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Chapter 1: Running the Game / Running Downtime / Money in Downtime

Cost of Living

Source GM Core pg. 50
Tracking cost of living is usually best reserved for months or years of downtime since that's when someone might earn a substantial amount of money from downtime activities and find that costs really add up. You can usually ignore it if there are only a few days of downtime, though if a PC is roleplaying a fine or extravagant lifestyle, you might charge them during even short periods of downtime to reinforce the story they're telling. For short periods of downtime, characters are usually just passing through a settlement or spending a bit of time there. They can use the prices for inn stays and meals found on page 294 of Player Core. For long stretches of downtime, use the values on the Cost of Living table, repeated below for convenience. Deduct these costs from a character's funds after they gain any money from their other downtime activities.

A character can live off the land instead, but each day they do, they typically use the Subsist activity (Player Core 232) to the exclusion of any other downtime activity.

Table 6-16: Cost of Living

Standard of LivingWeekMonthYear
Subsistence*4 sp2 gp24 gp
Comfortable1 gp4 gp52 gp
Fine30 gp130 gp1,600 gp
Extravagant100 gp430 gp5,200 gp
* You can attempt to Subsist using Society or Survival for free.