Re: HAP: How to use them
I don't use them, and would not under most any circumstance use them, in my games. But then I also dislike Fate points, Bennies, and Hero Points in every other game I've encountered them in. For me, the dice, and the luck that they produce, is what makes the game. I want to roll with that roll, and let the story happen as it does, even if (and sometimes especially if) it's bad news. I would rather take a bullet to the throat on a lucky roll from a villain and die a horrifying death, forcing me to create a new character, if it means that the other characters will all get a visceral experience out of the event.
Basically, any mechanic that I see as "meta" - that is, outside of a decision made by my character - is directly counter to my immersion in my character. So no, I wouldn't use them in my games, and were I in a game where they were in use, I would probably not ever use them for that very reason, and if the GM was worried about my "saving them up" and didn't take me at my word that I wasn't ever going to use them, I'd burn them all on a ridiculous roll, like a perception check, in the first act.