Experience

	Individual Awards per Post
Role Playing	I know its a very crude measure, but I award experience points for every "In Character" post that is made on a character's behalf. A one line post gets 10 points, one that includes some characteristic behaviour gets 20 points - right up to long posts that contain multiple examples of characteristic behaviour - which can attract 50 point.
Skills	When a character uses his or her skills, I award some extra experience. This could be class skills (such as healing for clerics or paladins) or non weapon skills (such as wood work, tracking etc) but does not include spells in combat - which is just the equivalent of the fighter's long sword. Generally there is an extra award of 20xp, for making a post that describes using a character skill.
	Other Individual Awards
Puzzles	When a character comes up with a good solution to a problem, they get an extra experience award of 40xp.
Brilliance	When a character come up with one of those special posts - maybe a bard actually tells a story, or a cleric runs a ceremony in character - then I will award an extra 40xp. However, I will award it more than once, if a ceremony or story is really good.
Notoriety	Getting a mention by name in Peter Gasgano's Journal gets extra experience. Peter's Journal is his own diary of the most memorable events of each game day. It is available in the Tas Bardon Library. He always mentions himself, of course.
	Group Awards
Combat	At the end of a combat, I total the experience points awarded for whatever is defeated in the combat and divide it equally among the participating members of the party. Participating members don't have to be involved in melee - they may be on look out duty, collecting and healing the wounded or spell casting.
Story	So long as the party are doing things to carry out their assigned mission or task, I will award extra story line experience occasionally. This is generally divided equally between characters. However, if a character is only around for part of the story - they will only get a fraction of the award.
	Special Cases
NPCs	All characters run by the Dungeon Master are NPCs, they get full Skills, Noteriety, Combat and Story experience, 50% Role Playing experience, but do not get Puzzles or Brilliance experience.
Pets	Pets are animals or other creatures, which are run by Players as secondary character, to give more 'flavour' to their main character. They can only gain Role Playing and Notoriety experience, but only for posts that are in character for the creature, and add something to the game.