Sully, I appreciate you, Sir. And I appreciate that you are interested in the party as a whole, and agree with that mentality.
I suppose another issue I have, outside of my own pride and desire to earn my keep, is that Ehiker is struggling to do all of the accounting here. And I do think it's a struggle. Honestly, for only this reason, I'm fine with grabbing a quarter share of XP and moving on quickly so as not to strain the real people behind the screen here.
Please remember: Dhren's class uses the Clerical xp table... AND he has a large bonus to XP due to lucky stat rolls. It won't be long until he's 2nd level unless I die horribly
A quarter share may mathematically be intelligent for him; Doling out larger shares to characters who require more to level might well be advisable. Just my thought there.
There are alot of people in this game. Many, it seems, unfortunately, are too busy to play their characters. I agree that real life must trump. But I do agree with some of Sully's concerns about XP going to character's that are close to becoming NPC's. The problem is, how to really know that?
What about just having them gain lower xp, to ensure a useful amount is provided the currently active group? I think you all are basically saying this anyways. Treat them as 'henchman' status; They aren't active currently, and other players/the DM are running their characters, so they get henchmen quality XP. I think that is fair, in my opinion.
When those players return, they still have characters, but they will just need to go adventuring and get caught up! Heck, I'm in that position right now. I would hope that people understand that the game still needs to go on for the other players and that they would be reasonable enough to understand why their characters only got a little, or no, XP.
I'm stating that I'm in favor of having the character's that have been played by our DM and other players recieve small amounts of XP or none for the current time. I also like the IOU analogy Sully presented... When they become active, they will again gain fair shares.
Perhaps, for those players, we can offer some 'severance' type stuff, too. IF those characters were key players in some of the loot gained/monsters killed in THIS xp that is being totaled, they still get quarter or half shares only... But when they return, and become active again, they are allowed first choice of the NEXT treasure and XP divisions to make up for 'losing out' of their rightful spots in THIS treasure division due to inactivity.
It's almost like the IOU situation. They can't be here now, to recieve their rewards, so we just plan for them to get recompensed later on when they CAN be here. Thoughts?
