The game I'm running has technically 12 players, but we only table 4-6 characters a session. I'm already running into an issue where some of my regular players are outpacing the progression of my players that dont play as often.

How are you guys solving this in your games? Are you just granting xp to the entire party if they play or not? Something else?

Have you thought about running games where the more experienced characters aren't available say for example either they're kidnapped and held hostage with their players running alternative characters until they're either rescued or freed?

Black Sun "recruits" these more experienced characters leaving the others trying to find out what happened to them. If these other players still can't make your games regularly the alternative characters might become as experienced as their original characters and if that's the case maybe they'd like to run them instead?

Not sure if this is entirely fair since it isn't the more regular players fault this has happened but is it necessary for the non-regular players to gain the xp they haven't earnt?

Would your regular players agree to the other PCs getting a bit more xp to make the difference a little less obvious?

Might be worthwhile to consider tiering the group and running the high XP players through different games than the lower XP players. It sounds like you actually have two groups (one high-XP and one low-XP) that are living in the same universe, rather than one group. Conversely, explain to the regulars that when the newbies show up, they will get the opportunity to do things that are 'easy' for the high XP guys, but challenging for them in order to share the spotlight. That way they can still play together and have fun, but won't be stepping on one another.

I usually reward absent players with the same base XP that I hand out to the present players, but they do not get any of the Bonus XP for good roleplay or interesting ideas and solutions. The present players may still outpace the absentees, but not by such a large margin.

I recently had some new players join. In this case, I had them create their characters, then added a chunk of "catch up" xp. They are still behind, and I'll see how it affects play as we go.

One consideration I had was putting in xp bonuses for less advanced characters, as a reflection of the learning they gain from running with an elite team.

Thankfully it is less of a concern in this sort of narrative game. No two PCs will likely have the same level of expertise because there are simply too many options to choose from. Let your less experienced PCs shine in their chosen fields just like any other character. You don't have the issue that all characters must be optimized or else they are not effective.

You may find the problem is actually with the size of the party, with too many overlapping areas of expertise and not enough stage time to showcase all of the characters.

Another way to deal with parties with characters whose skills overlap is to give them multiple simultaneous and geographically disparate needs for those skills. They need a mechanic to break into the armory and another mechanic to break onto the ship. Since they're supposed to rondevu at a certain time, they need to split up to accomplish both in the timeframe.

EotE supports split groups much better than other RPGs I've seen due to the relatively flat combat power curve. Throw one combat monster in a group with a few technicians and they're able to reasonably overcome most minion-based challenges. If the party has 3 combat monsters, split them up into three groups that have to operate in different areas and it's still a challenge.

You can have a group of disparate skill levels, no sweat. Luke, Ben, and Han were all different experience levels when they began their merry adventure!

Party xp. Not fancy, but it works

Yeah, that's the method we use. Leads to the occasional character jump, but it's easy. Particularly when almost every session starts with "Anyone remember how much experience we have?"

Yeah, that's the method we use. Leads to the occasional character jump, but it's easy. Particularly when almost every session starts with "Anyone remember how much experience we have?"

300 IIRC. Unless I forgot to include last session's XP...