WHAT WORKS: The cool new mechanics are a great addition and some of the setting elements are nice. The options for playing the Will of Iron as “not nice” as well as playing an “honest” Strand of Fate is really intriguing as well.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: The adventure left me a little cold for some reason.

CONCLUSION: If you like Wu Xing, there’s a lot of great setting elements here to play around with (like the Repeating Prison). There are also some swell new rules like the wushu, new styles, new weapons (I do dig the Seven-Branched Sword and Heaven’s Splitter). Unless you’re playing troupe-style, your players won’t need a ton of clan options, but the Veiled Ones or the Sons of Steel could make for great antagonists. Definitely recommended for fans of Wu Xing as there are some cool elements to use even if you don’t have Will of Iron or Hidden Strands PCs in your games.

For my full review, please visit http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2013/09/tommys-take-on-wu-xing-truth-and-lies.html

The following review was originally posted at Roleplayers Chronicle and can be read in its entirety at http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=33168.

Truth and Lies is another clan-oriented sourcebook for Wu Xing, delving deeper in to a pair of clans and adding new options to go along with that content. Truth and Lies focuses on the Will of Iron and Hidden Strands of Fate clans along with a pair of new clans that coincide with those clans. The source content is presented in narrative fashion as if you, the reader, was having a conversation with the person in the book. Albeit slightly odd at times as the person in the book responds to questions you didn’t actually ask, the source content is an interesting read that strives to keep the reader engaged.

OVERALL

For those who enjoy Wu Xing and want to flesh out more of the background of their ninjas or gain a better understanding of what the clans are like, these clan sourcebooks are exactly what is necessary. As an ongoing series, players and GMs will definitely get a greater sense of what the Wu Xing setting is about as these books focus heavily on the source material and present new mechanics almost as a bonus instead of being the focus of the book. Thus, you get more material to make your ninjas more interesting and give them more purpose within the overall Wu Xing setting.

RATINGS

Publication Quality: 9 out of 10 Truth and Lies is a great looking book. Being funded through Kickstarter helps to produce top-notch artwork and it utilizes the already-established layout and format of other Wu Xing books. I’m not always a fan of how some of the artwork is sized and placed on the page, but they still work and do a great job of representing the content in visual format.

Mechanics: 8 out of 10 Truth and Lies is a solid book for new mechanics in terms of what you get. I would prefer to see more of the source content translated into mechanics to tools regarding some of the people and places being mentioned. There’s a lot of great mechanical content here for players, but not as much mechanical content for GMs. I understand the focus is on the clan, but it would be nice to have further translations of the source content into quick plug-in module type tools for GMs (such as presenting a stat block for an important person, presenting the stats for a particular village presenting frequently in the book, etc.).

Value Add: 10 out of 10 Truth and Lies is an excellent sourcebook to add to your collection, especially players. Not only does it present an in-depth look into a pair of clans, it offers new player character options to better represent what those clans are about. For GMs, you also get another adventure to slot into your campaign.

Overall: 9 out of 10 Truth and Lies is another great clan sourcebook for Wu Xing. This series does a proper job of presenting clan-oriented material and lays out a lot of options for the players and GM to pull from (source content that is). It feels extremely balanced with the core Wu Xing book and presents content that has a certain synergy with the core rulebook, making it feel like an integral part of the overall setting.