30 March 2025

Using tokens to clarify the Fate point economy

I have been tinkering with a rules summary sheet for the Fate tabletop roleplaying game for a long time. A sharp-eyed forum commentator caught my earlier version describing the award of Fate points a little misleadingly, which made something belatedly fall into a place in my understanding of how invoking & compelling aspects fits into the Fate point economy.

I now want to try a different practice for tracking Fate points at the table, using three different counters. I like those little colorful glass “gaming stone” beads.



  A tube of glass beads

Use three different colored tokens. In play, all tokens come from and go to the infinite bank.

During a scene

White — Fate points

−1 spent for …
  • declaring a story detail
  • invoking any aspect
  • refusing a compel against a character aspect
  • PCs proposing a compel against another character (with the GM’s approval)
  • powering a stunt which requires Fate points
  • borrowing a stunt one lacks to use a skill in an extraordinary way
+ 1 received when …
  • accepting compels on character aspects
  • suffering complications from situation aspects

Black — hostile invocations tally

+1 received when …
  • a character has their own aspect
    invoked against them

Red — reward for conceding a conflict

+1 received when …
  • any character takes a condition from an attack

Outside a scene

Starting a scenario

Players get White tokens — whichever is greater:
  • their character’s Refresh
  • Fate points carried over from the previous scenario

Starting a scene

  • +1 White / PC to the GM
  • +1 Red to each player & the GM

Ending a scene

  • if a PC left the scene any way other than conceding a conflict, the player discards their Reds
  • if any GM character did not leave the scene by conceding a conflict, the GM discards all of their Reds
  • exchange Blacks & remaining Reds ➞ Whites

The logic

Blacks prevent confusion about Fate points from invokes which one “has” but cannot use during the current scene.

Reds imply that conceding a conflict is the normal way to end a scene, supporting the defeat-defeat-comeback pattern of fiction which Fate tries to emulate. Having them on the table should inspire loss aversion; if one ends the scene another way, it feels like sacrificing Fate points which one already has waiting.

Reds also suggest strategically accepting a condition. Taking a mild condition from an attack — even if one still has stress boxes free — pays off with a Fate point which will only require a pretty easy skill check (plus fun team bonding roleplay!) to clear.

Seeing Blacks & Reds piling up should tempt players to get on to the next scene to cash them in, encouraging fast-paced play.

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