I think I've been handling stress, concession/being taken out and consequences wrong. So I wanted to turn to the trusted Sages of DFRPG to clarify, correct myself and put this dark part of my life behind me if need be.

If your character runs out of stress boxes, is he taken out? OR if your character runs out of consequences and stress, is that a "taken out?"

Example: my character has two physical stress boxes, a mild consequence and a severe consequence open. If he takes one stress on the first exchange, then two more on the next one, he's taken out because he no longer has physical stress boxes to soak the damage. Right?

Or, same hypothetical character, but: his stress boxes are full, but he still has all his consequences open. He can use his consequences to absorb stress until all his consequences are used.

I know that a smart player would concede at a certain point under normal circumstances, but this is hypothetical.

Thank you for your advice and help.

OK. So I'm using the Library from the DFRPG Wiki someone posted there (great idea!! And thank you!). The players split up to explore different topics of interest to their characters while exploring. One player who is new to the game and system wants to have a permanent stat increase or some sort of bonus going forward. I explained to him that I thought Fate worked differently than other games like D&D where finding a book doesn't mean you get to increase your stats (for example: finding a book on etiquette might give you a permanent +1 to your Diplomacy skill if you spent time reading it in D&D). I explained it might allow him to change an Aspect, add new powers/stunts if he spent Refresh or justify some narrative part of the story going forward, just not a straight-up, free +1 improvement to Lore or Scholarship. I said he could even "bank" this experience and at a later time, declare that moment the research he did revealed the solution. The player seems to feel robbed of his reward for role playing and succeeding with a high roll for research.

Was I right or wrong? I've been very much willing to work with him to come up with something to make him happy without giving him "free" character improvements/bonuses.

Thank you!! The game is tonight, so I'm in a bit of a rush for an answer.

z