Greetings!

My group a while back acquired both a 3PO and R2 droid.

As the game progressed, and characters earned XP, my players wanted to improve these NPC droids.

My question is, do NPC droids in your games earn XP?

If so, do they earn at the same rate as the player characters?

If so, does the GM or droid owner get to spend the XP?

Thanks for the help!

Closest I have is a pet one of my players won over with an animal handle roll. It was a cub at first, and as missions were accomplished, I awarded bumps from its minion status as a cub, up to a rival as an adult.

I also gave it a chunk of XP for the player who tamed it and myself to discuss skills and talents. I think it was something like 70XP, no characteristic boosts. It's earned half the XP anyone else has since then.

One of my groups have a droid and the question came up on what to do with it 1.buy a new "better" one or 2. Let it earn xp and spend it like normal. We have gone with the 2nd option and it's been ok so far. His main purpose was to help the pilot fly the ship but they are looking into upgrading him to actually having an initiative slot. Watch out for what they are "building", you don't want a droid souped up for initiative rolls so the party always gets the first move.

However, as a GM, I love it when my players introduce another element to earn them obligation.

Thanks guys! This is a HUGE help!

So when your players purchase a brand new droid, does that NPC droid come with a Career and Specialization?

Are only PC droids special enough to have a Career and Specialization?

Or are NPC droids just plain droids with the stats in the core book or on NPC cards?

Lastly, the way we played it was a 'mind wipe' erased all a droids earned XP.

This essentially reset the droid back to factory settings or stats.

This included both PC and NPC droids. Sound good?

Whether or not the NPC droid earns XP depends on what the droid does in the game. I would award XP if the droid is with the party because it represents the droid learning and building upon its databanks. I also award "XP" to NPC droids if the PCs upgrade it. Uploading a textbook on alien creatures would give the droid a rank in Knowledge (Xenology).

Your house rule that droids lose all XP gained when memory-wiped is really awesome. I will use that for myself

Yoink!

If I build out a droid for the party and it is an active presence, I'll keep up with all of the XP upgrades and such.

If you gave them a utility droid (or two), and they want to upgrade them, I would let their characters pay for a mechanic to add components / upgrade items for them (or if they have a mechanic, acquiring the parts they need is a great story hook). If they wanted to trade in a utility droid for a party member droid, I would give them a discount.

NPCs don't get xp. If my players want to modify their droid allies, they use attachments rules and the implant cap as Hard Points. I also allow replacement of original tools.

For example, R4 needed to fly the ship, he is inserted with an experimental piloting chip, giving him Basic Mod- 1 Agility, in Mod Options- 2 Piloting (Space) Skill, 2 Let's Ride/Skilled Jockey Talent.

As a suggestion, I used the following "attachments" for droids when this came into play:

Skill Software:

Base Mod: Skill level set to 2 in a knowledge or general skill, set to 1 in a combat skill

Optional Mod: 2 +1 skill level increases.

Skill Upgrade:

Base Mod: Skill level increase by +1

Optional Mod: 2 +1 skill level increases.

The Computer skill was used to do the optional mods rather than mechanics - costs and difficulties didn't change. I spitballed costs based on the skill they wanted to add, 500-1000 for knowledge skills, 1000-1500 for general skills, and 2000 for combat skills.

Talents I did as 500/1000 to buy talents that cost 5/10xp, no 15xp or higher talents were available for purchase and no stacking ranked talents.

My character has a R2 Astromech, (designated R8-T1 or "R.T.", as a Mechanic/Technician) to help crew his HWK-290. Originally, he was earning full XP, but then the other players in our group decided to follow my example and pick up henchmen for their characters. This forced our GM to reduce NPC XP gain to half of what the PCs get.