Dividing XP?

[scottenkainen]

Hi all -- my first thread!

Is it anywhere stated in the original rules that XP awarded for defeating monsters is to be divided between the players?

I've always done it that way and I believe future editions specifically said to do it that way, but it seems to me that giving the entire award equally to each participant would encourage cooperative play better than the divisional method, which encourages players to pursue solo kills.

Thoughts?

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[Finarvyn]

I've seen it done many ways:
1. Total XP divided equally among everyone
2. Total XP divided equally, but with NPCs getting half-experience
3. XP given to the character with the death blow to monsters.

And it gets a little tricky when you allow MU's to get XP for spells, thieves to get XP for disarming traps, and so on.

The "death blow" method seems a bit extreme to me because it often rewards one lucky strike (like in Fantasy Football where one guy carries the ball for 80 yards, then the other guy carries for the TD and earns more FF points).

I don't recall ever seeing anything in the brown books about how XP are supposed to be divided, but I always preferred equal division.

[jrients]

I tend to calculate a total for monsters defeated and treasure recovered, then divide equally with NPCs getting half shares. On the rare occasions where someone clearly acted individually (single combat, the thief nicking a treasure before anyone looks), then I would award XPs to that individual only.

[coffee]

Sept 15, 2008 12:36:41 GMT -6 jrients said:

I tend to calculate a total for monsters defeated and treasure recovered, then divide equally with NPCs getting half shares. On the rare occasions where someone clearly acted individually (single combat, the thief nicking a treasure before anyone looks), then I would award XPs to that individual only.

I've read in various places that Gary would give the Magic-User XP for spells, the Cleric for spells and turning, and the Thief for picking locks and disarming traps and such. The Fighting-Man was the only one who got XP for killing monsters.

Thus, each class gets XP for what they're supposed to be doing.

And naturally, everybody gets XP from treasure.

[calithena]

Sept 15, 2008 12:36:41 GMT -6 jrients said:

I tend to calculate a total for monsters defeated and treasure recovered, then divide equally with NPCs getting half shares. On the rare occasions where someone clearly acted individually (single combat, the thief nicking a treasure before anyone looks), then I would award XPs to that individual only.

I've always thought this approach was 'what the rules said' early on, more or less.

I kind of like DM discretionary XP awards for heroism, cunning, etc. (rather in the mold of them newfangled 'hero points'/'artha' the kids talk about these days, but without the meta), but I tend to prefer the group model (i.e. Jeff's) for the workhorse stuff.

Thieves who successfully steal from their own party wind up keeping that treasure XP for themselves, though.

[ffilz]

This is certainly one of those areas of incompleteness. The only thing that is described is in Greyhawk, and it talks about 50% XP for NPCs, but it could also be read that the halving is done AFTER the award is determined. In otherwords, I could read it that a party of 4 PCs and 4 NPCs would earn each PC 1/8 share and each NPC 1/16 share.

My preference for that example would be each PC gets 1/6 share, each NPC gets 1/12 share.

For my campaign, XP for gold goes to who gets it in a share (hirelings operating for a fee, not a share don't get treasure XP and the person who hires them does - of course most classed/leveled NPCs won't be hirelings, just henchmen).

I think XP does need to be divided otherwise large parties are rewarded. I've never liked the XP going to the one who made the killing blow, though I can see different shares for more/less contribution, but don't plan to go that route (of course players can affect that by giving smaller shares to non-contributing PCs).

Frank

[blackbarn]

Sept 15, 2008 12:50:23 GMT -6 coffee said:

I've read in various places that Gary would give the Magic-User XP for spells, the Cleric for spells and turning, and the Thief for picking locks and disarming traps and such. The Fighting-Man was the only one who got XP for killing monsters.

Thus, each class gets XP for what they're supposed to be doing.

And naturally, everybody gets XP from treasure.

That's a neat approach, and reminds me a little of the Mazes & Minotaurs method.

[philotomy]

I give full shares to PCs, half-shares to NPCs. Monster XP is divided normally. Treasure XP is divided by the actual treasure distribution, which is up to the players, not me.