Troupe Play in GURPS

ULFGARD · 03-02-2012, 02:15 PM

The main consideration is how often the "party" -- by which I now mean "main characters" -- will be split up. Another important consideration is how long you expect the campaign to last. Some examples from this thread:

The post-DS9 campaign offers something most of us are familiar with, where multiple threads of an adventure and campaign take place in parallel. This suits long term development of multiple characters rather well, with the "main characters" being department heads and the "secondary" characters being their subordinates. Pool points work well here and are more of a reward to the player than anything else. But since other characters DO have tasks off screen but in (time) sequence, and often in the context of the same adventure, this doesn't seem even slightly objectionable.

Bill tends to run shorter term campaigns. Because of this, splitting parties and having secondary characters seems like it would work well. In general in a short-term campaign, bonus points used for development don't unbalance things the way they can over a longer period of play.

Finally an example from a campaign I'm playing in. Our party got split up. We ended up playing our characters or NPCs handed to us as GM control sheets. In other words, we were supporting cast (or even extras). We received bonus XP for good roleplaying as usual (if we did something good), or just straight XP for our characters. Since this was roughly equal, it didn't alter the course of character development. And since it allowed the other players to do something interesting and be involved in the "subplot" (of COURSE it's a subplot -- MY character isn't involved!), I think it worked well.

All of this depends on the model of the game. I've done it successfully by requiring the players to have 2 characters -- one 150 point, one 100 point -- in a more sedentary game. One player ended up playing his "secondary" character FAR more, but dumped bonus points into his main character. That worked out just fine.

This is a long way of saying that, while you're going a step further than I have, I think that this model works well so long as the players are up for it. Be prepared with NPCs. You might even pregenerate the secondary characters! But most of all: have fun!

03-02-2012, 02:15 PM	#12
ULFGARD Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Seattle	Re: Troupe Play in GURPS The main consideration is how often the "party" -- by which I now mean "main characters" -- will be split up. Another important consideration is how long you expect the campaign to last. Some examples from this thread: The post-DS9 campaign offers something most of us are familiar with, where multiple threads of an adventure and campaign take place in parallel. This suits long term development of multiple characters rather well, with the "main characters" being department heads and the "secondary" characters being their subordinates. Pool points work well here and are more of a reward to the player than anything else. But since other characters DO have tasks off screen but in (time) sequence, and often in the context of the same adventure, this doesn't seem even slightly objectionable. Bill tends to run shorter term campaigns. Because of this, splitting parties and having secondary characters seems like it would work well. In general in a short-term campaign, bonus points used for development don't unbalance things the way they can over a longer period of play. Finally an example from a campaign I'm playing in. Our party got split up. We ended up playing our characters or NPCs handed to us as GM control sheets. In other words, we were supporting cast (or even extras). We received bonus XP for good roleplaying as usual (if we did something good), or just straight XP for our characters. Since this was roughly equal, it didn't alter the course of character development. And since it allowed the other players to do something interesting and be involved in the "subplot" (of COURSE it's a subplot -- MY character isn't involved!), I think it worked well. All of this depends on the model of the game. I've done it successfully by requiring the players to have 2 characters -- one 150 point, one 100 point -- in a more sedentary game. One player ended up playing his "secondary" character FAR more, but dumped bonus points into his main character. That worked out just fine. This is a long way of saying that, while you're going a step further than I have, I think that this model works well so long as the players are up for it. Be prepared with NPCs. You might even pregenerate the secondary characters! But most of all: have fun! __________________ Seven Kingdoms, MH (as yet unnamed), and my "pick-up" DF game war stories, characters, and other ruminations can be found here.