I've been looking at the list of changes you posted and I have to say I really like them all so far. It makes everything feel more focused and... I don't want to say mechanical, but that's what springs to mind.

My only real question at the moment is about point 6 of Character Creation. So the croupier now gets (let's use the standard) 36 chips say and then... how does creating supporting characters work? Do they only create characters based on the Favours and Life choices of the characters? It's the only thing that's confusing me a little bit, is that point.

Yeah, that's probably the least clear thing in that little one-sheet. Sorry about that. Sometimes I just typed in shorthand, keeping the document size smaller.

But basically, yes, a Croupier gets the exact size bank as anyone else (36 for the average game).

HOWEVER, they also get "free" a number of points equal to the sum of the facets of the other characters, and their Lifes, to spend on appraisals. I'll try to revise the sheet so that's clearer. They're also not shackled to Lifes quite so strongly - no "5 points per Life." They just have to have at least one character that's related to any Life. Styles (and Factions) still have to come from the Bank.

Player-created favors adding free appraisal (and adding free names) still works as normal.

I'll try revising that line so it's clearer.

The idea is:

If player 1's character has facets of (5,0,4,3,2) and just the one starting Life
and player 2's character has facets of (1,2,3,4,5) and the one starting Life, plus one additional

the croupier has 15+17=32 appraisal points to spend.

Styles don't count here. You can get as many styles as you want without bumping the croup's resources.

I've now uploaded a revision to line 6 where hopefully this is spelled out a little clearer. If you think this needs more discussion, just post here again. :)

Here's a thought: Could you use one of the characters from the book and rebuild him/her using the revised character creation rules? It helps me to have an example to wrap my head around.

Also,a  thought: When the Facets drop after use (by one), does that character put that chip into his/her Bank? Might give the characters a bit of durability, is all.

No, the character doesn't put that chip into his/her Bank. Once it's in a facet it's no longer a chip.
That'd be an interesting house rule, though. I don't think it would break the game or anything. But it's against the motivations and the spirit of the rule.

Okay, example character creation (skimming the detail I normally lovingly put into these):

Fake wrote: Alex, Buffy and Chelsea have gotten together to play a game of Fastlane. They flip through the book and pick the example setting Bar Time, where the characters are all psychics who can see the future, but never more than ten or fifteen minutes. So they each get a free Life, ("Bar Time") for their powers. That free Life gets a 0 put next to it.

Chelsea will be Croupier, leaving Alex and Buffy to make characters. They'll each go with 36 chips.

Alex has an idea for a sneak thief, who he names Edward ("Eddie"), part of a family of criminals. Buffy has a concept, a girl named Daphne, who comes from money. She's a party girl.

First steps: Life, and style

Alex decides Edward's Life is clear: Theft. Eddie's somewhat of a klepto, he figures.
Buffy's not so sure about Daphne. She wants this character to have some depth, so 'Fun' doesn't cut it. So she hems and haws a bit. Finally, she decides Daphne has a sister, Fiona, who's been kidnapped for ransom  ("Maybe by Eddie's family," Chelsea says, and the group thinks this sounds interesting)

Going with the theme, Alex takes 'Thief' as a style. Buffy picks 'rich' as Daphne's free style, and decides to go for 'party girl' as another, paying a chip for it. Seeing Buffy do that makes Alex think of going for another for Edward, but he can't think of any just yet. But he can do that at any time. Alex does toss out a chip for a second Life, 'Family.'

Second step: Facets and Faces

Alex decides Edward is a sneak thief. He doesn't work well with people, he works well with locking mechanisms and security systems. So he decides to leave People at 0. On the other hand, he's amassed a lot of stuff, so he dumps 6 into Assets. Nerve and Guile both get 4, not as good as Assets but not horrible either. Alex figures it's the training (the style) that keeps Eddie a good thief, so he doesn't want Guile to be massively high. But you need a clear head to pull off a good heist, so Alex tosses 8 in that. That's 22, leaving 13 (remember, he spent a chip on a second Life).

Buffy, meanwhile, figures Daphne is good with people, and has a lot of connections. So she puts 7 into Daphne's People. Daphne's also rich, but she's not all that good at managing her resources (apart from pulling out her Visa), so she figures a 5 is good enough - the sneak thief's Assets are better than hers. Nerve and Guile? Neither of them speak to Buffy about Daphne, but she wants to be better than Edward, so she makes them both 5. And Daphne's a party girl, so her Sobriety's going to be low. She doesn't want to take the risk Alex did by taking a zero, so she puts 2 in there. That's 24 spent, leaving her with 11 (remember she bought a second style).

So Chelsea has 47 points to spend on faces in the crowd (22+24+1 second Life), and needs some characters that meet the following Life(s):

* Family (from Alex)
* Thief (from Alex)
* My Sister, Fiona (from Buffy) - this one's easy, just make Fiona

Apart from those constraints, she has free reign to make whatever characters she wants. I'm really tired, so I'm not going to map out what NPCs she makes. Let's just say she makes some, and Fiona is among them. She should have been jotting down NPC ideas all along (as she got the Lifes earlier) and should just be distributing points among them now.

After that, it's Favors and Factions!

Here Alex dumps 3 chips into Faction: Family. (At this point, if not earlier, the Family is named. The Calabaza family, the Marconi family, the Tesla family, whatever). Also, the Favor step happens normally, people tossing around ideas for NPCs (faces in the crowd) and deciding how they owe them.

Finally: Lucky Number!

Um, I'm sure this doesn't need any explanation. Really, it can happen anywhere in the character creation process. I just like it as a bookend.