In my first game, I almost never used them; in my second, I use them at least once every four checks on average, but that's more as a means of reminding the players that they're there, they're useful, and they'll help them survive what I throw at them.

When we started, I wanted to use them a lot but the other players wanted to horde them to keep the gm from using them against us. They tried to impose a vote system whenever anyone wanted to use one but they had an obvious, murderhobo-inspired tendency to approve combat uses while considering anything else not worth it. It was my first game so I figured that was how things worked. My GM secretly told me that they couldn't actually stop me from using the points if I wanted to. Not sure if he was supporting me or being an evil GM and ensuring he had a supply of points to use for himself!

Things improved from there. As our characters got more skilled, we used them less and less for upgrades and more for taking some narrative control. I think it happened whenever someone had a cool idea so they flowed like water... if water was chocolate syrup.

As GM, sometimes I flip them to make “interesting” things happen off-screen, which the players won’t find out about immediately. Sometimes I flip more than one, if I want it to be a really big thing.

And if the players decide they want to hoard them, then I’ll claim GM’s prerogative [0] and start flipping white ones.

[0] Yes, that is the correct spelling of that word. I know, it looks weird to me, too. But I double-checked the references.

As GM, sometimes I flip them to make “interesting” things happen off-screen, which the players won’t find out about immediately. Sometimes I flip more than one, if I want it to be a really big thing.

And if the players decide they want to hoard them, then I’ll claim GM’s prerogative [0] and start flipping white ones.

[0] Yes, that is the correct spelling of that word. I know, it looks weird to me, too. But I double-checked the references.

Did your references include Bobby Brown? Because if not, I question the efficacy of your search!