I've got most of the books and as far as I can tell they've completely disregarded experience in exchange for achievement points, which dont correlate evenly enough. So does anyone have a simple system they use for dealing out experience? I just started running lure of the expanse, about two sessions in and so far have just thrown them a 750 pt bone for lack of preparing or knowhow.

I usually reward the PCs 200xp per session + 10-50 for good RP and about 100xp if they do really well, e.g. solve tasks/endeavours in a unique way.

The book says about 500xp per 4 hours of play. Of course if nothing really happened, and players where buying stuff and wandering around, i give them no more than 200xp.

well I suppose I made a pretty decent guess then. I was just about to try tallying up kills and social successes and what have you and it felt like a nightmare. On the other hand of that though, if a character noticably does much less than the others is it fair to punish them with less experience? seems rude to me but I have a player in particular who seems to only be here to watch and follow until (and even sometimes during) combat or when his specialties are needed.

Usually about 300xp per session, unless all they did was buy stuff, reorganize their assets or utterly fail at life in which case they get substantially less.

well I suppose I made a pretty decent guess then. I was just about to try tallying up kills and social successes and what have you and it felt like a nightmare. On the other hand of that though, if a character noticably does much less than the others is it fair to punish them with less experience? seems rude to me but I have a player in particular who seems to only be here to watch and follow until (and even sometimes during) combat or when his specialties are needed.

Well I usually keep it the same, though I add in good role-playing and idea xp bonuses. Usually only 25 extra per RP experience or insightful concept (max of like 100 difference per session). Though, to make it fair, give the other players opportunity to catch back up and shine.

It could be the player is used to other games and is unfamiliar with Warhammer 40k lore. Is the player new to the group? Whenever I'm new, I sit back and learn the first 1 or 2 sessions and offer my advice when presented (and in life or death situations). Then again, 20 some years of RP experience helps, so.... Best option is to ask him/her/the player to arrive about 15-20 mins earlier than everyone else so you can ask the person if everything is alright in the game, if something could be changed/added to assist them, or if it's something else. Could be a personal matter too. Never will know until you ask; however, don't poke or prod the issue out of him/her/the player.

I don't award xp per session. I generally award a big chunk at the end of the endeavor. For long endeavors, like those last more than 2 sessions, I'll give small bits - 100 or so in most cases.

As for total xp, I assign totals for each puzzle Solved, task and sub-task completed and for Success. I'll then add bonus xp for excellent rp, moments of genius and a big chunk for coming up with a good plan I did not foresee.

All in all, it's about 300-500 per endeavor , max is set at 600. I like slower progression, though - I.e my current game where 15 sessions in, The players Are a shade over rank 2

I run on the following:
200xp for attending a session

100xp for advancing the plot, completing Objectives etc

200xp for finishing an Endeavour

100xp for the 'player of the game' each session, be it nominated by GM or consensus of the players

I dole out experience a bit differently. First I figure out how long I expect my campaign to last. When we were younger, we might play 150 sessions before we burned out on a game. Some decades later we are lucky to get in 60 sessions before life intervenes. I want the players to experience high level play so I take the maximum experience they can achieve and divide it by the number of sessions we might maximally play. In our present campaign I grant about 600 xp per game session.