Review & Commentary On Walking the Way: A Mysticism Sourcebook [Swords & Wizardry] By James M. Spahn For The White Star Galaxy Edition Rpg

 "Walking the Way: A Mysticism Sourcebook for White Star brings a plethora of new options to your OSR sci-fi campaign! As heroic Star Knights and exotic Alien Mystics fight against the agents of the Void and the evil Galactic Consortium, they find new options to add to their arsenal in the latest supplement for White Star: White Box Science Fiction Roleplaying and White Star: Galaxy Edition" 

Walking the Way: A Mysticism Sourcebook [Swords & Wizardry] By James M. Spahn is basically the entire sourcebook for the star knight PC class. Because of the fact that I've got the PC's encountering a particuarly nasty piece of work of ancient hertiage in the deserts of an abandoned city. We've got another player joining us soon.  So asside from our guest star player  Walking the Way: A Mysticism Sourcebook  goes deep into the Star Knight as a viable PC class. Ages ago this book came my way into my hard drive. And it's sat there but according the the intro; "Science fiction. It is, right down to its name, rooted in science. Cold, hard science. Yet so much of the great sci-fi I fell in love with as a child and continue to love to this day has a strong element of fantasy. Whether it’s mystical monks who know the mind-killing power of fear, farm boys that discovery they have a strange destiny as part of the essence that binds the galaxy together, or cigar-smoking hot-shot pilots who return from the dead as angelic vessels of the divine - magic, for lack of a better term, permeates pulp science fiction. Walking the Way is a source book for White Star that provides players and Referees with new options to help expand and further define those aspects of their own campaign world. All of the rules in this book are optional and should only be used with Referee approval. It is the author’s hope that the options in this book will help expand your game-play and use the metaphor of science fantasy to further explore what it means to be a finite being in an infinite universe, and have a helluva lot of fun along the way." 

So what we get is the following in sixty four pages: 

• Four brand new classes! Elusive Althar meld both Meditations and Gifts, while Augumented Waybreakers meld cybernetic enhancement with the powerful Meditations.
• New Gifts and Meditations to expand the power of your Mystic character classes!
• Half a dozen paths for Alien Mystics to customize their journey towards enlightenment!
• Complete rules for building and customizing the iconic weapon of the Star Knights: The Star Sword.
• New gear, weapons, and armor!
• New Advanced Technology, like the esoteric Spirit Stones!
• New Monsters, from the adorable Gorp to the dangerous Void Serpent!
• A completely new form of Mysticism: Technomancy!

We get introduced to the alien ALTHAR which are sort of a PC Elven race class. They are a solid servicable alternative. Next we get the Augmented Waybreaker PC class and these folks are cybernetically bent; "Augmented Waybreakers are practitioners of Mysticism who have turned their back on that path. Whether broken by the burden of their powers, driven to the edge of madness by strange insights, or for any other number of reasons Augmented Waybreakers have refused to embrace their inherent powers." 
We then jump to the Starfists a PC monk/starknight class which blends the best of Swords & Wizardry monks with the starknight class. Finally we jump into the technomancer and these folks are a combination of star knight & cybernetic mage. They have no illusions about 'the Way' per say and are completely practical. Their occult powers are both way driven & technological with an uneasy balance between the two. 
We dive into a chapter talking about appentices & mentors with the values between the two. This is also the chapter which dives into the star sword creation. And this is where we get into the star knight gems those bastions of knowledge. Star sword dueling rules with individual styles and dueling rules. And some really interesting star sword artifacts. Void knight rules and alien star knights all enclosed within new rules for other mediations. All of these mold into other quisi mystic technological artifacts, devices, and even starship modification. And finally we get some new alien monsters sensitive to 'the way'. And finally a technomancer mediation appendix. And this all falls under sixty four pages. But is it good?! The whole supplement feels not only necessary but well done. There is an index which helps (alot). And on the whole this is a solid book to add into the que of   The White Star Galaxy Edition Rpg .

Walking the Way: A Mysticism Sourcebook [Swords & Wizardry] By James M. Spahn For The White Star Galaxy Edition Rpg  

OSR Commentary On White Box Omnibus [Swords & Wizardry] By James M. Spahn From Gallant Knight Games

 "An Omnibus of Old School Adventure and Options!"

"Now you can get it all in one place! White Box Omnibus is a compilation of all the material found in White Box Companion, White Box Treasures, White Box Bestiary, White Box Adventures: The Wererat's Well, White Box Adventures: The Wizard's Tower, and White Box Adventures: The Dragon's Hoard."

"But wait, there's more!"

"It includes twenty-five pages of new material never before published! Add a two-fisted monk to your adventuring party, experience the power of artifacts from ages past and encounter a plethora of new monsters!" 

"Bring your Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox campaign together with the Willow Valley Gazetteer! Over twenty pages of brand new material detailing the region where all these adventures are set. Easy to drop into any campaign, it'll add depth to the featured adventures and provide hooks for even more sword & sorcery thrills! Brave the Swamps of Sithiss or explore the Stoneaxe Citadel! Visit the halflings of Burrowmoor and help the citizens of Willowford find peace!"

Over 130 pages of Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox fun!"

 When it comes to Swords & Wizardry optional systems are the way to go to create your own homebrew  campaign. And the White Box Omnibus [Swords & Wizardry] By James M. Spahn is really useful for this  home brew style of play. What the White Box Omibus does is collect the following:White Box Companion, White Box Treasures, White Box Bestiary, White Box Adventures: The Wererat's Well, White Box Adventures: The Wizard's Tower, and White Box Adventures: The Dragon's Hoard all under one 130 page banner of OSR awesomeness. 

What pushes the envelop within the  White Box Omnibus [Swords & Wizardry] is just how completely modular the rpg system is. Want Science Fantasy, High Fantasy, Tolkein inspired campaigns. And much more the White Box Omnibus handles it easily. Because of the fact that White Box Omnibus also contains several adventure hooks its easy to get the most out of it without even realizing it. Designing adventures is easy because there are several adventure encounters already baked into the foulness of the White Box Omibus. So its simple matter of drag & drop into your current campaign. 

OSR Review & Commentary White Box Arcana [Swords & Wizardry] By James M. Spahn From Gallant Knight Games

 "Magic-users are more than just fragile spell-slingers! With White Box Arcana you'll bring new options to your arcane apprentices and exceptional archmages! Inside this 32-page supplement you'll find all kinds of simple, yet exciting resources to your magic-user, including:

• Latent Spellcasters: Now other classes can have a touch of the arcane!
• Arcane Duels: Complete rules for wizard duels to decide who is master of the magic arts!
• Stronghold Construction: Build a laboratory, design a library, or head-up a magical academy!
• New Spells: Everything from binding familiars and creating magic items, to walking the planes of existence and breathing dragon fire! Over 30 new spells!
• New Magic Items: Over 25 new magic items to add to your campaign!"

 

Wizards hold a special place within my heart from Arthurian literature's Merlin to Ditko's Doctor Strange. The Wizard has been & remains a favorite class of mine.. So when the opportunity came to grab a copy of White Box Arcana it was in my cart before the card had finished its approved signal. And the reason that magic users always appealed to me as a player. When the world was spinning out of control spells & the occult enabled a man to have control over their own small piece of reality. That has a lot of appeal to one small boy back in the Seventies and even today to a certain degree. 
White Box Arcana clocks in at thirty two pages of occult OSR power. We start off with latent spellcasters and the idea that perhaps Gilly the Fighter might have some occult talent within his brawn shoulders. If only he'd have trained with the wizard's guild. James M. Spahn writing is pretty crystal clear on this subclass of magic users; "While magic-users train for years (or even decades) to master the arcane arts, a rare few are born with a natural affinity for magic. These, known as the Latent Casters, find that magic flows their their veins and they are instinctively able to cast a select few magic-user spells. Though they will never learn the powerful enchantments of a formally trained magic-user, Latent Caster characters nevertheless find themselves able to call upon a few useful enchantments when caught in a pinch" The latent spell caster isn't going to burn down a campaign but does offer an interesting side note on wizards as an optional class that we've seen a thousand times in fantasy fiction paperbacks. 

And we get arcane  duels next and the system is easy to understand and work with. Again this isn't going to set the campaign world on fire maybe the other wizard involved. This system reminds me of classic Disney's The Sword in the Stone film with agreements, iniative, and there being both a martial & social aspect to it. 
Sanctums & Strongholds is a solid chapert that goes into Sanctums & Strongholds ;"With referee permission, a magic-user of 7th level or higher may choose to establish a stronghold. The magic-user selects one of three types of strongholds to construct, and may only have one stronghold at any time. The three strongholds choices are academy, laboratory, or library. Most often the physical location a stronghold is secluded so the magic-user can maintain their privacy. The stronghold itself is typically a tower, though keeps, hidden caverns, urban mansions, and other options may be available with referee permission. The type of stronghold a magicuser selects grants bonuses to certain activities." 
And this system is simple, easy, and quickly adaptable to your own OSR or old school games. Then we dive into magic spells for levels one through seven most of these are pretty solidly original spells. 
All in all I think that White Box Arcana [Swords & Wizardry] By James M. Spahn is well worth the price of admission & download. 

White Box Arcana [Swords & Wizardry] By James M. Spahn Is Available Righr Here