Best sanity/horror rules for D20?

[SteveC]

I am going to be running a campaign with some strong horror elements to it, and I know that there's a whole boatload of rules for fear, madness and sanity out there, in free download, PDFs and published books. In your opinion, which is (are) the best rules?

The campaign I'm running is a lot more "army of darkness" than "Call of Cthuhlu" so rules which do not immediately cripple the characters in the face of scary things would be best for my purposes...

Thanks for your help!

--Steve

 

[jdrakeh]

Of the rules that I've seen, I've found that Fear Effects does the best job of balancing detail with mechanical elegance. For quick, intuitive, handling of madness, however, I really dig the optional rules that Butch Curry implemented in the Toolbox Edition of Core Elements. A close 3rd place for me would be the sanity rules from Grim Tales, with CoC d20's system trailing in 4th place.

 

[Warbringer]

The corruption rules in the new Heroes of Horror are perfect for this style of play.

 

[ZombieButch]

Of the rules that I've seen, I've found that Fear Effects does the best job of balancing detail with mechanical elegance. For quick, intuitive, handling of madness, however, I really dig the optional rules that Butch Curry implemented in the Toolbox Edition of Core Elements. A close 3rd place for me would be the sanity rules from Grim Tales, with CoC d20's system trailing in 4th place.

And here I was going to pimp the Toolbox, and got beaten to the punch...

But mine has the advantage of being free!

(Fear Effects is damned good, though, and well worth checking out.)

 

[SteveC]

Of the rules that I've seen, I've found that Fear Effects does the best job of balancing detail with mechanical elegance. For quick, intuitive, handling of madness, however, I really dig the optional rules that Butch Curry implemented in the Toolbox Edition of Core Elements. A close 3rd place for me would be the sanity rules from Grim Tales, with CoC d20's system trailing in 4th place.

Some excellent suggestions. I will second your pimping of Core Elements, it's very good stuff!

I think I'm going to take a look at Fear Effects as well. Right now, I have these options before me:

Grim Tales
OGL Horror
Fear and Loathing from Ravenloft
Core Elements

I'm looking at possibly adding these:
Fear Effects
Heroes of Horror

Any other thoughts...

Thanks,

--Steve

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Grim Tales 'Fight or Flight' mechanic is probably the single most wicked rule I've seen in a long, long time. The rest of its horror and insanity rules are pretty good, but F-or-F is just beautiful.

 

[Prest0]

And here I was going to pimp the Toolbox, and got beaten to the punch...

But mine has the advantage of being free!

(Fear Effects is damned good, though, and well worth checking out.)

Thanks for the kind words about Fear Effects, guys. We think it's a pretty fun system, and it's designed to be highly customizable.

 

[Psion]

Grim Tales 'Fight or Flight' mechanic is probably the single most wicked rule I've seen in a long, long time. The rest of its horror and insanity rules are pretty good, but F-or-F is just beautiful.

Too bad it's the one thing in the book he didn't open, eh?


Anyways, having just looked over it again last night, I really like the Fear, Terror, and Madness rules in Darkness & Dread. It's only $5 for the whole book over on DTRPG if memory serves:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=36_37&products_id=783&affiliate_id=710

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Too bad it's the one thing in the book he didn't open, eh?

Ehhh.... Not for any particular reason. It's an OGL/PI test.

Which of course won't make any difference to the casual user. It is included in the PDF, which is just $1.95 at RPGnow:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=4034&Src=EnWorld

 

[Psion]

Ehhh.... Not for any particular reason. It's an OGL/PI test.

Which of course won't make any difference to the casual user.

It doesn't make any difference to a casual user who has already committed to purchase that book.

It does make a difference to casual users of products that could be in the future.