How may XP for NPC's?

[Thot]

How many experience points will an NPC accumulate per time unit?

(I know, I know, there is always the option to just handwave that and take "whatever you like", but I don't like that, at least not always and for every incident where such a thing might come up. And for worldbuilding, one needs a guideline anyway.)

Judging by the character generation rules for higher starting age, roughly 18 years are equal to about 50 skill points. If we simply assume that NPC's never succeed at experience rolls, that would mean an NPC gets 3 experience points per year, or one every 4 months. If we go with the opposite, assuming all their experience rolls succeed, we get about 14 rolls (50 skill points divided by the average skill increase of 3.5), or less than one experience roll a year.

The middle ground between these two extremes would then be 2 per year...

Anyone's thoughts on this?

 

Edited September 8, 2018 by Thot

[Runeblogger]

Whenever a year in my samurai campaign goes by in which the PCs don't do anything especial, I give them 2-3 XP.

For important NPCs, I give them 1 XP per year to increase only their main skill.

[Thot]

So the general order of magnitude seems to be right, there.

[pachristian]

I give 'significant' NPC's (i.e. recurring villains) 1/2 as many IPT (Improvement Points + Training) as PC's. Minor NPC's get 10% PC rate per year. 

Significant NPC's start with a set number IPT based on how many sessions I expect to pass before the PC's are equals. So if I want an NPC to be the equal to the PC's when then PC's have 150 IPT (a fairly major character), then I start him/her out with 75, and improve the NPC as the game goes on.