I have a couple questions pertaining to hijinks and XP for PCs:
Let’s say a PC does a hijink for an NPC boss, like Stealing or something.
Does the PC count as a syndicate member for XP purposes (i.e. 50% of value)?
Does a syndicate member get XP if they are not technically a member of the syndicate? Let’s say it’s just a PC doing some “freelance” work?
What happens if the syndicate member gets 0% cut of the goods? Like, they owe the boss a favor or are just being forced to steal for no cut. Do they still get 50% XP of the value?
If PCs can undertake hijinks for NPCs and get XP, does the 50% gp need to meet or exceed the GP threshold (this is unclear for syndicate members)?
Is there any other advice or things to take into consideration for PC syndicate members of an NPC Thief Guild?
I can’t speak to 1 through 4, but I attempted this in my own campaign. Be prepared for risk averse PCs to balk at doing hijinks due to the low success rate (even though the reward is usually very high)
1. A PC who performs a hijink earns XP equal to the gp value of the hijink. (An NPC earns 50% because he's an NPC).
2. Yes. Membership in a syndicate is not a prerequisite to getting XP for a hijink.
3. The PC still gets XP equal to the gp value of the hijink. This would be analogous to a PC who gets XP from treasure from an adventure, even if he personally takes no share of the actual treasure.
4. No. Hijinks are adventure-like, and hijink perpetrators do not have to meet GP thresholds before getting XP. A syndicate leader getting income from other's hijinks does have to meet GP thresholds, however.
5. Fundamentally, hijinks are meant to abstract an NPC's activities over a period of several weeks. The hijink roll subsumes the weeks of scoping, planning, plotting, and so on that are involved. A PC should never be able to drop into town for a day, run a hijink, and depart. Be careful not to allow hijinks to be used as a substitute for adventuring by PCs. The best way to incorporate PC hijinks is to use them when the other PCs are also engaging in long down-time activities (training soldiers, spell research, etc.).
Thanks for the quick response! I’m glad you touched on the time. I extrapolated that a hijink takes roughly a month (due to being able to send others’ on a hijink 1/month) due to, as you noted, casing, planning, etc.
XP = GP with no threshold seems pretty high though, considering this is more akin to downtime activities like magical research / mercantile ventures than actual adventuring for the purposes of our campaign. I’ll probably use the threshold.