A FLAVOR INTRO: WHAT IT IS
Fastlane is a generic system, available in PDF ($6.00) or hard-copy ($12.00), from here. Calling it "generic" is a bit misleading, as it has certain biases built into it. It assumes a game setting where things are in a near-constant state of flux, relationships are survival tools, the world is an amoral place, and unless the characters are gutsy, cunning, and lucky, they will hit bottom sooner or later. To quote from the game:
"Characters burn their candle at both ends, hoping to live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse...Sometimes, if they're lucky, they'll find new meaning at the bottom of the glass,but more often it's a reflection of the emptiness in their hearts and souls. And when the abyss starts looking back at you, it's time for another shot...In Fastlane, friendships and rivalries are as fluid as the alcohol that constantly flows-people are passed around like pills and needles and plastic bags...Playing Fastlane is all about reveling as much as you can in the moment until everything finally crashes down around you-and unless Lady Luck shows her face, you WILL crash, so you might as well go out in a blaze of glory...Fastlane does not tie itself to any one setting, genre, or milieu...(Y)ou, the players, are going to have to decide where your game is set, and what the stakes are...Everything else is background. It doesn't matter whether you try to kill someone with a gun, a knife, a fireball, a laser, or your bare hands-what matters is why you're doing it, and what the consequences are if you fail." In other words, this ain't Touched by an Angel: the RPG. No alignment systems need apply; any heroism and dignity you want your character to have, you the player have to supply. Keep in mind: virtue is going to be it's own (and only) reward.
HOW IT WORKS
Fastlane uses a roulette wheel (yes, a roulette wheel) and poker chips. For those who don't feel like coughing up money for a roulette wheel, there's an option that uses 2d6 to simulate a wheel spin. This alternate method is serviceable, but plays a little slower. FYI, there are two different types of roulette wheel available (the American model, with a 0 and a 00, and the European wheel, with just a 00), and the game has rules for both. (The author notes that the American wheel favors the croupier (GM) more during play.) Any time a conflict comes up, the croupier sets the difficulty with a bid of chips. The protagonists (PCs) involved bid their chips according to standard roulette bids. If the protagonists win, they pay an equal amount or higher of the difficulty set by the croupier in their chips, and narrate their victory. If the croupier wins (none of the protagonists win enough to beat the difficulty,) he or she narrates what happens. The losers of the contest can be humbled by an amount equal to the winning bid. I'll get to what that means in a second; just note that how much you succeed or fail depends on on how smartly you bid, and how lucky you are. Note also that victory determines who gets to narrate what, with common-sense restrictions to prevent the game from being blown apart by an exceptionally lucky spin. This is the basis for determining not only player-character success/failure, but how the story unfolds.
Character creation is where Fastlane shines. Characters are created using a bank of (recommended) 36 chips. These chips buy your character's immediate resources (the character bank), how many chips the character can bet in a given situation (the character's Facets: People, which is who your character knows and how much they like you, Assets, your character's wealth, beauty, and innate talents, Nerve, your character's strength, stamina, willpower, and ability to intimidate, Guile, how well you can duck, dodge, and lie, and Sobriety, how clear-headed and aware your character is), your character's Lives(what they live for, and how strongly), and your character's Factions(groups they belong to), and Favors(who owes/owns them, and by how much.) Styles can also be bought for your Facets, little descriptors that give a free chip to bet with in appropriate circumstances. Players choose a lucky number for their character, which also gives them a bonus chip to bet with on that number during conflicts. Point-based character creation, Vegas-style.
The croupier, meanwhile, gets 36 chips (or whatever) per player, and uses them to create nemeses and obstacles for the characters. Because the croupier's character's don't bid (the croupier only sets the difficulty, remember!), these background characters aren't fully fleshed out (maybe a Style or two). If the croupier has a brain, s/he will no doubt be scouring the character sheets for ideas to create suitable obstacles/foils for the characters. This nicely insures, by the way, that the challenges will, on a point-by-point basis, be evenly matched to the characters. (All things being equal, which they probably won't be, depending on what mood the roulette wheel is in.) After that, it's anything goes as the croupier starts things off and the characters either dominate the scenery or go splat, depending on the turn of the wheel.
There are more complications than that, of course, particularly involving character advancement/degradation, the exchange of Favors, and circumstances that can increase/jeopardize a character's Life or Lives. Of important note is "humbling"; if a character (PC/NPC) is involved in a conflict and has bet chips, but did not win enough to narrate, that character can lose points from their Life score (1 point/5 chips), Facets (1 point/chip), or can end up owing the victor (whoever narrates) a Favor (1 point/chip). Humbling is optional, but the croupier rarely has anything to lose. Also, each time a Facet is invoked to bet on a conflict, it drops by one afterwards, but can be bought back up by spending a chip from a victorious bet. Thus, character stats are mercurial things, but unless the player is lucky, a downward spiral is almost inevitable. Adds a nice bit of dramatic tension to the betting process, no? Lives can, when touched on during play, be put on the line (which gives you extra chips to bet), or simply threatened (no chips, but if you win the bet, your Life score goes up by one.) If you lose a bet where your Life was involved, it decreases. Run out of life, and your character burns out and needs to be retired from the game soon.
So remember, bid carefully, to conserve your resources. Bet risky, because that allows you to make big wins and keep your character riding high. Getting to narrate is your goal, but use it wisely, or you increase the odds that the croupier and/or your fellow PCs will screw you over once they get the lucky spin. (Not that they won't anyway, but...) Work those Favors and put your Life on the line to get more chips, the better to get a lucky break. If you can do all of that without burning out, you are truly lucky. Croupiers need to also learn how to allocate their resources, the better to crush...er, challenge the players, as their "winnings" depend on chips the players did not win on. Remember, anyone can win big, go bust, or both in the same game, and that's not even counting on someone winning big on a lucky chip at the last moment.
RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE...
So, will this game engine work for your game? Depends, because while it's "generic" in the sense that you could use it for almost any setting, it carries a built-in cinema-noir feel that will enable it to do some things better than others.
If you always wanted to do a British crime-caper game, a la Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch, or a Quentin Tarentino-style game, or Intacto, I can't imagine a better game engine. Ocean's Eleven would also blend in seamlessly, as would any of the James Bond 007 films. If you wanted a game engine that would allow you to play games similar to Over the Edge, Unknown Armies, Aberrant, Amber, Godlike, Shadowrun, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, any cyberpunk game, etc., but added a seedy, sleazy, and desparate feel to them, this game will do that for you with a minimum of tweaking.
If you love tactics and the benefit of superior firepower, or an alignment/sanity system mechanically reinforced by the rules, or you prefer the comfort of the traditional GM/player split, this game will not give you that, in spades. Nor will it do murder-mystery games, or games involving divination all that well. Such could be done, but it will require extra effort to the point where it will probably not be worth your time. It especially demands cooperative effort between the players and the GM to keep the game flowing, although the rules are sturdy enough once the basics are agreed on. It is also a generic game, and has some setting seeds, but does not come with an established setting.
I love it. If Alexander Cherry had not made this game, I would have had to. I like that relationships matter, but are quantified. I like that character effectiveness goes up or down, depending on how the conflicts play out. I like that sleazy cinema-noir feel, and I believe that, properly exploited, this game is a goldmine for the $6 or $12 you're going to spend. I also recommend the extra outlay for the roulette wheel and chips, as it'll add atmosphere to your gaming experience that mere dice cannot. Tactical types will lose themselves in trying to master the roulette wheel, immersive-style players will relish the opportunity to play a decadent bastard without worrying about alignment, and Narrative types will like how the game brings core character issues front and center through Life, as well as allowing characters to die in a cinematically appropriate fashion. There is truly something for almost everyone.
STYLE
Ah yes, artwork. There isn't much, beyond the character sheet, a mini-roulette table, and some sheets to record Favors. This is all to the good, as this game packs a lot of info into it's pages. There are few typos, and there is an easy-to-follow example of play winding through out the rules. Some more advice on how to simulate addictions, slow-acting poisons, environmental obstacles, etc. would have been welcome, but I can't have everything because where would I put it all? It's easy to understand and becomes even moreso during play. It's hands-down the most exciting "generic" game I've ever read, and that says something.
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