Mini Review - White Box Options - Psychic Talents (Swords & Wizardry)

Note - I'm in the midst of reading a handful of longer products for review purposes - White Box Options are a nice, short, change of pace from the rest of my reading - other reviews will be forthcoming - it HAS been a while.

Psychic Powers. Psionics. Wild Talents. You either love it or hate it - or in the case of AD&D 1e, never fully understood it, as it had it's own unique rule system attached to it that had little if anything to do with the core rules.

In truth, I've always liked the concept but I have never liked it's implementation. +James Spahn may have changed my opinion as I like his implementation.

Just like in 1e, with White Box Options - Psychic Talents your chance to be psychic is totally random, with higher scores in the mental abilities increasing the chance and non-human races having a decreased chance. In all cases, the minimal chance to have a psychic talent is 1% (assuming the player wants a chance - it's all opt in.)

None of the powers are game breaking, which caused a nice sigh of relief on my part. They give options and such, but aren't overpowered. A successful save allows the power to activate. A failed save means try again in 24 hours. So, you can't depend on them but they certainly can help.

Here's two examples:

Regulate Metabolism
Duration: 24 Hours
The character is able to regulate their body to such a degree that
while this ability is active they suffer no penalties from lack of food or water.
They also receive a +1 to all saving throws made to resist poison while
Regulate Metabolism is active. Once this ability wears off, the character
immediately suffers all the effects that would be applicable from a lack of
food and water. A character who would die from such things immediately
drops dead when they reach that point, even if this talent is active.

Direction Sense
Duration: Instant
The character who successfully activates this talent can immediately
sense which direction is North as well as sense their distance from the
ground, whether above or below it. 

Nice perks without being overpowering.

I'll be adding this to my bag of campaign tricks next time around. White Box Options - Psychic Talents is a good value at 2 bucks.