Between the Star & Void – A Reading Review by Kurt R

This is a great expansion offing from Matthew Skail and his DYS Games. The Star Knights and the opposing Void Knights are expanded upon and explained in great detail in this White Star Compatible PDF.

The PDF is 109 pages with 101 pages of content and it is bookmarked. It contains 5 classes, the Star Knight, Mystic, Star Pilot Way Adapt and Alien Star Knight, as well as Meditations, combat styles and new material on the Void Knights and their powers.

Reading this was a joy, very easy to read in the 6”x 9” format even on my tablet, single column and large type makes it readable while at a comfortable distance from your device. The cover page is a great piece of work by Joe Singleton and conjures mental pictures of the up coming battles to be waged. There are a few black and white and color interior illustrations that set the mood while letting your imagination wander.

While reading the Star Knight Meditations I was constantly remembering scenes from some little movies that came out between 1977 and 1983, I think you know the ones I am referring to! These are well thought out and look balanced and quite brief to allow for GM alteration, if he or she finds it necessary. They cover many powers you are used to seeing and might have used in other 1977 Space Fantasy RPGs. Construction of Star Swords is covered here in several pages and allows for modifications to enhance them for Accuracy, Armor Piercing, extra damage and adding to AC.

Most of the additional material is about the mysterious Void and the Knights who serve it. These fallen knights are given the “Star” treatment as far as what you can do to with them for use against your players, they seem to be geared towards only being NPCs and protagonists, not as player characters. Their powers are brutal and very scary, you don't want to fight one unless you are very prepared and probably a Star Knight. They have what are called “Enpowerments” like Cause Fear, Syphon Life, Dark Impulse Void Blood and Deadly Will, just to name a few.

Next is a section on equipment and ships, that include 4 Star Sword variants, crystals that improve Meditations, and some Ships of the Way.

There are 3 Appendices, the first one is an alternate way to level the Meditations for the users of the Way, to allow for a more front loaded campaign power base. This details out a new system that is a departure from regular OSR type rules, but again this is very well done and I would love to play with these rules sometime. The Second Appendix is Fantasy Conversions for S&W Complete, Labyrinth Lord and ACKS. These are single generic stat blocks that can be used by any of these systems with a bit of additional tweaking for ACKS, The final Appendix is a section for Reaction Rolls that can be used when players are running into NPCs, guards or hirelings.

This book is a great addition to the basic White Star game and I would recommend it for all of the WS buyers to pick this up too. 5 Stars and they are shining brightly.