One of my favorite items that WFRPG 2e offers is the Fortune and Fate Point system. It provides a "get out of jail free" card for rolls and situations that result in maiming or death, gives options to tempt fate with a re-roll and most importantly, gives players a sense of hope against terrible dice results. WFRP 3e further evolved this into the Fortune pool. But it still didn't get a few things right (like the group dynamic contribution and player punishment system that's engendered into the rules).
Using this as inspiration, I've redefined the way Fortune works, eliminating the need to track Fate points whatsoever. It needs to stay "grim and perilous", while embracing the group dynamic. This is the sort of way I envision the function of Fortune working in ZWEIHÄNDER.
Here's what we've adopted around the table for our play testing. I'd love to get your feedback on it!
The Fortune Pool
Fortune is not only the function of the individual, but also group dynamic. At the beginning of a session, each player contributes Fortune Points to the pool, based on what tier they are in their Profession (Basic Tier contributes 1 FP, Intermediate Tier contributes 2 FP and Advanced Tier contributes 3 FP).
Fortune can be used in several ways:
1) A player can use a Fortune Point to re-roll a failed skill or damage roll, as long as it's not a critical failure. Fortune Points cannot be used in this manner if the player fails the re-roll.
2) A player can use a Fortune Point to force the GM to re-roll a successful skill test or damage roll, as long as it's not a critical success. Fortune Points cannot be used in this manner if the GM succeeds the re-roll.
3) A player can use a Fortune Point to gain 1 Action Point. Fortune Points cannot be used to gain more than 1 Action Point per turn.
4) A player can use a Fortune Point to escape maiming or death. However, a player cannot use more than 1 Fortune Point in this manner per session.
Fortune "refreshes" during the session whenever the players successfully conquer a session-based obstacle, adding a number of Fortune Points back to the pool equal to the number of players around the table. This can range from winning a combat encounter, succeeding a social encounter, conquering a major environmental obstacle that required players to test their skills or any other sort of situation the GM deems as a story or session-based challenge. This helps extend the use of the Fortune Pool for long sessions.
Similarly, a GM maintains his own Fortune Pool. He receives 3 Fortune Points at the beginning of each session, to be used in the same manner that the Fortune Pool functions for players. However, unlike the player's Fortune Pool, his never refreshes during the session.
Fun ways Fortune Points can be tracked is using a bowl with wrapped candy in it. One of our players introduced Rollos candy to track, and it's sort of became a weird dice ritual to eat the Rollo before re-rolling (or "re-Rolloing" as he likes to call it).