Downtime rules in Pathfinder

Hello everyone,

my question is really simple, are there any rules for certain long-term projects PCs might work on in their downtime. Shadowrun 4, for example, has rules where for every week dedicated to generating income or building a better relationship with contacts, there is a roll to reflect the progress or lack thereof.

I couldn't find something similar in Pathfinder, though. Obviously Item creation still needs a lot of time (although there are now rules to do the stuff while adventuring). But still, if the casters decide to take a break, after a portion of the campaign, the other characters can either go on alone or do nothing during that time. Seems unsatisfying, unless the casters agree to build some items for them, too. This increases the length of the downtime even more.

Obviously Pathfinder isn't really comparable to Shadowrun in that regard, since there aren't contacts in game mechanics and training isn't necessary, strictly speaking, to gain or maintain class features and such. Also, adventuring isn't illegal, like most Runs are, so it doesn't make sense to just stop and work (with craft or profession) to generate money (for adventuring is much more lucrative).

This leads me to the believe, that Downtime, only happens if enforced by the Gamemaster. If there simply isn't anything to do. But that sometimes doesn't make sense (for there should always be people hiring in certain settings) or is unfair towards the casters, who spend a feat and should occasionally get the chance to use it. Especially since they can't sell the stuff they build with profit, according to the rules, the only applicable usage if item creation is to build items fitting the characters own, or the party member's, needs.

Any suggestions?
Or are there any rules, possibly in 3rd party stuff, that I just don't know about?

Thanks,
Heinrich

You are correct, there isnt much use for crating skills or feats for folks whos true profession is adventuring unless the gm works it in. however it can be usefull in like you said stuff you need. During an ongoing campian i, for exampel, could not aford the bad ass masterwork composate plus 3 str long bow for my charicter. And i wasent going to any time time soon because we wernt getting major loot at the level we were at. I was able though to buy the ruogh matterial and durring the fallowing weeks of traveling, healing, and leveling. I was, with the use of the craft bow skill, able to make it long before I would have been able to puchase it.
In another case we used the rules of the cfrafting skills to comission custum iteams for plot purposes and time line needs, cause said iteams were going to take a month th to make we got in another job while we waited.

Saw one guy create and take a "teacher" feet, to try and create wizard copies of himself in downtime. Dm shot it down because he didn't put any effort in, expected wizard levels to just hatch.

I remember in crimson throne. The party warmage spent like over 50,000gp in a fishing contest. The prize being a gold/diamond statue worth about 60,000 gp. The city does notice. The warmage gained additional recognition. Impressed nobles. The player playing the greedy cleric almost had amajor brain tumor. Good stuff.

Our groups does downtime via email between GM and characters. So is said PC was building a castle, the gm could give him how far they have gotten, the cost and maybe a little side story.

Not Pathfinder, but you might mine the idea...the One Ring from Cubicle 7 has a Fellowship phase that covers downtime. It's a very nifty mechanic and I like it a lot. But of course, I think it's the best RPG implementation of Tolkien ever so I might be biased.

Downtime is as easy as saying that after the last game session, the party takes X number of months to recuperate and spend some of their treasure on enjoying life. Take that time to do crafting etc.
If the Characters have any profession skills they can also make a small amount of $$.
It should need to be ENFORCED by the GM. Real world, the characters would want to take a break now and again even if the players want to run back to back.

You might want to look into the Dayjob system from Society Play. It's pretty much what you're looking for.

Become a guardsman, for a time. So that you can say:

"I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow to the knee."

One char of mine once sponsored a fishing contest... Then went dancing.