This past Saturday was the first of several sessions I'm to be running of Fastlane. Before the game started, I pulled out Lunch Money and Beer Money, mixed 'em up, and insisted on playing it first, to "set a mood". I like this idea, and I'll be using it for other games (like "Bang!" before Dogs, for instance).

Anyway, I think they took to it, even if only subliminally. After tossing ideas around (this was a very last-minute game) we finally settled on a gritty supers-but-not-necessarily-heroes type setting. As the characters coalesced, it was clear this wasn't Golden Age - it was a little past Iron Age, on into Rust.

The Characters

Jonny Rock is based off the idea of the bruiser character in Sin City, mixed with a bit of Jonny Zero from the short-lived TV show, and with the "superpower" part kicked up a notch. Styles include Stubborn, Brick and 'Nice Coat'. His Lifes include Violence, The Pen, The Blonde, Payback and The Streets.

He's just now out of prison. His first scene was him being let free.

Prodigal fell to Earth one day, from space. He doesn't know how long he was out there, or what he was before. He's trying to find that out. His styles include Unearthly, Cosmic Power, Dark Matter, and Unshakeable. His two Lifes are "the Stars" and "What." As in "What is my Life?" I thought that was kinda cool.

Storm Flash was sold into slavery by his father (thus establishing the existence of slavery in this grim, dreary modern-type setting), but is now free, and out looking for revenge. His styles include Emotional Storm, Superspeed, and Self Control. Lifes include Freedom, Revenge, Family and Survival.

Pliskin aka Pulseguard escaped from 'The Shop', an entity that has no other name, but is pretty much an anti-super group. Whenever one disappears, it's said The Shop has taken them. What they do to them is unknown, but Pliskin might hold the keys to the answer. Pliskin's styles include "Hack Any System", "Integrated Armor and Weapons", "Wired Reflexes" and "Cyber Senses'. His Lifes include Freedom, Survival, Violence, Friends and Identity.

Favors

This setup is kinda cool. With 4 players going hog-wild over the favors and stuff, they created pretty much every single named NPC I have so far. Mainly all I did was go "hey, how attached are you to that name; cause I can blend that character with this one and... voila!"

Even though the characters have no direct connection, they all have indirect connections through all these characters, and I plan to draw the mesh tighter as time goes on. This guy's parole officer was saved by this other guy, this guy's brother is the husband of the girl that's cheating with this other guy, who was saved by this third guy, and so on. I'm looking forward to expanding on this network, and working within it.

Scenes

Mostly introductory scenes this first session, as it was late by the time the game got off the ground, and we had to explain Roulette to the group and all. Anyway:

Jonny Rock got out of jail only to be greeted by a driveby shooting, and went to work as a bouncer (2 separate scenes)

Storm Flash interviewed to get a job as a corrections officer at the prison

Pliskin was at the driveby earlier, and also in the bouncer scene (and Jonny and Pliskin are soon to be roommates)

and Prodigal spent some time mulling over his situation in life while floating among the stars, and coming to Earth without being seen.

Next session, hopefully lots more. I'll keep y'all posted!

Player of Prodigal here..

It's funny.. The whole thing seemed much less focused to me. I had a vague idea of each of the other characters, but just seeing it all written here in one place gives me a much stronger feel for what we've built.

My impressions are being borne out about our play-group; We can take the simplest chargen and at a minimum double it's intended length. That we managed to build anything resembling a coherent setting during this process is amazing, but it seems we've got something to play with.

I'll admit that the best part of that play session was creating and networking all of the different contacts, and trying to follow the connections of who was connected to whom by what steps. Kind of like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, only Kevin Bacon wasn't involved, and typically it was much less than six degrees. Once we actually get into the meat of the thing, I don't foresee it being at all difficult to pull our characters into interaction, if not necessarily alliance.

I thought the actual play of the game was a little.. scattered. Maybe it's me, or maybe it's other players trying to get into every scene they could, but somehow it all seemed very disjointed. I'll also admit to a certain amount of miffment that I was only involved in my one scene, and did not manage another before time grew short. Some of that was my own fault (as I wasn't trying to become involved in other's scenes) and I imagine I'll get my share of screentime next time we try to play.