FyoraSilverwolf
The previous DM used to not give uniform XP, and I don't think 3/4 of the players would mind not getting uniform XP, but one of them would probably complain incessantly about it if I didn't give him at least as much as everybody else (even though, for example, last session he fell asleep for an hour or so mid-session because he felt that one of the other characters was making his character un-usable). So I'd have to keep it secret, and that makes trouble for people wanting to craft things. :/
I would probably also get accused of favoritism, even moreso if I keep it secret, because one of the players is my boyfriend. Regardless of the fact that he's one of the better players (though last session I would put him at 3rd place, because two of the players got in a fight in-character over whether or not to kill the Gargoyle, since one has taken Vow of Nonviolence & Vow of Peace and the other is a LG Paladin of Heironeous) I worry that any time I would tell him to level, at least one of the other players will question if he's leveling just because he's my boyfriend. :/
Here's how I handed out exp:
on pieces of paper, and didn't tell them to level or not. I told them to tell me at some point if they did level so I could keep track of it, but always out of session.
I had no favoritism complaints because no one knew what level anyone else was until they used a skill that was level specific; and even then, they could have gotten it last session, this session, or some other time and hadn't had the opportunity for it yet.
Again, I had 0 complaints with this over the span of 3 years, so...it seems to have worked well enough.
Edit:
I guess I can put it this way: I'd use this method again, any system.
