My group has been playing together since.... well, some of them since the early 80s, some of them since they were old enough (grown up kids of older members, including my son.) So in a lot of ways we have long since grown out of the jockeying for power, or in some cases never learned it in the first place. I'm usually, but not always, the GM.
We always used XP, but... well for example, we never had "kill stealing" because I only give the entire kill value to one person if he kills it one-on-one with no assistance at all. Otherwise he splits it with his support team. Not just anyone else who hit him, but the guys who kept all the other monsters busy, the guy who thought up the plan that gave them the victory, etc. Any given monster's KV generally gets splits 2-5 ways. And just as the fighters got XP for the damage and crits they did, the healers got XP for the damage and crits they healed, etc.
...but when the Farmer went out foraging or herb-gathering, he got XPs for each use of the skill.
Yeah, that.
However, I have since gone to HARP, and the basic "any skill anywhere up to 3 ranks/level, flat 50 DPs per level" makes me think I'll just start giving straight DPs from now on, and have total DPs rather than XPs. After all, if _____ XP = 1 level = 50 DPs = +3 to max ranks, then +1 to max ranks = 16 2/3 DPs, and levels and XP become no more than ballast. Spend them whenever you like, just don't go over your max. And if you want a talent or something that costs lots of DPs, tell the GM
when you start saving DPs for it, not when you finally spend them. That gives him time to work your newly acquired 20 point talent into the story logic.
I'll let you know how that works out, but it
seems like it should allow a very granular development throughout the game, while being
less housekeeping and paper shuffling than XP and levels. Then again, this method is also extremely reliant on a basis of trust existing between GM and players. The GM has to trust that the player is not going to try to stop the game between combat rounds so he can spend a few DPs and gain a bit of extra advantage before his next parry. The player has to trust that when he tells the GM he's saving 20 DPs for _____ Talent, the GM isn't going to make a special effort to kill him when he gets 15-18 DPs saved, that kind of thing.