Awarding XP Rewards Question (Using Spoilers)

[Anunaki]

I am still a bit confused how XP is rewarded (as intended by the written adventure) based on the encounters as they are laid out. It does not help I am a little confused how Low 1, Moderate 2, Severe 1 all relate too. That being said, I see encounters listed as the above that sometimes have XP awards and some do not. So, that leads me to believe that these "XP Awards" are over and above the encounter XP gain if the conditions are met. Am I reading that correct? On top of that, some encounters have combat with creatures and some do not. Do you reward XP based on the encounter "degree and level" or both that and the creatures XP value?

Taking the first encounter in the AP, Snickers in the Smoke - Moderate 1. It has hazards and a creature. The encounter can be completed and XP gained by saving people, but the creature could escape, or be caught or killed. The fire could be put out, or maybe not. Do you get XP based on the encounter or do you reward for each creature and hazard delt with? If its based on the total encounter value, do you subtract XP for things NOT dealt with? I.E. if the fire goes out of control or the Fire Mephit gets away?

So, if the fire is put out, the Mephit dealt with, and everyone saved, you can give each player 210 XP? (80 for the Moderate 1 encounter, 100 for max saved lives, and 30 for dousing the entire fire)

Am I understanding the Encounter level correct in that:

For a party of 4 level 1 charactors, a Low 1 encounter rewards each player with 60 XP? So a Creature 2 is a level 2 creature and being 1 level higher, is worth 60XP, so is a Low 1? So what does Low 2 mean to the same group? 80xp budget? So two level 1 creatures?

Am I seeing this correct?

[FowlJ]

'Low 2' means that the encounter is designed to be Low difficulty for a level 2 party, and so the group is behind the curve if they are still level 1 when encountering it. In that case you would probably need to recalculate the XP totals based on their level, so a Party Level-1 creature worth 30 XP becomes a PL+0 creature worth 40 XP, and so on. (Generally, this will bump the encounter up to the next highest difficulty, so a Low 2 = a Moderate 1 (80 XP), but it will sometimes be off by a little).

I think that awarding XP per creature/hazard and awarding XP per encounter are both fine approaches, and will be the same number most of the time anyway, but the default method may be to give it per creature?

XP rewards listed in an encounter are generally in addition to the normal XP for the encounter, yes.

[Cupcakus]

I always award XP based on the level and count of monsters/hazards in the encounter and never base it on the 'Moderate X' encounter header. If your party is the correct level the XP award will match, but if they are under leveled you will not be advancing them quickly enough.