Fastlane is a generic RPG. That is, it has no pre-established setting. It does, however, have a specific theme, and mechanics that aim to support this theme. Whatever setting you choose, the characters are people who “burn their candles at both ends, hoping to live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse”.
Appearance
The book is spiral bound. There’s been a bit of debate about spiral bound books; some think they look cheap and amateurish, others like their practicality. I tend towards the latter. It’s easy to leave the book open when writing this review, for example, or when I’m feeding the baby but still want to read. Especially with small-size publications like this, a spiral binding makes for much easier reading than a paperback.
The cover is a professional, but not very inspiring, image of a roulette wheel. While the reasons for the choice are obvious - the wheel is used in conflict resolution, and is the central metaphor of the game - it’s a bit abstract, and the smooth cover doesn’t give a good impression of how rough the game is supposed to be.
Layout is nicely done - no pictures, only text, which can get a bit compact at times. However, it’s a fairly easy read, due to good and simple design choices.
In some places in my book, there’s a blank double page. No pages are missing, though, so it’s a minor inconvenience.
Pre-game
A game of Fastlane starts with a bit of preparation. The group needs to decide on a setting together. Then, players create their protagonists, while the “croupier” - Fastlane’s term for GM - creates supporting characters. Both sides have a set budget of chips to buy their characters for; these chips are also used for conflict resolution (see below).
Characters
Characters in fastlane are described with facets - People, Assets, Nerve, Guile and Sobriety - the values of which will change during the game. Each facet also has one of more styles, or applications; for Assets, for example, the style might be “rich” or “beautiful”.
In addition to facets and styles, characters have one or more Life. A Life is the reason the character has chosen this lifestyle, or perhaps what he risks by living it. A job, a lover, an addiction...
Finally, there’s Favors and Factions. In the cold world of Fastlane, it’s important to keep track of who owes you one - and who you owe something.
Conflict resolution
Fastlane is about the conflict. As the game says, “the rollercoaster ride of life doesn’t stop just because they want to take a break, and downtime, when it happens, should be glossed over, not played out”. No surprise, then, that everything about the characters is designed to be used in conflicts in various ways.
In a conflict, you first decide who’s in and what they want. “Who” is used in a broad sense - an avalanche might be a participant, and its goal to bury all in its path. Then all participants bid or spend chips. Players decide what facet to use, which puts an upper limit on how many chips they can bid. Using an appropriate style means you can bid one more.
If (in the croupier’s opinion) a character’s Life is in play, the player must choose whether to put it on the line or threaten it. If it’s on the line, you can bid even more chips, but will lose a point if you lose the conflict; if it’s threatened, you can spend _less_ chips, but will _win_ a point if you win the conflict.
The croupier _spends_ chips for the NPC’s - he doesn’t bid, like the players. He then reveals his spendings, and starts the roulette wheel, While it spins, the players place their bids, up to the limits determined by their use of facets, styles and Life.
Any chips the players lose go to the croupier. What the players win (along with what they bid), they can now assign to the different conflicts. In each conflict, the person with the highest stack is the winner, and gets to narrate how the conflict ends.
There’s more
Fastlane is a game with a lot of options. For example, if you win a contest, you can choose to humble the losers, forcing them to reduce their facets, styles and factions in return for chips from the bank. If you’re losing, you can burn Life, factions etc. to get more chips. You can call in favors, shirk them or pay them off. You can drift points, moving them from one facet to another, changing your character.
Setting
There are a few suggested setting concepts in the book. They aren’t fleshed out in detail (in fact, there’s about 5 to each page), but can be used as inspiration when the group creates their own. They vary from “Dungeoneer”, where the characters are dungeon inhabitants trying to fight off adventurers, to “Tin Gods”, where the characters are demigods using and abusing their power.
All in all
Fastlane takes a central idea and really runs with it. Everything in the game is built around the central concept of gambling, laying down your life, living on the edge. The basic core mechanic is expanded and detailed, and there’s plenty of tactical tips for players and croupiers.
Since I haven’t playtested the game, I don’t know how smoothly it will play. I do believe, however, that it will take a few sessions to understand all the options. Players - like me - who are the forgetful type might find it hard to remember what’s a good idea to do when. But if you’re the type who likes to weigh his options and take risks, who likes a mix of tactics and gambling, this system should work well for you.
Review Summary