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Fastlane
Everything, All the Time
By Alexander Cherry
Contents
Introduction ..................................................3
Premeditation ................................................5
Modus Operandi .........................................16
Setting the Stage ..........................................29
Backroom Deals ..........................................31
Glossary ......................................................34
Character Sheet ...........................................36
Master Favor Record....................................37
Supporting Character List ............................38
Roulette Chart .............................................39
www.twistedconfessions.com
Copyright© 2004, Alexander Cherry
Cover art and book design
by Chimera Creative / Matt Snyder
www.chimera.info
Fastlane
Fastlane is a game of unchecked indulgence and reckless abandon, insatiable lusts and lofty ambitions,
a roller coaster of sky-high peaks and rock-bottom valleys in a world of decadence and debasement.
Characters burn their candles at both ends, hoping to live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse.
Their debauchery continues even as their life unravels before them—they put the things they love on the
line, and lock horns with everyone else on the same wild ride. 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 into 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. The guy who stabbed you in the back this morning might
be your drinking buddy by tonight, and that girl who you took home last night is now hanging off the arm
of the next high-roller. Everyone’s out for themselves, feeding their own appetites, and alliances rarely last
longer than the next binge.
Playing Fastlane is all about reveling as much as you can in the moment, until everything finally crash-
es 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. In Fastlane, there is no such thing as too far, too fast, too much, too wild, too hard.
Moderation is simply not in your character’s vocabulary. Neither is restraint.
Fastlane does not tie itself to any one setting, genre, or milieu. No matter where you find humanity,
you’ll find individuals willing to devote themselves full-time to feeding their carnal appetites and indulging
their base desires, and this game will let you wallow in high-living anywhere. This means that you, the
players, are going to have to decide where your game is set, and what the stakes are, although several
examples will be provided, along with guidelines for doing it on your own. 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.
Fastlane was designed around the ordinary Roulette wheel (either European or American), which is the
preferred randomizer for the game, as it adds a lot to the feel of game play, and personal sized wheels can
be purchased for a very reasonable price. However, you don’t need to own one to play Fastlane—there is
a simple and functional rules alternative that uses ordinary six-sided dice instead, which can be found in
the
modus operandi
section.
Besides a roulette wheel and some poker chips, all you need are players! Generally, one player should take
on the role of croupier. The
croupier
is the person generally responsible for setting up scenes and conflicts,
playing all the supporting characters and antagonists, and narrating failures and complications. The other
players take on the role of the protagonists—each should create a single character using the rules below.
3
♦
Fastlane Introduction
Acknowledgements
Nikki Noble belongs at the top of the list. When I first mused about buying a roulette wheel, on the off
chance I could design a role-playing game with it, she found me one at half the price. Without her encour-
agement about both Twisted Confessions in general and Fastlane in particular, this game (and all that
comes after) would likely not have occurred.
Thanks to the great people at
The Forge
(
www.indie-rpgs.com
) and on the
Indie-Netgaming
email list
and its associated IRC channels (
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indie-netgaming
) for much discussion,
brainstorming, and encouragement. Specific thanks go to Josh Kashinsky for suggesting the first facet,
Sobriety—that was the domino that caused so much else to fall. Also thanks to Mike Holmes for all his
interest and encouragement in the early stages.
Nobilis
and the 2003 version of the
Marvel Universe RPG
were both inspirations on the resource allo-
cation mechanics, but it was Jesse Burneko’s aborted attempts at producing
“Sorcerer Diceless”
on The
Forge that was the anvil dropping on my head.
Dust Devils
and
The Pool
both helped inspire Fastlane’s model of distributed narration.
InSpectres
’ model of stress, directly reducing attributes as an artifact of damage, was an inadvertent contrib-
utor to the
humbling
system.
The Connections/Love of the game M
y Life With Master
(available at
www.halfmeme.com
) by Paul Czege
were, to different degrees, inspiration for Life, Factions and Favors (Life most strongly). His Endgame
mechanics also influenced the burnout rules.
Finally, thanks to my faithful playtesters from the earliest games, in alphabetical order—Lance Allen,
Nathan Banks, Kory Fritz, Michael Goins, Sam Kong, Trevis Martin, Bob McNamee and Nikki Noble. A
special mention also goes to Jason Sims for creating a character that never was played.
4
♦
Fastlane Introduction
Premeditation
Before you begin playing Fastane for the first time, some things need to be prepared. This usually takes no more
than an hour, and should be done with all the players in attendance, if possible. Everyone should agree on a setting
in which the game will take place—there are some short sample settings in the back of the book, but don’t feel con-
strained by them, feel free to make your own.
Will your game be set in the past, the present, or the future? What is the environment like, and is there anything
special that you want to keep in mind, or make prominent? Are there forests, deserts, mountains, plains? What are
the people there like? What sort of special effects might people see if this were a movie or a television show? Not
all these questions need answers immediately, but it is a good idea to get everyone on the same page before you
go any further.
Players should also spend at least a little bit of time deciding what sort of protagonist they want to play. What does
this character do for a living, if anything? What are their hobbies, their passions, their hopes, their dreams, their pains?
Why are they living the high life? What are some signature items they might employ? What is their attitude towards
life? What is important to them? Heck, what is their
name
? Meanwhile, the croupier should be answering the same
set of questions for any supporting characters he feels might add to the game, or might be fun to have around.
You don’t have to answer all these questions right now, but these are the sorts of things you might want to have in mind
before you dive into the game mechanics. It is harder to get lost if you have a goal in sight. On the other hand, sometimes
the numbers will give you ideas, so if you find yourself hesitant and unsure of a character idea, go ahead and dive in!
Meet Allison, Bill, Charles and Darren. They have decided to play a game of Fastlane,
not knowing that they are our guinea pigs, showing us how the game works. Their fictional
game is based on one of the early Fastlane playtests—only the facts have been changed to
protect the innocent.
Charles is elected to be croupier, leaving the other three as the story’s protagonists.
“What’s our setting?” Darren wants to know. They toss a few options on the table, and
eventually narrow it down to two: a game set in modern day aspen, or a game set in
the courts of a decadent fantasy city full of smog. But they reach an impasse—both
sound interesting.
“Let’s let the wheel decide,” Bill says. “Red we play aspen, black we play the fanta-
sy game.”
“Sounds fitting,” Allison replies. “But what happens if we hit a zero?”
Charles laughs, “We’ll play that ice ages game that you were pitching.” Darren starts
the wheel spinning.
“Works for me,” she replies. “Then I can play a polar bear!” Everyone else groans.
“It’s red,” Darren says as the ball stops bouncing. “Red 27, not that it matters.”
“Okay. Let’s get started.” Charles hands blank character sheets out to everyone. “And
remember, I’ve never been to the city before, so it’s going to basically be Hollywood
Aspen. Allison, I know you visit there for your job sometimes, so I’m counting on you
to keep me honest and not too far off the mark.”
“Got it,” she says.
“But I’m still going to change anything I want. Now, each of you gets 36 chips in your
bank. That gives me 108.”
1. The Bank
Central to every player is their
bank
,which is composed of
chips
in standard casino tradition. Each player gets
a their own color of chips, except for the croupier, who uses whatever is handy. This helps keep the bets of the var-
5
♦
Premeditation
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