Want ideas for replacing chars in 4e

[Gogmgog]

I am starting a new 4e campaign, expected to last a couple years, and am looking for game mechanic ways to add replacement chars.  For example, in our last 3.5 Eberron campaign, if somebody died, new char was added a few levels lower than the rest of the party, but with a number of action points that could only be spent to boost other chars' rolls.  For every x action points so spent, the replacement char gained a level, until he reached the party level.  I liked the dynamic that this created with new chars, where they were at first not quite as tough as the swaggering old boys of the party, but were immediately very helpful and welcome additions, and had an incentive to help out.

I don't want to do the same thing for 4e, and this is my first 4e campaign, so I would love to hear any clever ideas on bringing new chars into the party.  I plan to run a sort of zombie apocalypse game (which is tough in 4e, but we love D&D, and I think we can pull it off), which means one player death every 18 encounters or so, but party integrity is important to us, and I want to have a metagame mechanic that makes it fun to integrate a replacement char into the party.  The action point thing was fun, but I'd like something new for 4e.

[FuzzyDan]

Create an ensemble cast/stable of PCs for the group to use, and use inherent bonuses with reduced treasure parcels to keep things simple for when PCs die.

Run adventures like Episodes of a show, before each one have a player pick from the stable and run it until the next Episode starts.  If someone dies, then that means they are no longer in the stable.

[Teapot]

For the ensemble cast, what I did in an old game was have everyone make a spare two or three characters, just at first level idea more than a full one. And I made them the "Jr adventuring party" as sort of a minor league team with them getting drafted when we needed a replacment.

Otherwise in the other games, people just came up with on the fly reasons for their new PCs. In Eberron it'd be easier with transportation and communication lines running all around. Much easier to say "I have sent a letter to a friend in Sharn who might know about the art scene here in Stormreach, he'll be here to help us in three days."

[Gogmgog]

This is good. Each player will create a small stable of 1-2 "extras" with a hook as to why they might join the group, and I'll share this stable throughout the party, so each dead char may choose from the stable.  Or maybe they randomly roll to see which stable char they get.  I do like this idea.  Plus, in a long campaign, this gives the players who love making new chars something to do.  Thank you, Journ-O and FuzzyDan!