Dividing XP among characters

[Presto2112]

I just wrapped up a 1st level adventures last night - "Siege of the Spider Eaters" from Dungeon #137. Because of some crap initiative rolls on my part, the PCs came out of it fairly unscathed. But when determining XP some questions came up.

1) During one particular combat, the Init I rolled for the monster (a wounded spider eater) came out low enough to be last in the order. However, the after three PCs made their attacks, the critter was dead, and the other two PCs didn't even get a chance to act. Should those two PCs get a share of XP for the defeat of that creature?

2) Another encounter featured a paralyzed aranea queen that had four spider eater eggs implanted in it. They followed what they had to do to safely extract the eggs from the aranea to the letter, and the adventure called for XP equivalent to a CR 3 encounter for the action. However, only two members of the party actually took part in the "surgery". Again, should the whole party receive shares of XP for this encounter?

I'm a rookie DM, and I'd like the opinions of seasoned DMs in regards to the doling out of experience points.

 

[mvincent]

Should those two PCs get a share of XP for the defeat of that creature?

Yup. Most definitely.

2) ...should the whole party receive shares of XP for this encounter?

Yup

 

[Dargon]

as a rule of thump you should always share the xp. If you don't you might end up with a group that is unable to cooperate, and they will always have characters that tries to "steal" the spot light for them self. Beside you will only se players pick the classes that you as a GM give the best conditions for doing something.

 

[billd91]

I prefer to divide up equally, but if you want to award MVP for sessions or individual encounters, go ahead. Add on additional bonus XPs for that.

 

[Thad Enouf]

I divvy XP equally. If there was some good playing by a particular player, bonuses are given out.

 

[hanniball]

1) During one particular combat, the Init I rolled for the monster (a wounded spider eater) came out low enough to be last in the order. However, the after three PCs made their attacks, the critter was dead, and the other two PCs didn't even get a chance to act. Should those two PCs get a share of XP for the defeat of that creature?

Most definitely. Their mere presence may have been what it took to motivate the group to succeed.

2) Another encounter featured a paralyzed aranea queen that had four spider eater eggs implanted in it. They followed what they had to do to safely extract the eggs from the aranea to the letter, and the adventure called for XP equivalent to a CR 3 encounter for the action. However, only two members of the party actually took part in the "surgery". Again, should the whole party receive shares of XP for this encounter?

This is a little more difficult to adjucate. Two things:

1)Did the PCs that didn't take part in the extraction play any role in determining that this was the required method?

2)Were they present during the 'surgery?'
2a)If not, did they accomplish anything while the rest of the group took care of this extraction?

If one character figures out what to do and another does it, I feel that should be worth an equal amount of xp. However, merely viewing how something is done is sometimes enough to warrant gaining xp. They saw and learned how something is done, that sounds like experience to me. Of course, if they were off in the corner salivating over their new sword they didn't really learn much.

Either way...just my 2 cp

 

[phindar]

as a rule of thump...

OT, and I'm not busting you for a typo, but I am totally stealing "Rule of Thump".

 

[pallandrome]

Yeah, unless you wanna really piss off half the members of the group for no good reason, don't penalize them for rolling well on init, or rolling poorly on init.

As for the surgery bit, give xp to everyone, because even if they didn't participate in the surgery, they did avoid doing the WRONG thing.

A caveat to all this, if some members of the party are off doing something else, even if nearby, that is not productive to the parties situation as a whole, there may sometimes be reason to dock xp. Specifically, if a rogue ignores his party as they scream for help (or in pain or whatever) so he can pocket some more gold/items, then no, she should not be getting full xp for the encounter, if he gets any at all.

Remember, anything you can do to get the group to work togeather will make your job as a GM easier, and generally make the campaign more fun to boot. And isn't that the point, when we get right down to it?

 

[Patlin]

Award equally in both cases.

Moreover, in my experience it's best for the role playing group as a whole to avoid doing anything as a DM that could be construed even wildly inaccurately as favoritism. I would recommend against any sort of MVP award.

 

[Tharian]

I would agree with the others. I would award to all who participated in the encounter XP equally. However, that being said, if some of your players' characters were elsewhere for whatever reason, I do no think that would lead to having XP divided equally with them as well. They chose (or were forced) to be in a different area and have their own experiences that should replace the shares they could have earned with the group.