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In the spirit of less is more as far as RPGs go, Daniel Bayn has continued to be a pioneer in the rules-light game. His first creation, Wushu, helped focus the inner action enthusiast in all of us, by having rules that cut right to what makes action movies move, and what had heretofore been bogged down by rules in other action-oriented games.

Now, Mr. Bayn (known to us here on RPGNet as indra) has shifted his sights to that interestingly vigorous hybrid of action and the noir genre known as the hardboiled crime genre. You play an average schmo, one with a troubled past/present, who's somehow gotten into something big and nebulous and sinister, and you only have your luck, your wits, and some people you trust (but maybe shouldn't) to get out of it in one piece. Maybe if you're lucky, you'll come out ahead of the game, and some sort of justice will get done. More likely, you'll just be glad you came out alive, screw everyone else. (Which you may have to do.)

So, did Mr. Bayn manage to boil down the essentials of what makes the hardboiled genre run in a way that the mechanics support? Read on.

HOW IT ROLLS

You have five basic stats that you roll in this game to cover your bases: Savvy (figuring it out), Moxie (charming it or lying to it), Guts (getting rough with it), Nerve (keeping cool, quiet,and killing it in cold blood), and Mojo (getting lucky or using magic on it, the catchall miscellaneous stat). Every stat starts play at two, which means you roll two six-sided dice when you use that stat. (Six-sided dice are the only ones used in this game.)

But the noir genre isn't your typical genre, and this isn't a typical resolution system. Any time you roll doubles, something bad happens. The Director (GM) will tell you if it's a "softboil" (meaning that things get ugly in a minor way even though you basically succeeded, but your character can still work around those complications if she's willing to get clever and/or unethical), or a "hardboil" (which means your character's life is about to change, and you won't like it). So, in fact, you want to keep your stats low (preferably at one die)to prevent those unfortunate doubles. But how do you do that? Well, here's where it gets interesting.

Each character has a Means and a Motive. A Motive is the reason the character does what he does. Means are a short description of the character's background and experiences. Both have a mechanical benefit: If the character is using his Means to accomplish something, or is doing something to fulfill his Motive, his player can remove one die after the roll is made, thus reducing the chance of doubles. Yes, those stack.

Ah, but the Director has some handy tools as well. First, instead of making you roll for each little thing, the Director can opt for you to roleplay it, or just take a Hit (add a die) to your appropriate Vitals. Problem is, once added, those Hits don't go away until you have to risk hardboiling or softboiling a roll. This is designed to simulate your character getting in over his head. If you roll well, with no doubles, you succeed and those pesky hits go away. Otherwise, a potential life-changing experience occurs. And second, sometimes the Director will add Flop dice to a roll (named after "flop sweat", the kind of sweat your body produces when you realize just how badly things could go) to emphasize just how tense or tough this person/situation is. The bad new is that Flop dice give you more chances to match dice, but the silver lining is that the match(es) in question have to include at least one die you rolled; matches only rolled with Flop Dice don't count.

Obviously, there will be situations you can't succeed at by yourself, but what if you can't trust anyone else? Well, that's where Secrets and Relationships come in. Relationships are personal connections you have with people (things?), however functional or dysfunctional they may be. They can be used to do just about anything, depending on the nature of the Relationship in question. Secrets mean you have some hidden leverage on someone (something?). Both of them allow you to put as many dice as you want onto them before the roll. Keep in mind, those dice stay there until the Director feels like softboiling or hardboiling them. After the boil, everything resets! Of course, depending on how the roll went, you may wind up with a treacherous ex-friend/lover/contact/demonic servant out to make your life very unpleasant. (Keep in mind: these Secrets and Relationships take the place of experience points present in other games! Hold onto them and cherish them.)

As a testimony to how rules-light this game is, I can't go any further without spilling all the beans. Suffice it to say that just about every genre-appropriate action in this game has a slight tweak of the base mechanic to represent it, and if you get the hardboiled genre, you'll find that this game smoothly glides you to where you want to go.

Almost. There are two things that leapt out at me that would have been nice to see. One would be some sort of inter-character trust mechanism, whereby players could screw each other over and/or risk getting screwed over for temporary benefit, and a mechanism for reducing the dice piled on Relationships by doing nice things for the other party. Because even the most mercenary bastard realizes that good deeds and nice things count, even if they are fueled by a selfish agenda.

As a nice bonus for the Director, Mr. Bayn discusses the importance of the relationship map, which is how everybody ties to each other in the story. This should be the focus of a game of Secrets & Lies, rather than any world-building. It helps by concentrating not so much on what but who, which is important to a genre motivated by (bad) decisions. He includes some example relationship maps to give the Director some guidance.

I would recommend this game for:

1)Crime, detective, and or "caper" stories. Like Alexander Cherry's underestimated Fastlane game, this game was built to tell such stories.

2) This could tell surrealistic and suspenseful stories, like Twin Peaks or Over the Edge. Also, if you really want the John Constantine, Hellblazer experience, or a grimier shade of urban fantasy, I would recommend this game.

3) Could it do fantasy? Sure, if you picture the PCs as thieves and tomb raiders, magic as a tense negotiation with unknowable forces, and understand that the adventure doesn't stop just because the gold got out of the dungeon. In fact, these rules might make a grimmer game of Tales of the Dying Earth if you're uncomfortable with the ones currently in print. Of course, you could also play courtiers in a kingdom trying to figure out/stop anyone from finding out who killed a famous nobleman, and by what sorcerous means.

4) Likewise, a grimmer tale of science fiction is possible, with psionics being unpredictable, advanced technology having a mind of its own, and people still being people after all these years.

5) Can it do horror? Given that its designed to build suspenseful stories based on the worst human impulses and errors in judgment and can take into account the supernatural, I'd say it could do horror in it's sleep.

It would not work for games where strategy needs to count, or where relationships are not emphasized. It will not be for everyone, especially those who prefer a more intricate system. Still, for $4 US, why not give it a chance?