So far, so good with my entries for the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge. Today, Day 6, I’ll be making a character using the 3rd edition of the espionage roleplaying game, White Lies. In 2022 I used White Lies 1st Edition to make a character, and in 2024 I followed up with White Lies 2nd Edition. This game was originally based off of the D20 White Box RPG that used the Open Gaming License (hence the name White Lies). After Wizards of the Coast had their disastrous OGL fiasco a few years ago, the author wisely decided to remove all OGL items from this game and release a new edition. DwD Studios wasn’t the only publisher that decided to pull up stakes and head out to the land of Creative Commons licensees. A little after the 2nd edition came out, the author elected to move to a 3rd edition where he removed all of the AI generated imagery and replaced them with original artwork and polished up the system. I wanted to thank him by picking up and reviewing this latest edition. This game is PWYW on DriveThruRPG, but I would highly recommend chucking in a few bucks when you pick it up because a lot of love and effort went into this publication. Plus this is a small publisher (I think it’s only Bill Logan, the author, as the only employee of DWD Studios) that can use all the support they can be given. He’s doing something that I want to do so I look up to his works as a source of inspiration. Bill has also released BareBones Fantasy, Covert Ops, Frontier Space and more.
This book came out in 2025 and has 116 pages in the PDF. The character sheet is two pages long. Agent Recruiting (aka creating a character) starts on page 5. There are six steps listed.
Generating the five abilities are the first step in the process. These abilities are Toughness (formerly Strength in 1st edition), Dexterity, Intellect (formerly Intelligence and Wisdom), Discipline (formerly Dexterity) and Influence (formerly Charisma). I roll a D20 and consult a table for the score (ranging from -2 to +5) and place them where I want. I had all plusses except for one -1 score.
Step two (and new to this edition) is the background of the character on page 6. This is what the character was doing as an occupation before being recruited into the espionage business. There are 16 different trades available (with an option to roll a d20 to randomly choose) with 10 specialties under each one. The player can pick one (if they have something in mind) or randomly roll like I’m about to. They don’t even have to be limited to this list. This guy is in Technology & Engineering as a Software Developer. I’m then instructed to pick a skill that is appropriate to the background and note a talent bonus of +2.
Training is part of step three. I get to select a division (aka character class) that the character is a part of. I get to note the details from the division including the first roll on the rank & promotion table. With my +4 to INT, I also get to pick that many additional skills from the skill list. This guy isn’t very strong (that’s where my negative number went) so I’m going to make my own Q type character in the Engineering Division. I wrote down the skills, added the extras, determined his starting Stamina (aka hit points).
Now we are onto outfitting the character. The Engineering division didn’t get anything automatic during the character creation process (that happens in the mission briefing). I did write down the basics listed in the agent recruiting steps including the starting money. I’m going to just note the money now and would decide on any additional purchases after the mission brief.
Step five is another new step compared to 2nd edition. The rookie assignment. Roll a percentile and see what your character learned from the experience on their first mission. This reminded me of the experiences that new characters in Star Trek Adventures would get when they got to roll for what happened in their past. I thought it was a nice touch. On the rookie assignment, my yet-to-be named character had an impressive performance helping the agency track down some money being used to fuel tensions between western nations. I wrote down the additional attribute and skill bonuses received from the experience. I’m glad I rolled this one, like Traveller, the character could have been wounded enough to force me to make a new character.
And the last step (six) is the final assessment of the character. This includes things like Rank & Merit (level and experience points), Stamina (HP), Defense, Movement, Initiative, Languages, Skill bonuses, weapon information and finally a name. We shall call this character Walter Cunningham, because why not? I transferred everything over from my notes to the character sheet. I didn’t scan the second page as it looked like it was just for notes.
Afterthoughts:
I love how under the copyright Bill Logan states “Be a muse to others.” We need more support like this in the RPG community.
Earlier in the 2026 challenge, another participant had posted a White Lies character on one of the message boards. When I gave my approval and informed him that I would also be making a character, the poster informed me that he had been running a White Lies campaign.
I do wish the PDF file had been bookmarked. I was moving back and forth between sections while making this character. That’s the only negative thing I can think of so far in regards to this book. The rest is beautiful and I would love to write or homebrew for this system.
Additional Notes:
I was informed of another blog to add to the main 2026 #Character Creation Challenge page. Please look at the list and let me know if I’m missing any. These can be personal blogs or message boards.
In response to my Dungeons and Dragons Rules Cyclopedia entry, Sharro on RPGPub responded. “I see you also got fooled by the camouflaged page numbers. I had the book for years before I found them. Lots of swearing about a book that made reference to page numbers but didn’t number the pages…”
I’ve got some personal business dealing with a funeral coming up. I’ve set up a buffer so hopefully I won’t miss a day. But if real life prevents a post from happening on the day, I will get caught up.
Coming Up Next:
Attack From Space
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