Did you spend your Fate Points today?

One aspect of the FATE system is the ability to alter the course of your (or your opponent’s) dice roll. However, the Refresh Rate is once per session, and the players may be concerned that there might be one more challenge around the corner and thus, need that fate point. As a piece of advice, spend the point if you need to; don’t save it for what might be around the corner. When a player does not spend available Fate points, they just end up being wasted.

For those who do not play the game, a Fate point is like a credit to modify dice rolls, or to cause an effect to enhance or change the story of the game.  The number of Fate points that a character starts the session with is determined by the game’s Refresh Rate.

In all honesty, it is easy to not need Fate points in the Strands of FATE system. A character can have a high ability that almost certainly grants automatic success. There are plenty of advantages and powers that do not need Fate points (granting their own inherent bonuses).  A player could even be in a session where more role-playing than rolls is needed to get through an encounter. Any of these are viable excuses for not spending the entire refresh of Fate points. However, it does not matter if the points are not needed for success, or if they’re being horded for the next possible encounter. A Fate point remaining is a Fate point lost if it remains when it is time to refresh.

This is because Fate points do not stack after refresh, and a character cannot recover fate points beyond his refresh rate. A character who has 4 points in the pool at the end of a session and has a refresh of 8 will still only have 8 Fate points at the new session. This means that 4 points were lost.

Here are some reasons why players should utilize all their Fate points:

• The character made his search/maneuver/defense roll, but there are better results if you generated spin (a high roll).
• The points refresh after each session.
• If necessary, the character can go into negative Fate points. The negative is treated as bad luck.
• Even if you go into negative Fate points, the refresh will replenish everything.
• If the next fight is that critical, the GM should refresh the Fate pool just before the fight happens.
• There are no bragging rights for not using Fate points.

Whenever a character makes a success doing any of the items above, he gets the results of that roll. However, by generating spin, the character can perform more phenomenal things. When searching, a success may mean the character finds a clue leading to the next encounter, but spin might give a clue to the villain’s plans. When doing a maneuver, spin might make it sticky (a good benefit in this case). When generating spin while defending, the next attack against that opponent gets a +1.

Unless there are special circumstances (like ending the session in the middle of a scene), the character refreshes his points at the new session. Use them or lose them. ‘Nuff said.

Fate points can go into the negative. The reason has to make sense for the story, or the GM will not allow the negative point. If the character does go into negative points, he earns a temporary unlucky aspect. What an opportunity to earn extra fate 😉 Seriously, the points will refresh next session and the aspect will go away.

GMs don’t generally want to see their characters die a horrible death, unless he is running something Lovecraftian. If the characters are low on Fate and a big encounter is coming, the GM will refresh the points for that encounter. Of course, he will not refresh before the encounter happens. He would not want to tip his hand.

Obviously, the GM has final say on all of these points. Nevertheless, the only way to not waste a Fate point is to use the point. Take advantage of the tools in front of you when playing your character. Fate points are one of those tools.