Over the last week I was in a discussion on forum about the topic of dividing XP in B/X. When I've run the game, I handled XP by splitting the value into shares, then half shares for hirelings, and split any additional XP back into shares and repeat the process until no substantial value is left. It made since to me logically to fully account for all XP available, But this was wrong.
Above is the two places XP is discussed from B/X, and below is an example of how I would divide XP and the final values.5 PCs find 13,450 coins worth of treasure. Three of them have no hirelings, Two other players have hirelings, one and two each respectively. We break the 13,450 into 6 shares of 1921XP and one share of 1924XP having the remainder. We give five of the 1921 shares to each PC and split the share of 1924 between two hirelings (962 each). We then give 962 from the final share of 1921 to the last hireling, leaving us with 959 to divide it into shares again, starting the entire equation over. It would become 137 per share, 1921+137 for each PC and 962+68 for each hireling, leaving us with 69 to be split into shares again. 1921+137+9 for each PC and 962+68+5 for each hireling, leaving us with a remainder of 10 to be divided between some of the characters involved.
PC 1, 2067 XP
PC 2, 2067 XP
PC 3, 2067 XP
PC 4, 2067 XP
Retainer 1, 1035 XP
PC 5, 2067 XP
Retainer 2, 1035 XP
Retainer 3, 1035 XP
XP Total: 13,440 XP (With 10 XP extra)
In our discussion I realized I was wrong. Reread the example from the book; A party of 7 (5 player characters and 2 NPCs) goes on an adventure but only 6 come back alive. They killed monsters for a total of 800 XP and also collected 5800 gp in treasure, for a total of 6600 XP. Each character receives 1100 XP at the end of the adventure. (The DM may give each NPC 1/2 normal experience — 550 XP in this case — since the NPCs were "directed" and thus benefit less from the adventure.) What I was shocked to realize is that this example makes no mention of who the character was that died, NPC or PC. This implies that the DM should just throw into the void half of the experience an NPC earns, while taking the full share from the players. Putting that method through the same example below;
5 PCs find 13,450 coins worth of treasure. Three of them have no hirelings, Two other players have hirelings, one and two each respectively. We break the 13,450 into 8 shares (1681), divided among all characters, then remove half from the hirelings. We'll be left with 3 remaining XP, to be given to the NPCs or discarded as well.
PC 1, 1681 XP
PC 2, 1681 XP
PC 3, 1681 XP
PC 4, 1681 XP
Retainer 1, 840 XP (Half of 1681)
PC 5, 1681 XP
Retainer 2, 840 XP
Retainer 3, 840 XP
XP Total: 10,925 XP (With 3 XP extra)
We see that NPCs and PCs alike are getting drastically less XP, about 20% less, than if you redistributed the XP. It feels wrong to just discard some of the value into nothing, It was earned by the players and they should get it. I also don't like how by one person bringing hirelings with them, EVERYONE earns less XP. Here is how I handle XP in REAVE, my homebrew system;
5 PCs find 13,450 coins worth of treasure. We split this between only the PCs and each of them earn 2690 XP. Three of them have no hirelings, so they earn it in full. Two other players have hirelings, one and two each respectively. They will earn half the XP as normal, with the other half split among hirelings.
PC 1, 2690 XP (1/5th of the total)
PC 2, 2690 XP
PC 3, 2690 XP
PC 4, 1345 XP (His 2690, but half goes to his retainer)
Retainer 1, 1345 XP
PC 5, 1345 XP
Retainer 2, 673 XP
Retainer 3, 672 XP
Total XP: 13,450 XP
With my method the full value of potential XP earned if given to the party, with the players who bring hirelings splitting their personal XP between them. Comparing the three methods (B/X Redistribute, B/X RAW, and REAVE) we find that retainers earn the most XP on average using B/X Redistribute, 1035 vs 840 vs ~897, and PCs earn the most on average using REAVE, 2067 vs 1681 vs 2152. Aside from RAW B/X these numbers are very close.
The reason I don't like how B/X handles hireling XP is that I've had two players with 13 and 11 Charisma bring 9 retainers between them, plus two other players at the table. Once it was time to calculate XP totals, even having lost two of the hirelings in the dungeon, the terrible reward made them stop bring hirelings at all because they didn't want to take XP from the other two players. When you bring more hirelings you can interact with the game more, ordering more to be done during exploration, calling more attacks during combat, and can even have more spells at your disposal if your hirelings have the potential. It really is more fun for you if you bring hirelings, so I find it's only appropriate to tax that single PC when they choose to do so.
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