Aha! So the players can actually ask for something specific to happen, rather than leave it all to the GM! This changes a lot of things and makes the option much more interesting. I think you should make it more clear in the rules.
Oh, well. Yes. I think I should have been clearer on this point. My fault.
On the "the computer RPG syndrome", I use a different solution: roll the dice only if failure can lead to an interesting outcome. Otherwise, the PCs always succeed (if what they're attempting is possible, obviously).
This saves a lot of time and spare us from a lot of useless rolls that lead to nothing. The PCs absolutely have to find the orcs' tracks to go on? No roll, they find them. They absolutely need to find someone who know something in town? They find him. If failure would bring a roadblock or a waste of time we simply do not roll.
Of course not everyone likes this approach (and the players still need to have some idea of what to do, or they won't get anywhere), but we find ourselves comfortable with it.
Yes, the same approach as mine. When I want something to happen, I simply make it happen. Of coure, I'm the GM (BWAHAHAHAHAAH!)
But, on the other side, many times bad lucky rolls or wrong ideas lead the characters on a way they didn't want to go, in the first time. Once there, it is difficult for them to simply get back to were they deranged from the main route (or better: the route they wanted to follow: be it a side or the main quest/story). In a PC RPG, you'd simply shut the game and reload your last save. In a tabletop RPG, you can't simply undo certain thing you did. Like reviving a NPC you killed for error, or talk back to another you ignored, and isn't there anymore. But, this is a whole other issue, I think.
On the "Wheel of Fortune" Fate Point, again.
Characters can spend it to "bring back" into the story a NPC, or element, they already encountered in their background: either played or simply written down in their character sheet.
Example: one of the character has the "Master Warrior Friend" talent. During a fight against a tough foe (maybe too tough for them to handle), that character uses a FP to have is mentor appear on the scene and take on the combat alongside them.They can also spend it to have a new, unpredictable element enter the story, such as NPCs, equipment which should be useful (but not durable: no "magic sword of orc-slaying that I can bring back with me" option), or natural/casual event.
Example: the woods are burning and they haven't got a chance to escape? Let use a Fate Point and it will rain hard, even if the sky was crystal clear a moment ago. They can't convince the guards they have the right credentials to let in? Let use a Fate Point to make the guards mistake one of them for a minor noble.Hope I've been more clear on the subject, this time.
BTW, I'm about to playtest the rule simultaneously in my two gaming groups,
AND, a friend of mine will test them with his two Pathfinder RPG gaming groups (adapting slightly the mechanics, but letting unchanged the basic concept). I'll be able to tell you more about how the playtesting went in a few weeks...