Fast & Fhtagn Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Getting Ready to Play
  • Prepare the Streets
  • Distribute Racers & Jockey for Starting Position
  • Deal the Cards
  • Go!
  • Components
• Taking Turns
  • On Your Turn: Getting Ready
  • On Your Turn: Race!
  • Action Options
• The Street
  • Creating New Ranks & Dissolving Old Ranks
  • The Yellow Centerlines Never Move
  • No Man's Land
  • Spacers
  • Adding New Street Mats as the Pack Travels
• About Pack Order
• Cars
  • Racers
  • Racers and Damage
  • Racer Schematics
  • Civilians
  • Vehicle Statistics
  • Kinds of Cards
• Advancing
  • Tests When Advancing
  • Advance Results
• Drifting
  • Displaced Racers
  • Drifting Into Impossible Places
• Style Points
  • Scoring Style Points
  • Spending Style Points
• Driving & Fixit Tests
• The Sidewalk
  • Chop Shops
• Civilians
  • Civilian Waves
  • How Civilians Behave
  • Oncoming Civilians
  • Civilians Traveling With the Pack
  • Civilian Stats
  • Removing Civilians From Play
• I Win!
• Miscellaneous
  • Spinning Out and Suffering Damage are Separate Misfortunes
  • Suffering Damage While Damaged
  • Spinning Out
  • When the Deck Runs Out
  • Responding to Your Own Triggers
  • When Cards Are Discarded
  • Timing of Events and Effects
• Play Variant: Dual-Car Racing
• Play Variant: Farsight
• Play Variant: Fast & Fhtagn + Cthulhu 500
  • Cross-Game Clarifications

Getting Ready to Play

Before Your First Game: Look over the "Tour of the Table" sheet to get a sense of the game's table layout. Having that information in mind will speed setup.

Changing Up the Placement Order: If you play several games in a row, whoever came in last in the previous game should place their pack card first in the next game, and so on, in reverse order of the last game's finish order.

Prepare the Streets

1. Set aside the two start street mats and the two finish street mats. Shuffle the rest of the mats together.

2. Return four of the shuffled mats to the box.

3. Without looking, shuffle the two finish line mats with the bottom six regular mats.

   This creates a 22-mat street deck, with the finish lines randomly distributed among the bottom eight mats.

4. Place the two start mats on the table so their yellow lines form a pair of parallel centerlines. They represent the starting arrangement of lanes and sidewalks.

Distribute Racers & Jockey for Starting Position

1. Randomly distribute one pair of matched racer cards to each player. Or, let the players choose. Return the rest to the box.

2. Each player sends their pack card (pavement background) to the center of the table, undamaged side up. Each keeps their schematic card (chrome border) in front of them, also with its undamaged side up.

3. The player who drove a car or played with a toy car most recently places their racer's pack card in a starting position first, followed by the next-most-recent player, and so on.

   You can put your car in any empty lane space in the grid of cars, as long as it's either (a) in the first rank, (b) in a rank that already has a racer in it, or (c) in the rank behind any previously placed racer.

   To clarify, you can put your racer in oncoming traffic, but you can't put your racer on the sidewalk.

Deal the Cards

1. Set aside the Leader, Last Place, and eight Civilian cards. Shuffle the remaining cards.
2. Determine the starting pack order (see "About Pack Order," p. 9). Then deal three cards to the player in first position, four to the player in second position, five to the player in third position, and so on. (This balances the disadvantage suffered by players who start in weaker positions.)
3. Each player who wants to can take a mulligan, discarding their cards and drawing the same number of replacements.
4. The remaining play cards form the deck. The discard pile forms next to it.
5. Each player who isn't in the first rank can deploy one Mod or Crew card from their hand (see "Racer Schematics," p. 10). Crew can be played as a player's Driver, or to their Gang.

Go!

1. The players in the lead and in last place take the Leader and Last Place cards (see "About Pack Order," p. 9).
2. The player with the Last Place card goes first. Play then continues clockwise around the table.

Components

• 1 Rulebook
• 1 Quick Start Sheet / Tour of the Table
• 3 Reference Sheets
• 26 Street Mats
• 84 Play Cards
• 16 Racer Cards (1 schematic card and 1 pack card for each of 8 racers)
• 8 Civilian / Spacer Cards (Civilians on one side, spacers on the other)
• 1 Leader Card
• 1 Last Place Card
• 12 3-Point Style Markers
• 17 1-Point Style Markers

Taking Turns

Players take turns, clockwise around the table, until the game ends (see "I Win!," p. 21).

On Your Turn: Getting Ready

As your turn begins, you may need to briefly update the street with a new street mat, or move some Civilians...

1. If there are oncoming Civilians, advance them (see "Oncoming Civilians," p. 19).
2. If you're the leader, draw new street mats (see "Adding New Street Mats as the Pack Advances," p. 8).
3. If you're in last place, all Civilians traveling in the same direction as the pack fall back (see "Civilians Traveling With the Pack," p. 20). Resolve these back to front.

On Your Turn: Race!

4. TAKE FOUR ACTIONS. Each action can be chosen freely among these options. Each option is described on the next page.
   • Move
   • Play an Action card
   • Repair damage in traffic
   • Pull over (to repair damage, add a Mod, add a Driver, remove a Mod, or remove your Driver)
   • Add Crew to a Gang
   • Discard and draw
5. DISCARD. Discard any number of cards — or no cards — from your hand.
6. DRAW. Draw zero, one, or two cards, as long as you don't wind up with more than five in your hand.

Passing Your Turn: If you don't want to take all of your actions, you can pass any or all of them, and do nothing.

Action Options

Action Option: Move. Use this option to advance through the pack and jockey for position. Moving is the only way to win, so you'll do this a lot.

Each move can be an advance or a drift.

• Advancing is moving forward into an empty space in front of you (see p. 12).
• Drifting is moving sideways or backward into a space that might or might not be empty (see p. 14). Drifting backward is also called "falling back."

Action Option: Play an Action. Choose an Action card from your hand, do what it says, and discard it.

Action Option: Repair Damage in Traffic. If your racer is damaged and you don't want to pull over, your Driver can try to repair it without pulling over.

Make a fixit test against your racer's Complexity. You may not add the Fixit bonuses of your Gang. If successful, your car becomes undamaged. If failed, no additional harm is done (see "Driving and Fixit Tests," p. 17).

Action Option: Pull Over. Pulling over lets you repair damage, add a Mod, add a Driver, remove a Mod, or remove your Driver.

To pull over, your racer must already be on the sidewalk. (Not already on the sidewalk? You can't use pull over until you use move actions to get there.)

When you announce that you'll pull over, each racer behind you in the pack order gets a free advance. These are taken in pack order (front to back) and work just like regular advance move actions. Remember: Civilians aren't racers, so they don't take this free advance.

Once all free advances have been resolved, choose one of these options:

• REPAIR DAMAGE (REGULAR SIDEWALK): To repair your damaged racer, make a fixit test against your racer's Complexity. You must add the Fixit bonuses of your Gang, even if negative. If successful, your car becomes undamaged. If failed, no additional harm is done.
• REPAIR DAMAGE (CHOP SHOP): Your damaged racer is automatically repaired, no fixit test required.
• ADD A MOD: Add a Mod from your hand to your schematic. If you already have three Mods, you must replace one of them, which is discarded or returned to your hand (your choice).
• ADD A DRIVER: Add a Crew card from your Gang or hand to your schematic as your Driver. If you already have a Driver, your old Driver is either discarded or joins your Gang (your choice).
• REMOVE A MOD: Choose a Mod that's attached to your racer and discard it or return it to your hand (your choice).
• REMOVE YOUR DRIVER: Discard your Driver, or move it to your Gang (your choice).

Want to do two or more of these options? Each one takes its own full pull over action. Long story short, if you spend a long time not racing, the racers behind you are gonna catch up.

Action Option: Add Crew to a Gang. Choose a Crew card from your hand and put it face-up on the table, as part of your Gang, or someone else's.

Keep your Gang cards grouped together in front of you, anywhere that doesn't make it confusing whether any of them are your Driver.

If you add a Crew card from your hand to someone else's Gang, it belongs to that opponent from then on.

Action Option: Discard and Draw. Discard a card from your hand, then draw a replacement card from the deck.

The Street

The grid of cars is anchored by the street mats. The grid has rows called "ranks," and columns called either "lanes" or "sidewalks."

Imagine the yellow centerlines that divide oncoming traffic from forward traffic extending all the way through the pack. The median (if this set of street mats shows one) also continues through the whole pack.

Cards pointed at the street mats are traveling forward, with the pack. That's most of these cars. Cards pointed away from the street mats are oncoming, traveling toward the pack. A car's direction of travel might or might not correspond to whether it's in an oncoming lane or a forward lane.

Street mats work in pairs to anchor a grid that shows how the cars are positioned in relation to each other. The active pair of mats are always turned so their yellow lines are next to each other, forming a double-yellow stripe down the middle of the street.

Of the two active mats, one shows the lanes and sidewalk of forward traffic, and the other shows the oncoming lanes and sidewalk.

Any street mat can represent either forward or oncoming traffic, depending on when it's drawn.

Street mats show how many lanes of traffic there are on the current stretch of road, and whether there's a median in the center of the road or not. If either mat shows a median, there's a median. A pair isn't required.

Street mats also show whether either sidewalk is blocked or has a chop shop (see "Chop Shops," p. 18). A BLOCKED sidewalk effectively doesn't exist as a sidewalk: you can't drive on it, drift into it (even if the drift is compulsory), or otherwise be there for any reason.

Creating New Ranks & Dissolving Old Ranks

New ranks are created as they're needed at the front of the pack by scooting all cars back — making sure not to change their relative positions — to make room.

Empty ranks before or behind the pack dissolve as they become empty.

(Empty ranks inside the pack are relevant. See "Spacers," p. 8.)

The bottom line is this: It's the relationships between the cars in the pack that matter, not how close the pack is to the street mats.

Example: Creating a New Rank. The Benz in the Fabric of Space-Time tries to advance on its turn, and leave the rest of the pack behind. It succeeds! A new rank is created at the front of the pack as the Unnatural Hybrid and the Cycle of Self-Doubt move back one rank, keeping the same relationship to each other. The Benz moves forward into the new rank, gaining ground.

Layout note: Fast & Fhtagn is published in the United States, so right-hand lanes are forward traffic for us, and that's how the rulebook diagrams are laid out. If right-hand lanes are oncoming traffic where you live, feel free to play that way, instead.

The Yellow Centerlines Never Move

As long as new mats are placed directly on top of their predecessors, the position of the yellow lines in the center of the grid of cars should never change over the course of a game.

No Man's Land

Some street mats have only one lane and one sidewalk, and then a no-man's land that's neither a lane nor a sidewalk.

Spacers

The back of each Civilian card has an empty stretch of asphalt pictured on it. That's a spacer. Use spacers to show the empty spaces between cars that aren't adjacent to each other, any time the arrangement of the pack might be confusing. Orient the arrows to show which way traffic is going in that lane.

Adding New Street Mats as the Pack Travels

When either (a) the leader starts a new turn, or (b) a new player takes the lead, the pack advances to a new section of road where the arrangement of lanes and sidewalks is different.* When one of those two things happens...

1. Draw the next street mat from the deck and lay it directly on top of the old forward-facing street mat, replacing it.
2. Draw the street mat after that and lay it on top of the old oncoming street mat.
3. Starting at the front of the pack and working backwards, any car that finds itself in no man's land (see the sidebar) must test Fixit against its Complexity or suffer damage (see "Driving and Fixit Tests," p. 17). Then, that car can make up to two free drifts — resolving each normally — to get back as far as the sidewalk (see "Drifting," p. 14), whether it's clear or blocked. (If it's blocked, see below.) If the vehicle fails to reach the sidewalk, it spins out (see "Spinning Out," p. 22).
4. Starting at the front of the pack and working backwards, any car that finds itself on a blocked sidewalk suffers damage automatically, and then has two free drifts — resolve each normally — to get back onto the road. If the vehicle fails to reach the road, it spins out.
5. A new wave of Civilians enters play. See "Civilian Waves," p. 19.

After that's done, the leader takes or resumes the rest of their turn, as normal.

* Exception: New street mats are not drawn if a new player takes the lead during the five-step process of adding new street mats.

About Pack Order

The order of all vehicles in play — from first place to last place — is called the pack order. Even when several cars are in the same rank, there are never ties in pack order.

Just two rules are used to determine pack order for all cars in play:

1. Cars in forward ranks are always ahead of vehicles in rearward ranks, regardless of lane or whether they're on the sidewalk.
2. Within the same rank, cars in forward-going lanes are ahead of cars in oncoming lanes, cars in lanes are ahead of cars on sidewalks, and cars closer to the yellow centerline are ahead of cars further away from it. (Consider those conditions in that order.)

The cars are numbered in pack order in the example diagram. The Benz (1) is ahead of the others because it's in a more forward rank than they are. The Cycle (2) is ahead of the Hybrid (3) because cars in forward lanes are ahead of cars in oncoming lanes. The Hybrid (3) is ahead of the Mi-Go-Bishi (4) because cars on the road are ahead of cars on the sidewalk. Finally, the Model T (5) is behind the rest because it's in a rank behind all of them.

Cars

The word "cars" refers to all of the cards arrayed in the center of the table. There are two kinds of cars: racers and Civilians. (The word "vehicles" is a synonym for "cars.") The Cycle of Self-Doubt is also included, even though it is obviously a motorcycle.

Racers

Each racer is represented by two cards: a pack card and a schematic card. A racer's pack card shows where that vehicle is, in the grid at the center of the table. Its schematic card shows its stats, anchors its attached Driver and Mod cards, and stays in front of its player.

Racers and Damage

Each pack card and schematic card has an UNDAMAGED SIDE and a DAMAGED SIDE. A given racer's pack and schematic cards always stay in sync with each other — either both show damage, or neither does.

When an undamaged racer suffers damage, its cards flip to the damaged side. When a damaged racer is successfully repaired, its cards flip back to the undamaged side. If a racer that's already damaged suffers damage again, you suffer an immediate, compulsory fall-back. See "Suffering Damage while Damaged," p. 22.

Racer Schematics

A racer can have one Driver and up to three Mods attached to it. A player's schematic card anchors these cards on the table. Each player also has a Gang that can contain any number of Crew cards.

A racer doesn't need a Driver, a Gang, or any Mods at all to race. Any of these slots can be empty without negative effects.

Arrange your Driver and Mods around your schematic, with your Gang in a face-up row wherever there's room, as long as no one might be confused about whether one of them is your Driver.

Civilians

A Civilian is represented by a single pack card (that is, Civilians don't have schematic cards). Civilians are always considered damaged, when it matters. The backs of Civilian cards are used as spacers (see "Spacers," p. 8).

Vehicle Statistics

All vehicles have two statistics: Speed and Complexity. Racers sometimes have different stat values when they're damaged.

Complexity is usually a target number for fixit tests, so a higher Complexity makes a vehicle more difficult to repair. Speed is a bonus to a vehicle's driving tests, so higher numbers are better. For more about tests, see p. 17.

Kinds of Cards

• CARS: There are two kinds of car cards: racers and Civilians. See "Cars," p. 10.
• MARKERS: The Leader and Last Place cards help the players remember whose racers are in first and last place, respectively.
• PLAY CARDS: There are four kinds of play cards, described below. They move from the deck, to players' hands, to the discard pile, and are reshuffled back into the deck as needed in the course of play.
  • ACTION: Play cards that make something interesting happen. Played by a player on their turn, using up an action. Some actions are further defined as Spells.
  • REACTION: Play cards that make something interesting happen. Can always be played in response to that card's trigger, which is described on each individual Reaction card.
  • MOD: Play cards that enhance a racer. Played by a player on their turn, when they pull over.
  • CREW: Play cards that represent characters, that enhance a player's side. A Crew card in play must be either a player's Driver or part of their Gang. A Driver adds their Drive score to driving tests. The Gang uses their Fixit scores to help fix damaged vehicles.

Advancing

Advancing moves your racer forward in the pack. It's how you win!

You can only advance if there's an empty space directly in front of your car. (No empty spot in front of your car? That's what drifting is for. Move over, then advance!)

To advance, you'll make a driving test. Here's the procedure:

1. Announce that you're going to try to advance.
2. Figure out which player, or which TN, you need to test against (see "Tests When Advancing," below).
3. Make the test and apply the results (see "Advance Results," p. 13).

Tests When Advancing

To advance, you must always make a driving test.

• If there is a racer to either the left or the right of the space you're trying to advance into, test against that racer.

• If there are other racers to both the left and the right of the space you're trying to advance into, test against the one of them who's closest to the front of the pack (see "About Pack Order," p. 9).

  REMEMBER: Civilians are not racers. You will never test against Civilians when advancing.

• If there is no racer to the left or right of the space you're trying to advance into, test against a target number (TN). Use the "Unopposed Advancement TNs" table below to determine the TN. The important thing to know is that it's much easier to catch up with your opponents than pull ahead of them.

Unopposed Advancement TNs

If the space you're trying to enter is...	Then the TN is...
In any rank behind all other racers	TN 1
In any rank within the pack (i.e., in any rank occupied by another racer, or in any rank that's behind some racers and ahead of others)	TN 4
In the rank that's one rank in front of all other racers	TN 4
In the rank that's two ranks in front of all other racers	TN 8
In the rank that's three or more ranks in front of all other racers	TN 12

Advance Results

• SUCCESSFUL TEST: Move your racer into the space ahead of you.
• UNSUCCESSFUL TEST: Leave your car where it is.
• TIE (OPPOSED TEST ONLY): Leave your car where it is. Both cars in the test suffer damage. You first, then your opponent, if it matters.

Advance Examples. These are the tests each of these vehicles would need to make to advance from the position shown.

• BENZ IN THE FABRIC OF SPACE-TIME: Test vs. TN 8, because advancing would put the Benz two ranks in front of all other racers. (This would also require a new rank to form at the head of the pack. See "Creating New Ranks & Dissolving Old Ranks," p. 7.)
• CYCLE OF SELF-DOUBT: Can't advance, because the space ahead isn't empty.
• MI-GO-BISHI: Test vs. TN 4, because there's no vehicle adjacent to the space ahead, and that space is in a rank occupied by other racers.
• UNNATURAL HYBRID: Test vs. the Cycle of Self-Doubt, because the Cycle is adjacent to the space ahead.
• CIVILIAN: Not applicable, because Civilians never advance.
• PICKMAN'S MODEL T: Test vs. the Hybrid, because while the Civilian and Hybrid are both next to the space ahead, and the Civilian is ahead of the Hybrid in pack order, racers never test against Civilians to advance, only against other racers.

Drifting

Drifting moves your car to the side, or backward. Since you can't advance into a space that has another car in it, drifting is how you line yourself up to advance in later moves. Falling back is another name for drifting backwards.

You can drift when you're moving. You can also be forced to drift or to fall back, which are called compulsory drifts and compulsory fall-backs.

Sidebar: How Civilians Fall Back When the Last Place Player's Turn Begins. When the last-place racer begins their turn, all Civilians traveling with the pack fall back. This is not a compulsory fall-back. If the space behind one of these Civilians is full, that Civilian just doesn't fall back. See "Civilians Traveling With the Pack," p. 20.

To drift:

1. ANNOUNCE THE DRIFT'S DESTINATION SPACE: It might be chosen, compulsory, or mandated by some other rule.
2. DETERMINE IF A TEST IS NEEDED, AND MAKE IT: If the destination is unoccupied, there's no test. If it's occupied by a Civilian, there's no test; the Civilian will make a compulsory fall-back to make room (see below). If it's occupied by a racer, the drifter and occupant make driving tests against each other.
3. RESOLVE THE AFTERMATH:
   • If the destination is unoccupied and so no test was required, move there. That's it.
   • If the destination is occupied by a Civilian, move there. The Civilian makes a compulsory fall-back to vacate the space. Resolve that separately, starting with step 1, above.
   • If the destination is occupied by a racer:
     • If you won the test, move to the destination. The former occupant is displaced (see below).
     • If you lost the test, don't move. If the drift was compulsory, spin out (see "Spinning Out," p. 22).
     • If the test was a tie, don't move, and both vehicles suffer damage. (You first, then your opponent, if it matters.) If the drift was compulsory, you spin out after taking damage.

Displaced Racers

A displaced racer must immediately either (a) fall back or (b) if it was displaced by a lateral drift, drift laterally in the same direction as the vehicle that displaced it. The displaced racer's player may choose between these options, if both are possible, but whichever option is chosen is considered compulsory.

Displacement Example: One Racer Drifts Into Another Racer. The Unnatural Hybrid drifts into the Benz in the Fabric of Space-Time. They make a driving test. If the Unnatural Hybrid wins the test, the Benz is displaced, and can choose between falling back (to A) or drifting laterally in the same direction as the car that displaced it (to B). But note that if the Hybrid loses the test, it doesn't move from its original position, and there's no displacement at all.

Drifting Into Impossible Places

You can't drift across a median, into a blocked sidewalk, into no man's land, or off the far side of the sidewalk. A vehicle that would be forced to do any of these things must fall back instead.

Displacement Example: Drifting Into a Civilian. If the Unnatural Hybrid drifts into a Civilian, the Civilian must fall back (to A). A racer would have the option to drift laterally (to B), but Civilians are too intimidated to do that.

Displacement Example: Complicated Outcomes. The Benz in the Fabric of Space-Time announces a drift, which means a test against the Unnatural Hybrid. If the Benz wins, the Hybrid has to fall back, since it can't drift past the sidewalk. Because the space behind it is occupied, the Hybrid must then test against the Cycle of Self-Doubt. If the Hybrid loses that test, it spins out. If the Hybrid wins it, the Cycle must fall back. (The Cycle couldn't drift laterally, because the displacing drift wasn't lateral.)

Style Points

Style points are represented with style markers, which come in one-point and three-point denominations. Markers are taken from a central stockpile when scored and returned to it when spent. Players can make change at any time.

Keep your style points on the table in front of you. The other players are allowed to see how many you have.

Scoring Style Points

You can score style points in three ways:

• Playing a card with the style icon on it.
• Crossing the centerline from forward traffic into oncoming traffic with a move action, or forcing another vehicle to cross the centerline because of your movement.
• Jumping up a curb from the street to the sidewalk with a move action, or forcing another vehicle to jump up the curb because of your movement. Remember that there's no curb between the road and the sidewalk at a chop shop (see "Chop Shops," p. 18). Crossing a curb in the other direction — from the sidewalk to the street — does not score a style point.

Spending Style Points

You can spend style points in four ways:

• You can spend one style point for a +1 bonus on a driving or fixit test. This can be done even after the die has been rolled, although your opponents can respond to your spend, if any of them want to. (And then you can respond to their response, ad nauseam, until no one wants to respond any more.) Multiple points can be spent on the same roll.
• You can spend one style point to take an extra action during your turn.
• You can spend one style point to draw a third card at the end of your turn.
• Perhaps most usefully, you can spend three style points to take an entire additional turn in the endgame, when it counts the most. See "I Win!," p. 21.

Driving & Fixit Tests

To make a test, a player rolls a die, adds one or more modifiers, and compares the result to a TARGET NUMBER (abbreviated "TN"). Sometimes the TN is a specific number, either defined by the rules or equal to some vehicle's statistic. Other times the TN is the result of a roll that another player makes.

Two specific kinds of tests cover the vast majority of circumstances:

• TO MAKE A FIXIT TEST against your car's Complexity, you roll a die, add the Fixit scores of every member of your Gang*, and hope to equal or exceed your racer's Complexity score. If you do, you're successful. If you don't, you fail.
• TO MAKE A DRIVING TEST against another vehicle, you roll a die, add your vehicle's Speed score, add your Driver's Drive score, and add bonuses from any Mods that might apply. The other vehicle also rolls a die and adds its own Speed, Drive, and so forth. If you beat your opponent, you're successful. If you don't, you fail. If there's a tie, something special (that is, horrible) usually happens, as the specific circumstances dictate.

Although these tests are the most common ones, players also sometimes make driving tests against fixed target numbers, fixit tests against target numbers other than their racer's Complexity, and so on. All of these are also die rolls, plus or minus modifiers, compared to a target number or opposing test result.

* Exception: You can't add your Gang's Fixit scores if you're fixing your vehicle in traffic (see "Action Option: Repair Damage in Traffic," p. 5).

Fixit Test Summary. Roll a die, add the sum of your Gang's Fixit scores, and compare the result to your racer's Complexity score.

Driving Test Summary. Roll a die, add your Driver's Drive score, add your vehicle's Speed score, and compare the result to your adversary's similar total, or to a target number.

Who Rolls for Civilians? When a Civilian must roll a test, whichever player cares the most rolls the die.

The Sidewalk

Every street mat has one column of sidewalk on the outside, although the sidewalk is blocked on some street mats.

Sidewalks have curbs (other than those with chop shops, which don't).

A vehicle that crosses the curb from the street to the sidewalk — sometimes called "jumping up the curb" — must make a fixit test whose TN is that car's Complexity. If passed, everything goes fine. If failed, the vehicle suffers damage. (For more on tests, see "Driving and Fixit Tests," p. 17.)

Vehicles do not need to test, nor do they suffer damage, for crossing a curb from the sidewalk to the street.

REMEMBER: When a vehicle crosses a curb from the street to the sidewalk, someone usually scores a style point (see "Style Points," p. 16).

Chop Shops

Chop shops are sections of sidewalk that are special in two ways.

First, when a damaged racer pulls over at a chop shop for repairs, it doesn't need to make a fixit test — it succeeds automatically (see "Action Option: Pull Over," p. 5).

Second, chop shops are sections of sidewalk without curbs. The lack of a curb means that a vehicle entering the sidewalk at a chop shop doesn't need to make a test to avoid damage. It also means that no one will get a style point when that happens.

Civilians

Civilian Waves

Whenever new street mats are revealed, a wave of Civilians enters play. (Exception: No Civilians enter play when the finish line is drawn. See "I Win!," p. 21.)

All new Civilians are placed in a new first rank at the front of the pack (see "Creating New Ranks & Dissolving Old Ranks," p. 7).

Roll a die for every lane of traffic on the new street mats. For each lane, if the number printed on that lane is rolled or exceeded, a Civilian is added in that lane.

Orient new Civilians to show whether they're traveling with the pack, or with oncoming traffic. By default, a Civilian starts out traveling in the appropriate direction for its lane.

If you don't have enough Civilian cards to place all of the new Civilians in a wave, place as many as you have cards and ignore the rest. Roll for the lanes in pack order. (Do recover Civilians being used as spacers before foregoing new Civilians. You can use discards as temporary spacers if you need to.)

Sidebar: Roll a die for each lane when a new street mat is introduced. Put a Civilian in a lane when the roll for that lane equals or exceeds the number shown. New Civilians automatically face the appropriate direction for their lane (i.e., forward or oncoming).

How Civilians Behave

A Civilian's behavior depends on which way it's traveling. Oncoming Civilians advance frequently, while forward-going Civilians much less so, as described below and on the next page.

Oncoming Civilians

At the beginning of every player's turn, all oncoming Civilians make a giant mess of things. Starting with the oncoming Civilian furthest from the street mats, each one barrels ahead. This is like an advance in the wrong direction, but more dangerous.

Remember: Oncoming Civilians Advance Every Turn! It's easy to forget that oncoming Civilians advance on every player's turn (since Civilians traveling with the pack only fall back on the last-place racer's turn). At the group's option, players who forget to advance oncoming Civilians on their turn may be fed to a shoggoth.

When an oncoming Civilian barrels forward:

1. Move it one space toward the back of the pack (i.e., in the direction it's facing).
2. If that space was empty, that's it... for now.
3. If that space was already occupied, the (former) occupant suffers damage. If that doesn't cause a spin-out, the former occupant must make an immediate compulsory drift (see "Drifting," p. 14).

Note that if an oncoming Civilian must fall back, it falls back with respect to its direction of travel. That is, it falls back toward the street mats.

Civilians Traveling With the Pack

When the player in last place starts their turn, all Civilians traveling with the pack are gradually outdistanced by our Cthulhoid street-racing heroes.

Starting with the rear-most Civilian and progressing toward the front-most, all Civilians traveling with the pack fall back one space if the space behind them is empty, or don't if it's not. That's it.

Civilian Stats

Civilians have Speed -1 and Complexity 4. They're always considered to be damaged.

When Civilians need to roll dice, the player who cares the most rolls.

Removing Civilians From Play

A Civilian is removed from play immediately whenever it enters a rank behind all racers.

I Win!

The endgame begins when either of the finish line street mats is drawn from the street mat deck.

When that happens, the other finish line is immediately retrieved from the deck and used to create a single finish line across all lanes of traffic. This is done even if the first finish line drawn was the second of a new pair of mats.

Civilians don't enter play when the finish line is drawn, and the remainder of the street mat deck won't see play in this game.

With the finish line in place, each player takes one more turn. To be clear: The player who drew the finish line finishes their current turn. That player does not get an entire additional endgame turn after all the other players have gone.

After each player has taken their final turn, any player with three or more style points remaining can spend style points to take additional endgame turns (see "Style Points," p. 16). The option to do this continues around the table in the normal order of play.

As the option arrives, a player can only take one additional endgame turn at a time before the option continues to pass. There is no theoretical maximum to the number of endgame turns you can take, you just can't take them all back-to-back unless you're the last player with enough style points to take more turns.

Once the option comes to you and you decline to take an endgame turn, you're done. You can't jump back in later no matter how many style points you might have left.

The player who's leading the pack after these endgame turns wins the game.

New Street Mats During the Endgame? A few unusual situations might call for new street mats to be drawn after the finish line has been placed. Ignore those instructions during the endgame; leave the finish line street mats in place until the game's over.

Miscellaneous

Spinning Out and Suffering Damage are Separate Misfortunes

Spinning out and suffering damage are two separate misfortunes. Although they often occur to a racer at the same time, each is treated and resolved separately.

Suffering Damage While Damaged

If you suffer damage while your vehicle is already damaged, you can't very well flip your card over even more to reflect even more damage. Instead, you suffer an immediate, compulsory fall-back. See "Drifting," p. 14.

Spinning Out

Various disasters can cause vehicles to spin out.

A car that spins out is placed in the rank behind the last rank containing racers other than the one that's spinning out, in any lane or on either sidewalk of its player's choice. It then suffers damage, although does not fall back again if it was already damaged when it spun out.

Civilians that spin out leave play, as Civilians always do when they fall behind the last racer.

If multiple vehicles ever spin out simultaneously — because they suffer damage at the same time, for example — resolve the spin-outs in pack order, front to back. (Note, though, that the damage caused by a tied driving test is not considered to occur simultaneously. See "Advance Results," p. 13.)

When the Deck Runs Out

When the play deck runs out, shuffle the discards into a new deck.

Responding to Your Own Triggers

It's legit to play a Reaction in response to a trigger you caused. For example, you can announce a driving test and then play a Reaction card whose trigger is the announcement of a driving test.

When Cards Are Discarded

A card that's still in a player's hand can only be voluntarily discarded for no effect during the discard portion of that player's turn.

After a card has been played...

• Actions and Reactions are discarded immediately after their effects are resolved, unless another rule applies.
• Mods and Crew remain in play — attached to a car, or in a player's Gang — until some event sends them to the discard pile.

Timing of Events and Effects

Timing is sometimes important.

When one event happens in response to some other event, the initiating one is resolved first, followed by the one it triggered.

EXAMPLE: A Spell of Fainting is played. A player with the Spell Powered Engine may draw a card in response to any player playing a Spell. The effects of the Spell of Fainting are resolved first (the target player must discard their Driver and fall back). Then the player with the Spell Powered Engine draws a card.

When several Reactions apply to the same trigger, the Reactions resolve in the order they hit the table. Play your cards quickly — it's a game about racing!

Multiple Reactions can respond to, or apply to, the same trigger as long as the Reactions' effects aren't contradictory. This happens a lot when multiple players want to modify the die rolls in a test, for example. Different modifiers don't contradict each other, just add them up.

If multiple Reaction cards responding to the same trigger do preclude each other, only the first one that was played works. Others return to their players' hands. For example, if two Reactions to the same trigger specify that different players will take the next turn, that's obviously no good. The first one that was played takes precedence and the rest go back to their owners' hands.

The card "Iä! Iä!" is an exception to the general timing rules about Reactions. That card cancels the card it's reacting to on a last-in, first-out basis. That is, the most recent "Iä! Iä!" card takes effect first, when several are played in response to each other.

If a card is discarded without effect (as by "Iä! Iä!," for example), then other cards or events that did, or would, happen in response don't happen after all. Reactions invalidated this way return to their players' hands.

EXAMPLE: A Spell of Fainting is played. A second player has a Spell Powered Engine, but a third player uses "Iä! Iä!" to cancel the Spell of Fainting. Because of the timing exception that pertains to "Iä! Iä!," its effects are resolved before the effects of the Spell Powered Engine, and the second player may not draw a card.

Play Variant: Dual-Car Racing

If all the players agree, each player can control a pair of cars that work together to win. In this variant...

• Each player chooses two racers and maintains two separate schematics. (This limits such a game to four players, obviously.)
• Each player has a single hand of cards, which can be played for the benefit of either of their cars.
• On a player's turn, that player takes six actions instead of four. No vehicle may advance more than four times on each player's turn, but otherwise, a player may divide their actions among their racers as desired.

The winning team is determined by adding up points based on their cars' finish positions, with the lowest overall score winning. In case of a tie, the game is a tie.

EXAMPLE: August, Howard, and Vin finish a three-player, dual-car game in the pack order shown in the sidebar. Howard wins (2 + 4 = 6 points), Vin is second (1 + 6 = 7 points), and August is the big loser (3 + 5 = 8 points).

Finish Position	Owner
1st	Vin
2nd	Howard
3rd	August
4th	Howard
5th	August
6th	Vin

Play Variant: Farsight

If all the players agree, anytime new street mats are drawn, also reveal the set of street mats that will enter play after the current set. The extra pair of visible mats doesn't impact play, it just gives the players advance warning about what the arrangement of lanes and sidewalks will be the next time the street mats change.

This variant works well for players who want to limit the randomness that can arise when the arrangement of lanes changes unpredictably.

Play Variant: Fast & Fhtagn + Cthulhu 500

Many of the cards from Cthulhu 500 are compatible with Fast & Fhtagn.

Since the card backs from both games are identical, you can add cards from one game to the other at your diabolical whim, with these exceptions:

CAN'T ADD (CTHULHU 500 TO FAST & FHTAGN): Checkered Flag, Arkham House of Chicken & Waffles, Dreamlands Shortcut, Entropy, Garbage on the Track, Giant Tentacle of Gripping & Crushing, Human Sacrifice, Me Go, Nefarious Bump, Nuclear Warhead, Shuggoth Crossing, Spell of Chaos, Yellow Signpost

CAN'T ADD (FAST & FHTAGN TO CTHULHU 500): The Airbags of Mystifying Utility, Civilian, The Disquieting Effects of Talk Radio, The Dunwich Sidewalk, Extra-Dimensional Angles, Fin Diesel, He Cheated on His Taxes, Hypnos Oxide, First Place, Ill-Matched Spoiler, The Inaudible Amplifier, Jump From Beyond Probability, Magic Fingers, Last Place, Manifold Manifold, Miasma of Strange Aeons, Sane Lane Speedpass, The Shunned Chop Shop, Spinners Away From Which Mankind Cannot Look, Tcho-Tcho Drift, The Terrible Old Map, The Unaccountable Spin-Out, Undercover FBI Agent, A Wrinkle in Space-Time

Cross-Game Clarifications

When you use cards from one game in the other, the following clarifications are helpful:

• The terms "pit crew" and "Gang" are interchangeable.
• Making a "pit stop" is the same as "pulling over," and vice versa.
• In Fast & Fhtagn, rules that apply to "passing tests" apply to the driving tests made when a racer tries to advance or drift. Rules that trigger when you're passed, or when you pass someone, trigger based on the outcomes of those tests (the winner "passes," the loser "is passed").
• In Fast & Fhtagn, treat Cthulhu 500's Tires cards as though they were Mods. Treat Cthulhu 500's vehicle cards as though they had three Mod slots (rather than two Mod slots and one Tires slot).
• Fast & Fhtagn cards that refer to the leader or last place positions refer also to the Cthulhu 500 racers that lead or trail the pack, respectively.