Review: White Lies

I have always been a huge fan of secret agent, espionage, and Noir style movies and books. This includes things like James Bond, The Maltese Falcon, Kingsmen, etc. I have had some great experiences playing these style of games on the table but system wise, everything d20 derived fell short to capture the style. So, when I heard about White Lies I was skeptical but after diving into it and running a few one shots (based on old James Bond stuff) I walked away impressed. I mean, how can you not at least be intrigued by a game that has a tagline of "A Game about doing bad things for good reasons"? Plus you know, the game is called White Lies!


For reference, White Lies is based off of White Box and as a disclaimer, I was provided with a physical copy for review purposes.

Presentation: The book presents in a softcover a5 sized book with a full color cover. When you open the book you are presented with a clean and well organized layout that is either single or double column. There is great use of the bold black and red headers as well. The art is a mix of vector and red and black silhouette styles and it makes me happy. It makes me happy because the entire book feels like a Agent manual for new recruits to a top secret black bag agency. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if it was actually written in such prose. 

Character Creation: Character creation follows usual steps in Whitebox fashion;

1. Determine Attributes (3d6 in Order, Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity, and Charisma)
2. Character Class (Choose between the Confiscator, Eliminator, Infiltrator, Investigator, and Transporter as long as you have 9+ in their prime Attribute requirement)
3. Outfitting (All characters begin play with a semi-automatic pistol with a spare ammo upgrade, an Operative Kit, one other gear kit of your choice, and 3d6x10 dollars to use to buy other equipment)
4. Final Touches (HP 1d6 + Con and Eliminators get +1, Armor Class Ascending/Descending 10/9, XP bonus of 5% if GM is using optional rule for higher prime attributes of 13+, you know English and one bonus language for every point of Intelligence above 10, if you are carrying less then 75 pounds of gear your movement rate is 12 squares, Base Hit Bonus is +0 and not the hit bonus from attributes and weapons.  

Resolution: White Lies uses White Box as its resolution system which is a d20 +/- Modifiers vs. a target number, armor class, etc. The attribute bonuses use the -2/+2 range and each class as a single Saving Throw score that improves with leveling. 

Crunch: Even though White Lies is based on the White Box rules system, it boasts some very thematic and impressive sub systems that are smooth and don't add any unneeded math. 

• Action Checks: Any action outside of the ones the use a d20 (such as social interactions, investigations, interrogations, driving, etc) are resolved on a roll of a d6. A result of 4+ equal a success. This roll can benefit from attribute bonuses and each class has specific "skills" that they get a bonus in. 
• Supplemental Training (optional): This is an option where characters start with a specific training and can gain me as they level up. There is a defined list of twenty five areas of training and when the player wants to make use of their area of training it acts as an Action check that does not benefit from Attribute bonuses and the classes skill bonuses but the player gets to roll 2d6 to see if any of the dice come up a success. 
• Equipment: There is a great list of equipment from your standard firearms and knives to James Bond style gadgets and vehicles. There are also upgrade lists to help make your gear very unique. This section also includes gear kits that provide a set of related gear. There are 18 different gear kits that can includes Scuba, HALO, Disguise, etc. 
• Master Villain: Steps to create the big bad.
• Mission Creation: Steps to create a mission.
• Example setting/agency/adversary organization  
• Advancement:  Advancement works off an experience system. Experience is gained form defeating enemies but the majority of the experience is gained from completing missions and getting paid from such missions. Each $10 earned counts as 1xp. This also includes if the characters break up an arms deal and keep the brief case full of cash....

Final Thoughts: As I stated before, this game really fits the genre well in tone, writing, and system. The system part surprised me because I have been disappointment with other attempts and a spy games using a d20 system. 

Where this game really sings the classes and I think classes is a misnomer because they feel more like archetypes to me. As all of the characters are secret agents but classes show what the agent specializes in. For example, the Confiscator is the cat burglar, the Eliminator is the combat specialist, Infiltrator is that agent with a ton of alternate identities etc, the Investigator is your Dick Tracy/The Shadow type, and the Transporter is your ace driver/hell on wheels. Outside of the flavor and skill bonuses, each class has unique abilities that really make them shine at their specialties and give them a unique feel. When creating a campaign, I would highly encourage the players to each pick a different class. 

Ammo is tracked but types of ammo and calibers are not defined. Players should have reloads for their characters. It is blatantly started that when a character rounds out of ammo, they are out! I actually really like this because it enforces all of the spy action movies where the agent runs out of ammo and has to use their fallen foes weapons/ammo or get creative with improvised weapons. 

In conversations with Bill Logan, he talked about that he had to make certain concessions with the game design (such as two different armor class systems, etc) to make it White Box compatible. I think the White Box system works well but I am really curious on what tweaks Bill wanted to make to the system. I view the secret agents from White Lies as larger the life, highly skilled operatives. When I ran my one shots, I had the agents base AC start at 12 (instead of 10) and gave them bonus HP. The AC makes sense for them being obscenely trained and it is very impractical for agent to wear anything heavier then light armor. 

You can find White Lies here;

• Drivethrurpg 
• DwD Studios 
• Character Sheet 

To get in the mood for White Lies, I would suggest watching the James Bond movies, Kingsmen, The Shadow, Dick Tracey, and reading whatever Noir novels you can get your hands on.