Stretch goals for skill specialists?

[Eric Funk]

Originally Posted by Varyon

That's a good option. Have the mission-critical instances that require the skill be ones where the understudy's skill level is sufficient but then have further instances that are beneficial to the party but not mission-critical. Alternate (and safer!) entrances to areas they need to access, more loot/samples/whatever, additional gear/supplies, gaining an ally, etc.

My suggestion here is may add more overhead but to build on previous suggestions -- require several actions be undertaken simultaneously. The Primary will have to judge which they should be present at and the Understudies work independently (while other PCs look on or have to do something with their skills ). E.g., the main Hacker hack a mainframe while others hack some smaller security things nearby, or the main hacker infiltrate the main guard post (-8 to -10 to skill) while the understudies and team snipers simultaneously take out lone sentries (-3 to -5) who could call the alarm to disable the whole "front gate" system .

Revisiting the original post you might be interested in the half-page of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy p. 11 "No I in Teamwork, No Profit Without It" which discusses this... Distilled: The Primary can get +1 per ally success (+2 on critical) on a Task. Alternately if the team are all needing to succeed (e.g., Camouflage), the Primary gets a flat +1 for each teammate who has at least 1 point in the skill, -1 per team member count...

Another factor may be tools; the Primary might get the FINE (+2) tool while the Secondary gets the +1 Good version. (B345)