A question on handicap.

[Trevis Martin]

Hey Alex,

I've been reading Fastlane and its really good. (Plus I think its just a little bit cool that I get to be thanked, thanks for the thanks.)  I have a question on reading the rules for the six siders.  In a regular game with a wheel you use a handicap for each player so you only have to spin the wheel once.  Now in the diced version...are you seeing it as every player rolling dice on their own?  If not (which it seems) and the croupier rolls the dice...how do you count the handicap, across or down?  I can't find it in the rules.

Also I think the tone of fastlane would work fantastically with a cyberpunk setting.  Style over substance, choomba.

best,

Trevis

[Lxndr]

Yes, in the diced version, every participating player (along with the Croupier, whether supporting characters are participating or not) rolls their own pair of sixers simultaneously, thus getting different values... but there is still a handicap.  It just manifests differently - instead of determining what number each player gets, it instead determines which player, if any, gets the zero (no more than one ever will).  

Page 27 should explain it, but it's kind of dense text.  

Basically, if used the first method (the European), each player chooses one number between one and six.  If the Croupier's dice come up doubles in that number, it doesn't matter what they roll, they get a zero.  The easiest way to handle this is like standard Fastlane, just counting from one instead of zero around the board, but you can also have fixed handicaps.

If the second method (the American) is used, handicaps must be determined at character creation, and never change.  Each player must choose two different numbers between one and six (that don't BOTH match another player's pair).  If the croupier rolls BOTH those numbers, then that player gets a zero.  

In either case, anyone who doesn't get a zero then checks what number they rolled, and collects their chips as appropriate.  So, that's how dice-rolling and handicaps work.

By the way, I agree, Fastlane and cyberpunk definitely seem to share many features.