Fate Points and NPCs

[Design Zombie]

Hello, I have played Dresden Files a few times (and another FATE game once), but this weekend I am running my very first Dresden game.

I had a question concerning NPCs, FATE Points and Aspects. Do NPCs use fate points just like PCs? How many FATE points do they get when some of them are at -12 refresh?

Will they be using their aspects just like PCs and if and when they do, do I need to say something about that to the Players?

Thanks in advanced

[InFerrumVeritas]

There's no hard and fast rule.  Here's how I do it:

I grab a handful of fate points, usually equal to the total refresh of the game plus one for each player.  These are the pool fate points my NPCs can spend throughout the session.

If I have a major NPC who I expect to be recurring and important, I give them FPs as if they were a PC of the same refresh as my players.  If they wouldn't get any, they use the pool.

I don't typically compel NPCs.  I'm playing them, they don't get a bonus for doing what I want.  I do let the PCs initiate compels on them if they have discovered any aspects (at the cost of a FP).

[wyvern]

Hm... I kinda go the other way around: for each major villain, they get a pool of fate points; most of the time (due to negative refresh / lack of free will) this pool starts at zero.  Any time they - or their minions - are in a scene (even indirectly), compels against them (and fate point rewards from "cashing out") go to that pool of fate points.  And I do use compels against them, and generally make it clear to the PCs what I'm doing.  For example, if a PC uses evocation to put down a scene aspect of "Thick Fog", I'll cheerfully compel that to make the enemy gunman give up and go away since he can no longer aim at his target.  (And just as cheerfully compel the same aspect to make the PCs be unable to effectively give chase.)

I don't - as InFerrumVeritas says - give NPCs bonuses "for doing what I want".  I do, however, give them bonuses when an existing aspect notably complicates their plans - when pride makes them underestimate the PCs; when environmental factors cause their gunman to fail his job; that sort of thing.

That said, I'm also seriously considering adopting the Fate Core rules, where I as GM just get a few fate points per scene.  It'd be a lot easier to keep track of.  (Though I'd still track individual fate point pools for any important allies of the PCs - the GM pool is meant to be spent on opposition, after all.)

[Mr. Death]

I generally don't give the goon-level badguys fate points. I'll give named NPCs fate points if they're under the PCs' refresh level. Enemies and NPCs over that refresh level only get fate points when they're Taken Out, Concede, or are compelled by the PCs in some way.

[Design Zombie]

Thank you for your advice and answers. I have been flipping through the book while reviewing some of the rules and I can't really find anything on NPCs getting fate points, but then again it's a large book and I have not memorized everything yet (give me a few years lol).

Thanks again.

[Wordmaker]

Yeah, I don't bother giving goons and mooks any Fate Points. For important NPCs, though, I start each of them off with however many Fate Points they would have if they have leftover Refresh, and work out what situations might be happening "off-camera" where their behaviour could be compelled by their Aspects.

When they're in a scene with the players, I make it known when I'm compelling them. In the finalé of our first story arc, for example, I compelled the villain's "Chosen of Abaddon" High Concept to make him monologue instead of blasting the PC he was fighting with a spell.

[JDK002]

My method is adding up all unspent refresh from all players, that total is the GM pool.  FP gets added to it the same way any PC would get one.  So via compels, concessions, and times when the PC's get theirs restored to full.

I give important and recurring npc's and antagonists get their own pool of fate points.  But if you wanted to streamline it even more you could have them draw from the general pool also.

[Dracorex]

You could also just wing it as appropriate. Obviously random one-shot goons wouldn't get round to spending any, while you decide when a recurring antagonist might spend a fate point for that extra edge, to keep things challenging for players. The risk is overdoing it, naturally, while some form of fixed pool would prevent that eventually.