OK, we'll see if I have the time and energy to talk more about the second point.
1
I would normally expect 'the Dresden Files RPG' to allow you to play characters like Harry, from say Summer Knight to Turn Coat. But Harry, at the end to Turn Coat is something like a 20/40 (refresh/skills) character. At that power level, the gap between a character with high system mastery and low system mastery can be pretty extreme.
Imagine the following game:
GM: You guys are going to play the wizards described as 'the brute squad', who were based at Arkhangelsk (Archangel). There will be plenty of combat, plus some diplomacy and investigation, think of the more over the top James Bond movies.
Now, notice that people who've read the novels already have the world knowledge to play in the game. But not many people seem to have the system mastery required to play in this game. And that makes me sad, since I'd much rather play in that game than the 'scooby gang' type games that seem to be much more common.
If they pull out all the stops, our high system mastery combat wizard throws something like targeting 12+ / power 10+ attacks, is hiding behind 2 layered power 10 enchanted item defenses, probably has a discipline boosting stunt to bolster his mental defenses, and so on...
A combat wizard done by someone without system mastery maybe has targeting 8 / power 8 attacks, maybe a power 5 or 6 enchanted item defense, and only has a high discipline/mental defense because it's a priority wizard skill. Of course, most good players with high system mastery will generally not go to those extremes when playing in a game that doesn't emphasize it as much, but that such a power separation is even possible in the first place is not great.
The next problem with high level play is that stress boxes become almost irrelevant. As weapon totals get higher and higher, the amount of stress you have stops mattering much.
--------------------------
So, here was my first idea a trying to solve this problem.
The game is broken down into 4 'tiers' (Human, inhuman, supernatural, mythic)
power level references:
Harry may count as being in the human tier for around the first 3 books or so, but he quickly moves into the inhuman tier. Around Changes, he becomes a supernatural tier character.
So, what does this mean?
Mainly, it means that, at each tier, you are assumed to have a bunch of stuff on your character sheet that you don't need to write down.
What sort of stuff (when compared to human tier characters)?
Inhuman tier:
+1 to every skill
'ignore' 1 tier stat mods
supernatural tier:
+3 to every skill
'ignore' 2 tiers of stat mods
mythic tier:
+5 to every skill
'ignore' 3 tiers of stat mods
----------------
notes on stat mods. The assumption isn't that you actually 'have' these stat mods, but instead, that you are somehow able to deal with them. So, for example, JLA Batman might be done up as a mythic tier character. He regularly fights things, that, on a human scale would have mythic strength, but he can still take a punch from them.
So, as an example, John Marcone is an inhuman tier character. If he gets into a fist fight with Billy the werewolf, billy doesn't get any advantage out of his inhuman abilities, and Marcone gets a 'free' +1 advantage in skill.
2nd example, Lara Raith is an inhuman tier character, since she may be a bit faster that 'regular/ human tier' WCVs, we'll write inhuman speed on her character sheet, but she isn't any stronger than regular WCVs so we'll save points by skipping on the inhuman strength.
This hopefully lets you have a go at writing up senior council members as something like 15/25 characters on the mythic tier. You get to be powerful, and can get into fights with things like black court vampires without risking being squished right away. So the system mastery you need to be 'safe' at this level is much lower.
So, here's a sample
Grevane (supernatural tier, 10/20)
Skills:
4: Willpower
3: Intelligence, Charisma
2: Background, Social, Violence
1: Perception, Sneaking, Travel, Fitness
Powers:
Evocation [–3]
Thaumaturgy [–3]
The Sight [–1]
Soulgaze [–0]
Wizard’s Constitution [–0]
Sponsored Magic (Kemmlerian Necromancy) [–2]
Total: -9 Refresh
(Lawbreaking will have to be handled by aspects)
And now, you could potentially give this character sheet to a new GM or new player, and have them be able to use it.
Human tier opponents pretty much go squish, and he has a pretty big advantage against inhuman tier opponents, but most importantly, he's easy to use.