What would you do - xp award

[Thornir Alekeg]

Well, giving everyone full XP would also tell the two players "Hey, it doesnt matter if we split up, we'll all get xp." or tells the one player "Hey, I dont have to risk my neck and I'll still get XP."

I'd give the players XP as you laid out 2366 & 1566, maybe give them all an extra 200 story XP or something. Sitting out 10 minutes isnt that big a deal. What if they were in the bathroom for 10 minutes, would you be having the same dilemma ?

And not giving the third player XP tells all the players, "Stick together, even if it makes no sense, or you may lose out on XP."

This is part of the reason I do not like XP awarded for combat, but instead award it for accomplishing goals. The party's goal was to recon the army setup in order to plan. The two stealthy PCs accomplished this goal through their successful reconnaisance. The third PC accomplished the goal by being smart and humble enough to recognize that they would only hinder the efforts of the other two PCs, and maintained a place for the other two to return with their information and plan. Goal accomplished and XP awarded to everyone, with perhaps a small bonus for the two for the danger of the combat.

XP awarded primarily for combat just encourages everyone to want to fight. That's fine for some people's game, but I prefer it to be more about achieving goals rather than just defeating opponents.

 

[Quasqueton]

We just had another game session where this situation came up.

The 3 PCs and 1 NPC exited the dungeon. They needed some special material components for very necessary spells (life or death necessity), so 1 PC and the NPC left to go get the materials. The other 2 PCs stayed at the dungeon exit and guarded.

A monster came out of the dungeon, and the 2 PCs defeated it. One of the 2 PCs went to the dungeon entrance and called out to maybe bring out more monsters. Another monster came out, and the 2 PCs again defeated it. The monsters were dangerous, and either or both of the 2 PCs could have died.

The 1 PC and the NPC returned to the group after the fights. They had acquired two "doses" of the material component they needed.

I awarded xp for the two monsters to the group as a whole. This brought an argument: the 1 PC and NPC were not there for the fight, why do they get a split of the xp?

This concept is a subject of argument right now in our group. We're all friends, so the argument is friendly. But it is a bone of contention, none the less.

To add to the argument, one Player was absent for a game session, and his PC was sidelined from the dungeon delve. I gave him no xp for what the others did. This has been rolled into the overall argument about how to award xp.

Quasqueton

 

[Lanefan]

If the character is present and involved in the encounter, the character gets xp; if the character is not present, or is present but does nothing, then no xp. Nothing to do with whether the player is at the table or not.

So, in your case the 2 who did the fighting get the xp; the others off searching should probably get a few xp for that, unrelated to the combat xp.

The character of the absent player should get full xp for what the *character* did even if it was being run by someone else; xp to me are a character reward, not a player reward. (edit: further, a player's temporary absence is no reason to sideline a character; just have someone else run it and carry on...)

Lanefan

 

[Hussar]

Meh, the PC left because he had to, not because he was doing anything bad.

Simple fix, the xp award for going to town to get the whosit is the same as the xp award for defeating creatures.

We ruled that missing a session got you 1/2 xp for the session.

 

[shilsen]

We just had another game session where this situation came up.

The 3 PCs and 1 NPC exited the dungeon. They needed some special material components for very necessary spells (life or death necessity), so 1 PC and the NPC left to go get the materials. The other 2 PCs stayed at the dungeon exit and guarded.

A monster came out of the dungeon, and the 2 PCs defeated it. One of the 2 PCs went to the dungeon entrance and called out to maybe bring out more monsters. Another monster came out, and the 2 PCs again defeated it. The monsters were dangerous, and either or both of the 2 PCs could have died.

The 1 PC and the NPC returned to the group after the fights. They had acquired two "doses" of the material component they needed.

I awarded xp for the two monsters to the group as a whole. This brought an argument: the 1 PC and NPC were not there for the fight, why do they get a split of the xp?

This concept is a subject of argument right now in our group. We're all friends, so the argument is friendly. But it is a bone of contention, none the less.

To add to the argument, one Player was absent for a game session, and his PC was sidelined from the dungeon delve. I gave him no xp for what the others did. This has been rolled into the overall argument about how to award xp.

Quasqueton

As mentioned earlier, you avoid these problems if you award XP by session and not by events in the session or attendance.

 

[Shallown]

In the end it doesn't really matter. XP is such an artificial constrcut that all that matters is the players are happy with what you decide. I personally already have policies in place for this instance which I will explain below. If I were you I would just ask the players what they think is fair and go with it if everyoneis happy.


My policy is every character gets X experiences points each session based on how challenging the session was this inculdes NPC interaction with out a fight etc. So even if they are in town and spend 5 hours with no fights advancing their goals/ plot etc they get XP. If they have three easy fights that aren't much of a challenge either to luck, mistakes made or whatever they get a little less. If the fights are easy due to brilliant strategy they do get more though.

I think giving XP is a Zero sum situation. The reward you get is for having fun gaming and playing. The punishment/down side is if you don't show up you don't get that fun. XP doesn't factor into it.

Later