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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DethStryke" data-source="post: 2149131" data-attributes="member: 1309">I have not deducted XP for anything that I can remember over many years, aside from when it's part of the game like magic item creation. I do have a few bonuses / adjustments for the following:Player of the Week - who everyone thinks stood out in that session for whatever reason. I make each person specify why, and may veto a vote if I think it's bull crap. The people I lay  with are a tight, intelligent crew though, so I don't think this will ever come up. The PotW gets a reroll, but I have done the same with a bonus to experience sized to the group level and the system involved. I think this really makes people aware of each other when they know they are going to be asked to vote.Character Session Write-ups - I based it loosely on Old One's Faded Glory writeup system, giving a bonus multiplier for word length times level. I love character development, and I think that these write-ups foster more thought into how the character thinks and feels. Details and inner monologue come to life through these that normally are never voiced at the table. I prefer using the write-ups to get that look into their mind, as trying to pack all the details in a game really just creates too much chatter and opportunity for cross-talk / random tangents.Absent Player - We all have lives and get sick, and it will figure that even at a bi-weekly game that someone will have something come up and not make it. That's life as an adult. However, since we only play every few weeks, I am lothe to give up a game day because one person out of six can't show up at the last minute. So anyone who is not present is run by the DM (me) as an NPC. In the player's guide that I wrote up the table rules on, I specify up front, "I will run the character as an NPC, but I will not be able to run them well. It is possible that you may die, miss personal character storyline opportunities, do stupid things and not participate correctly at key moments because of my lack of attention to your character details while running the game." The character, like any NPC that is part of the adventure group, gets a full split but only earns half of the split. So if the split is 700, that absent player gets 350 for the session. That cushions the blow and that way they don't get outpaced on the levels.I see the absent player policy as a bonus, because they could not be invovled and not get any experience.I used to do penalties for not having your dice, not having food, etc. but it stopped after high school because the people I played with became more mature and I try very hard not to play with deadbeats.    <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /></blockquote>

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