Troupe Play in GURPS

[knarf]

I haven't done this in GURPS, but I have done some impromptu trouping.

In one case, running Cartoon Action Hour, I had planned a climactic battle for the group, but only 1 of the PCs wanted to participate (and climbed a T. Rex to do it), so I whipped up quick characters for the other PCs to play in this battle while their regular PCs went safely on their way. Inspired by this idea, a number of the players decided to create their own minor PCs that let them try out something else for a session or two.

Playing in a friend's (rather dramatic) D&D game, the party got divided and some of the characters were called upon to take part in a divine trial to determine the fate of a particular soul. Those of us who did not have PCs on the scene were invited to play witnesses in the trial, giving testimony from varying sides.

In my current OSRIC megadungeon campaign, I am using the rules for training times and costs. This means that every character has to take some downtime at some point, but not always at the same time. So I've been encouraging the use of "alts" (to borrow an MMO term) so that each player can continue to play even if their "main" is unavailable. It's also handy in case of character death, as they have character already rolled up (and maybe even with a level or two). This does require keeping a campaign calendar to keep things straight.