Character Creation

Print out the playbooks and reference sheets, grab a notebook, pencil, and at least two six-sided dice. Then follow the instructions in the chosen playbook.

Say This First and Often

“Players, your job is to play your characters as larger than life real street racers and criminals, in whatever circumstances they find themselves.” “My job is to treat your characters as legends too, and to make their lives interesting.”

Setting Expectations

While the players are making their characters, and you are answering their questions, remind them, as the Race Marshal, of the expectations:

• Your characters don’t have to be close friends, but they have to have known each other and be willing to work together on the same crew.
• Heavy talk moves are core to the game, equally import as the racing moves. Character interaction and emotional talk between characters is expected, and encouraged.
• Don’t be afraid of Sadness, it can be quickly mediated through Heavy talk.
• You get to choose your first car, It can be what ever you want! Your vehicle should be used to express your characters personal style.
• I, the Race Marshal, am not out to get you. If I were, the game would be over, now. I’d just say “A semi truck plows through your vehicle. You take 10-harm and die. The end.” No, I’m excited to discover what interesting turns of fate are going to happen to your characters, and just like you, I want to be surprised by how they are going to overcome the obstacles I place in their way.

Steps

1. Choose a playbook.
2. Name your character.
3. Define the character’s look.
4. Choose a stat line.
5. Choose one moves.
6. Create your vehicle.
7. Assign histories as a group.
8. Family pool will start equal to the number of players.
9. Write down your initial resources based on your playbook.

The Stats

• Poise: Calmness, rationality and clear thinking; rolled for the move Haul Ass.
• Brawn: Muscle, endurance, fleetness of foot, and strength of fist; rolled for the moves Street Fight and Run Jump Run.
• Sauce: Subtlety, graciousness, sexiness, beauty, inspiration, style, charm, talk; rolled for the moves Heavy Talk and Feels.
• Savvy: Cleverness, alertness, smarts, perception, education, skills, training; rolled for moves Read the Street and Read a Buster.
• Impossible: Uncanny ability to pull off impossible stunts, crazy luck, destiny, fate, strangeness, stunts and feats that defy reality, or defy physics.

Stats range from -3 to +3, that is the number you will add or subtract from a roll. If a rule says, for instance, “you get Brawn+3,” that means your Brawn goes to +3, no matter what it was before. If it says “you get +1 Poise,” that means that you increase your current Poise by 1.

Introducing Special Moves

Each playbook has a special Heavy Talk variant that they can use to relieve Sadness. These moves will often provide an exciting tangent to the main heist.

Each playbook will have a their own vehicle upgrade moves. These move may limit the type and kind of upgrades that may be installed on their vehicles.

Character Moves

To start, each player will choose one moves from the list of character moves to make their own. Don’t forget that you can do any of the basic moves at any time as well.

Vehicles

Each playbook lists a suggested vehicle to start with (see the Vehicle section below for details on making a vehicle). But you can choose any vehicle you wish for your character.

History

All the characters know each other, they don’t have to be fiends but are at least colleagues with pasts. These shared past should inform your characters interactions and heavy talk scenes.

Each character will have history with the leader and the character to players left. Go around the table and each player pronounce a shared past with the players character on their left, and then announces their shared history with the Leader. Work with the player to your left to make the history interesting and acceptable to the story. Jot down the history on each character’s playbook, and role play accordingly. As RM, pay attention to the answers to these question as they may provide you with hooks and string to play with in the story.

Here is a list of histories to choose from:

1. High school race rivals.
2. Relations, cousins, step siblings. or something distant.
3. Lost the same friend (he/she died) in a race/crash.
4. Pulled you from a burning wreck.
5. Previous romantic involvement.
6. Taught you to drift.
7. Known Racer(worked/raced together before).
8. Fan, you saw them race and were impressed
9. Mentor, taught you a lot.
10. Mr Nobody sent me (trust them or don’t).
11. They introduced you to the race life.
12. Totaled your ride once.
13. Fixed your ride once before a race.
14. Current romantic relationship.
15. Past Lovers.
16. Rebuilt a car together for charity.
17. Met at a parts store.
18. Helped with a heist/job once.
19. Met them as an under cover lawman working a case.
20. Lost a pink slip race to them once.
21. One night stand after an intense race.
22. Cellmates.
23. Current rival (you trust his/her skill that’s all).
24. Worked together at a repair shop.
25. Party Buddies.
26. Share a mentor (from the same race school).
27. Met once at a party/race seems cool (no trust yet, play it how you want).
28. In the same driver’s education class(both failed).
29. In group therapy together (both failed).
30. Known from the Circuit (known underground racer, trust them or don’t).
31. Turncoat, a trusted ally that will betray the family (this character can be redeemed as a good character after the first retirement).
32. Know from the chop-shop.
33. Have a child together.
34. Siblings.