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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StupidSmurf" data-source="post: 2549706" data-attributes="member: 35893">I'm firmly in the camp of "withholding XP is not punishment; awarding XP is a reward." If one of my players can't make it, the PC is simply not played. We don't end sessions in media res, so there's never a "OK, let's freeze the battle till next time, whoops so-and-so's not gonna be there." This way, there's always an excuse handy for the non-participant."OK, Sir Loin is sick today and can't make it.""But he's a Paladin! He can't get sick!""OK, so instead he's spending the day in prayer and fasting, doing a little spiritual preventative maintenance!"I refuse to run another player's character. If that PC dies, it's my fault. If I head that off by simply making that PC unable to die, it's clearly not fair to everyone else. I also never let players run more than one PC at a time either.Frankly, XP should be reserved for those that make the time and effort to come. If you can't make but you really wanted to be there, well, hey, these things happen. That's life. Besides, awarding XPs for no-shows breeds the "Ahhh, I think I'll stay home and play Diablo...it's all the same, I'll still get credit" mindset of abuse.As for people who fall behind, here's how I handle it. First of all, the DMG provides a formula for awarding XP so that those of lower levels will get more per session. This seems ideal for helping the "stragglers", so to speak, catch up by awarding them a proportionately larger XP haul. Second, if a player has fallen THAT far behind, it means that for whatever reason, they rarely show up. Well, fine. That's their choice. That leads to my house rule of distinguishing between Core and Peripheral players. The Core players are the people who have the means and desire to make it to the vast majority of the sessions. They've made a commitment to be in this campaign. In exchange, their PCs become the focal point of a lot of subplots and such, and a lot of their backstories get woven into the campaign. The Peripheral players are those who show up once in a very great while. When that player shows up, she's given a free level if she's four or more levels behind the party average level. This level comes with full hit points on the hit die, starts the PC off at the mid-point to the next level, and is explained as "Your character's done some minor odd jobs and exploring since last time she adventured with the party."</blockquote>

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