Question about XP

[spinningdice]

standard NPC's (without minion/henchman/mastermind qualities) appear in groups of 1. That said you can have 34 groups of 1 all stood together if you so desire.
Likewise the difference between having 2 squads of Minions & 1 squad of Horde Minions is purely that any feats/abilities that affect team-mates only affect NPCs in the same squad.
There's quite a bit of player-GC fair play required under this aspect of the system, and I wouldn't generally use more than 1 squad at a time unless the players have fair warning and can avoid - or my intention is to brutally force the characters to take another route.
That said I ran a scenario where the characters had to fight their way to the top of a building, with locked, reinforced doors and a new minion squad appearing every 3 combat rounds - though in fairness in all but 1 case they'd defeated the minions before the next squad arrived and it was purely a pressure tactic (with weak minions).

[MartialIX]

Just to clarify, although I think I understand now:

Non-minion standard characters occur in groups of one naturally.  Multiple groups may be encountered, but every group beyond the first does not result in an additional XP reward.

Is that a correct understanding?

[Crafty_Pat]

Just to clarify, although I think I understand now:

Non-minion standard characters occur in groups of one naturally.  Multiple groups may be encountered, but every group beyond the first does not result in an additional XP reward.

Is that a correct understanding?

Yes. The simple answer is that XP has nothing to do with group size or number of standard NPCs appearing in a mission. Ever. If you build an NPC type, it contributes to the XP once and only once no matter how many of that NPC type/group you include in your mission.

As to how many standard NPCs should appear in a mission, it's up to you. If I had to do it again, I would probably pull the horde quality entirely and just provide GCs a simple guideline for how many to include to give the PCs a fair challenge.

Hope that helps.

[Morgenstern]

The other often overlooked benefit of minion and horde is those groups (party sized and double pary sized) count other members of their group as teammates, which opens up a lot of feat and class ability options. 36 groups of 1 is not capable of some of the tricks that 6 TEAMS of 6 can pull. That extra cost for the minion or horde qualities arent just minting them in larger numbers, it also grant those characters a sense of unit cohession .

[Mister Andersen]

It doesn't seem quite fair though that you get the same XP for offing 1 NPC as you do for 36.

And I can never recall if the reward for an NPC is per scene they appear or per mission

[Xorron]

aha

and what if the same NPC type appears later in another mission do i get xps for them again?

Tom

[Toccata]

It doesn't seem quite fair though that you get the same XP for offing 1 NPC as you do for 36.

And I can never recall if the reward for an NPC is per scene they appear or per mission

Keep in mind you do still get the experience even if you evade them or socialize your way past them.

I think it's partially to keep missions from turning into what I would do in Hitman after I'd beaten a stage a couple of times and was bored, i.e. systematically taking out every single guard, thug, etc. in the area even if there's no reason to.

[Morgenstern]

XP from characters is per scene. It is not a reward for killing them, it is a reward for accomplishing the goals of the scene while having to deal with them as an obstacle. That is why the final XP rewards for a scene are sorted by goals, not by kill count.

[Gentry]

Thus, if you meet, say, Zombies in all four scenes of your mission, you can get the xp four times?  That's my understanding. 

[Mister Andersen]

XP from characters is per scene. It is not a reward for killing them, it is a reward for accomplishing the goals of the scene while having to deal with them as an obstacle. That is why the final XP rewards for a scene are sorted by goals, not by kill count.

Occasionally I'll do a stress relief game where kill count is the mission objective

[spinningdice]

If you don't like it, change it, though if you're getting xp from every single kill I'd probably give 1/4 xp for each one

[Ezram]

It also depends on the situation. Terrain advantage can play a significant part...