Modern Advances: Spookmaster is a tiny little pdf from Steve Miller. It sales at rpgnow for $3. The pdf itself is bookmarked (not that you need it), and is 12 pages long, though inexplicably, two of that is the OGL boilerplate.
There isn't really any art in the product, per se. The cover has a picture of an attractive woman, and her ghost companion. Later on in the product, there is another picture of the woman (a different picture) sans ghost companion. That's it for art. I don't see this as being a big deal, anyway. I don't judge books by their pictures.
The first page is credits, a note on what is open content, and a note from the designer. In the note, Steve talks about his inspirations for the class, and then takes a moment to plug his "mind over matter" psionic product.
The product itself is not large. In fact, it is very, very small. So, it's hard to say whether you really get your money's worth with this product. The actual text of the product is only 8 pages (1 cover, 1 credits, 2 OGL). The margins are huge as well, and the font is quite large. Just as a kick, I copied the entire thing into Word, and put it into times new roman, 10pt. and while retaining most of the formatting, I squeezed it into 4.25 pages. 4.5 if you count the second picture. I think I would have rather seen it done this way, other than trying to pad it all out.
But you know, this is a quibble. I really, really liked this class. I was asked to review this product, which I wouldn't have otherwise, since I don't even play a d20 modern game. In fact, I don't even own the core d20 modern book, and don't even know that much about it, to be honest. I understand the basics, but that's about it.
"Spookmaster" includes the self-named Prestige Class, a 10 level class which makes the character sort of a ghost hunter type character. That's a poor choice of words, though. More like a pyschic, ghost-interactor, I guess. It's a unique, fresh approach. The PrC itself is well balanced, and nothing about it particularly stands out as being overly powerful. If anything, it's a little on the weak side. The character gets a ghostly companion (though the ghost isn't bound to the character - it can leave any time), and the PrC gets some ability to read ghostly auras, and follow ghostly trails. Later on, the character can have multple ghostly companions. One minor point - the prerequisite for the class lists a feat (ethereal attunement) and "must have been dropped below 0 hit points. The pre-req for the feat also requires the person to have dropped below 0 hit points, so the pre-req here is redundant. Later on, the spookmaster can actually identify who a ghost is, and can learn their names.
The book also presents a few new feats: the afore-mentioned ethereal attunement allows the character to hear and see ethereal creatures. Another feat: ghost companion grants anyone a ghost companion. This feat is complemented by the first feat, which then allows the owner to see his ghostly companion. This is not quite, but almost as useful as say, having a familiar. The third feat is a bit of a riddle: shameless. It grants a bonus to perform and bluff checks. ?? Why it's here, I have no idea.
Next up is a "terror template", which is a new ghost template. This is a nice template, and adds a lot of "pop-culture" ghostly abilities including the ability to speak through a corpse, and the ability to disrupt electronics. I really like this template, as it has a lot of GM tools to really give a ghost a lot of flexibility and story control. It's also more fluff than crunch.
Lastly, there is an NPC named Marrion K. Bassett. Marion is a TV personality and "spookmaster" who was "medically dead" during her childhood when her parents were killed in a terrorist attack - she just barely survived, and picked up a ghostly companion as a result. In reading the background information for this character, I actually got goosebumps on my arms! It's just that good, people. The character is very well developed, with a lot of personality, and really comes to life with the information that is provided. This would make an excellent NPC in a long-term campaign, and the class itself would make a great addition to any GM wishing to add a ghostly element to their campaign.
Summary: I didn't expect much when I received this. I'd never heard of it, and read through it with a chip on my shoulder - "d20 modern? I don't know anything about d20 modern!" In the end, I fell in love with it. The NPC is incredibly realistic and detailed. The ghost template is very fluff-heavy, and allows a lot of flavor and gives the GM a lot of toys. The PrC would be a great addition to any d20 modern game wishing to add a little bit of a horror element to their game. In short, I loved it.
My only major beef was with the margins and font-size, but ultimately those didn't bother me that much.
