So, let's say my character starts the game with 1 fate point. This I assume allows me to use it to negate a mortal critical whenever I want. A few questions though for those of you who use them:
--Do I ever get more fate points? And if so, how?
--Has anyone ever tried allowing players to buy fate points with Development Points? I was just thinking this might be another way to balance it, as it puts a real penalty (in the form of Dev points) on taking mortal criticals while still allowing characters to avoid random deaths.
--Are there any specific rules for fate points in any Rolemaster material? If not, from where are people getting the idea of fate points?
Personally, we tend to like the possibility of random deaths, as it adds an apparent sense of realism to our games. But I'm open to trying new stuff.
I can only speak for my group and how we handled the Fate Points on this.
-- We do not give extra Fate Points. We likened it to "Your PC should be 'dead' now, but Fate let you live one more time." So it's the equivalent of having two PC's, or, if they were lucky, 3 PCs. Instead of rolling a new PC, starting all over again, Fate has given you a 2nd or 3rd chance.
-- If the player can keep getting Fate Points through DP's, XP, praying to gods, etc. then the PC is eventually immortal. We like the game mechanics of RM being a pretty deadly gaming system with the random crit laying low a great player from time to time. It keeps the players on their toes. With the amount of time and energy invested in the creation of the PC, the players tend to play more cautiously with RM characters. I think part of the reason for Fate Points was to spare the player and the GM the pain of rolling a new PC. LOL shhhhhh....
-- I'm pretty sure I got the idea from one of the later RM2 Companions, but I'll have to do some research on that to give you an accurate answer.
As a note, we allowed players to use Fate Points for ANYTHING they wanted. We made them *that* powerful and consequently, impossible to replenish, and to only have 1 or 2. I've since changed itstarting points to 1d4 roll with 1, 2, 3 = 1 Fate Point and 4 = 2 Fate Points.
If a player wanted to use a point to have the GM re-roll a killing crit roll, he could. That doesn't mean the 2nd roll won't be just as deadly, but least there was a chance the PC would survive to play another day. The Player could use it to reroll a fumble whose result would end up in his death. i.e.: Failing to jump across a 6' crevasse filled with molten lava and plummeting to hot, painful death. One player fumbled a Locate Secret Opening roll so miserably that the result was that he was unable to test that skill again in that area for 3 months (or something long like that). He had rolled well below -176 on the result. He opted to use his Fate Point to find evidence of a secret opening.
As always, it's GM's discretion. I don't think I would allow a player to use a Fate Point to find an artifact weapon laying on the ground, but I would allow the player to re-roll on a random treasure roll in the hopes of finding something better, but (in my mind) that's a wasted roll.