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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 4701783" data-attributes="member: 463">My current campaign is at a D&D club, with highly variable players.  If player is absent, PC is always absent - ill, magically asleep, hasn't arrived yet, looking after their pet baby achaierai, etc.  And the PC gets no XP.  I find that in the circumstances, with PCs arriving and departing all the time, it's the only way to do it.As a player, I like XP as a reward for achievement.  I'm ok with a looser system than the standard D&D approach, eg:Typical amount achieved - standard XP award (say 3e's 300xlevel) for a typical session, say 4 challenging encounters.Nothing achieved - no XP (rare, this would be for eg sessions taking up solely with planning or routine shopping, very boring for the GM and for many players). Minor achievement - half standard XP - this might be where there's only 2 encounters, or lots of roleplay and character development but little risk/threat, or for preliminary investigations.Major achievement -double standard XP - this is where you pull off the big heist, defeat the BBEG, etc.For a typical 4 session adventure, it might go:session 1 - set up and planning, preliminary investigation - 1/2 XP, or none.session 2 - into the adventure, several encounters, standard XP, maybe 2/3-3/4 if threat level a bit lowsession 3 - adventure continues, standard XPsession 4 - climactic battle,  if victorious then double standard XPThis kind of approach doesn't require detailed calculation but neither does it create the moral hazard effects of XP-for-nothing.  People say "Yeah, but we came to play, not sit around!"  However if the GM gives XP for nothing, PCs get more powerful and thus more capable of success later, so there is a strong incentive to sit around until you feel powerful enough to take on the challenge.</blockquote>

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