Secret Training "School", your approach?

[Tzekan]

This is most relevant to me in the GURPS system, because one of the PC's in the campaign i'm running is buying an advantage that requires him to go off for a very, very extended period of time to be some awesome training to gain the abilities.

Now in D&D (the system that everyone around here adores, and seems to slate despite that in their spare time) this isn't really as big an issue, but i'm sure it MUST have come up at some point, teaching some adventuring skills that don't really come across with a diagram on a whiteboard...i could just say such amount of time passed and they get the skills...but that would be dull, and far too safe for such an escapade.

i'm of course interested in suggestions for how you would do such a training session, but since i'm curious about this whole aspect, i'd find any experiences and tall stories (within reason) you want to say

Thanks in advance

[Indon]

PC: "I'm headed off to this misty monastery in the mountains in order to activate my alliterative abilities."

Other PC's: "Okay, bye!"

New PC: "Greetings! I see your party is in need of a wizard (or <insert class here>)!"

Later...

(formerly) new PC: "BLARG! I die!"

Other PC's: "Awww..."

Old PC: "Hey, guys! I'm a monk now, and I conveniently kept pace with the party's level!"

...that's how I often do it, anyway.

[oriong]

Trained By a Master right?

Well there are three ways it seems you could handle it, mostly depending on the other PCs.

The first is just skipping ahead until it's done, allowing the other PCs to spend their time investing in their own skills and so on (since gurps allows skill points gained through training time) or spend time at any jobs they may have to get some cash. This can be partially combined with the other two options, just giving lots and lots of downtime. The PC getting trained should certainly be allowed to have some time invested in his martial arts and other physical skills (probably along with meditation related skills and so on).

The second would be to have the rest of the group adventure without him, maybe giving him a new temporary character to pal around with the PCs for a while (perhaps as part of a long-term single-shot adventure). Any character points gained by the stand-in PC could go straight to the trainier.

Or you could make the training into an adventure itself. Maybe the PC's master insists on accompanying the group (even traveling on the PC's shoulders yoda-style) or if the group is small they could be drawn into events during the PC's training (conflict with other students, other 'schools', weird events, etc.)

[Josh Inno]

Well if you are wanting to roleplay out the training of the ability, it really depends upon the ability it's self. Perhaps the master will give the pupil seemingly meaningless tasks to perform alla Miagi.