preliminary research, then success is variable - the formula, at base, is:
10% + A + L - 2S = % chance of success where A is the character's Spellcasting Attribute L is the character's Level S is the spell's level
You can spend an extra 2000 GP to increase this by 10%.
The character must also have an appropriate library of materials stored on property they own or rent on a long-term basis, and costing 2000 GP per level for each spell level they would like to research. The library must be built sequentially, so to research second-level spells you would need to spend 6000 GP.
SPECIAL TRAINING AND OTHER STUFF
Magic item making is a separate thing but you need Some Levels to do it. Special training is available, but you have to meet the trainers; there's some in most cities, they hang around bars and offer special abilities for a couple hundred gold and a couple weeks' work. You can never have more special training abilities than your level.