Good rulesets for medieval horror?

[Philhelm]

Unfortunately the search function isn't working for me at the moment, so I apologize if this is something that could have been otherwise found easily enough.

I'm looking for ruleset ideas for medieval horror.  I have Chaos in Carpathia, Fear & Faith, Fistful of Lead (whatever the horror supplement is called), and am wondering if there might be something better for a more low-tech, medieval setting.  Obviously, I could use other fantasy rules, but I'd like to preserve the horror flavor (more Castlevania than Hammer Horror in this case).

[Inkpaduta]

Gothic Horror would work for that.
I know many people of issues with the rule
book but I find it easy to follow and use.

[Malamute]

What don’t you like about Fistful of Lead?

We use The core rules which give you all the details you need to low tech weapons and armour. Tales of Horror gives you stats for the supernatural creatures.

Here is an AAR doing the above with Medieval knights Vs Werewolves.

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=113931.0

I can’t think of anything else better suited.

[Philhelm]

Gothic Horror would work for that.
I know many people of issues with the rule
book but I find it easy to follow and use.

I'll check it out.  Thanks!

[Philhelm]

What don’t you like about Fistful of Lead?

We use The core rules which give you all the details you need to low tech weapons and armour. Tales of Horror gives you stats for the supernatural creatures.

Here is an AAR doing the above with Medieval knights Vs Werewolves.

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=113931.0

I can’t think of anything else better suited.

I actually like the Fistful of Lead rules, but was wondering what else might be out there that may be designed specifically for a medieval setting (granted, I've never played it since most of my gaming amounts to hording miniatures and fantasizing about actually playing).

The AAR you posted looked great, and is just what I have in mind.  Did you use the Hunter rules from Tales of Horror for the knight and his retinue, or a team created from the core rulebook?  One thing I noticed is that the Tales of Horror teams appear to be more powerful (automatic "Veteran" trait for leaders and other bonuses), so I wasn't sure how well the teams from the core rulebook would compete.  As far as I can remember, the only downside to the Hunter rules is that they don't seem to have access to all team traits (such as "Armored").

[Malamute]

In ToH the hunters get more traits as the beasties can be quite a handful to dispatch, (although an armoured figure with a blessed sword on a horse would carve his way through a werewolf pack with his all his bonuses. As mine did in the AAR, before eventually being unhorsed!

Think of the two books (core and ToH) as interchangeable, you can use traits and rules  from each bOok to customise your game. Once you’re familiar with the core mechanics and how teams  are created it’s easy to pull traits From each book to create an individual team. That’s the point of the supplements to the core rules, they extend the games into specific genres.

In our game the knight and retainers had the armour trait and medieval weapons from the core set. We used the holy/blessed/silver weapons from the ToH set.
There are several good traits like devout and word of god that would work for a knight or monk in ToH.

I honestly can’t think of any other rules that are specific to Medievals. I am biased as I love FFoL, but to my mind they’re perfect for what you want to do.

We’ll be doing some more of these games once the lockdown is over!

[robh]

If you already have Chaos in Carpathia the "Goalsystem Fantasy" is only a couple of $$ download and covers everything you would need to include earlier period weapons and armour in CinC and is based on exactly the same system.

There is also "Goalsystem Delves" which is a bit more expensive but covers more advanced character development and narrative campaigns (in a Fantasy setting but same Goalsystem game mechanics). It will also give you better scope for porting medieval suitable monsters into CinC

http://www.wargamedownloads.com/cat.php?ItemSubcategory=38&pics=

[Cat]

I've found that Savage Worlds works really well for skirmishy games with role playing elements added to taste.  Savage Worlds Horror Companion looks perfect for the job:
https://www.peginc.com/store/savage-worlds-horror-companion-2/

Hmm, I need to get a copy of that myself....

[Inkpaduta]

You can get Gothic horror from Old Glory it was put out by West Wind.

[Philhelm]

Think of the two books (core and ToH) as interchangeable, you can use traits and rules  from each bOok to customise your game. Once you’re familiar with the core mechanics and how teams  are created it’s easy to pull traits From each book to create an individual team. That’s the point of the supplements to the core rules, they extend the games into specific genres.

In our game the knight and retainers had the armour trait and medieval weapons from the core set. We used the holy/blessed/silver weapons from the ToH set.
There are several good traits like devout and word of god that would work for a knight or monk in ToH.

The AAR photos have certainly rekindled my interest in the ruleset.

For that battle did you use the Hunter list as your jumping point, including the free Veteran upgrade, or did you port the Hunter weapons to a core rulebook list?

Also, how did you interpret some of the relic rules?  For example, a Holy Item & Relic (such as a cross) can be used in close combat with a +1 to wound, but does that only apply to Undead creatures?

[Malamute]

If you’re playing a supernatural game create your hunter group from the ToH supplement trait list (inc the bonus veteran trait). Most of these traits are designed to give advantages against creatures of the night. Occult knowledge, Devout, word of God etc.  However  you can also use any of the traits from the core rules, for example Swordsman etc,  If you wish as they are interchangeable.

Holy Or blessed weapon bonuses only work on supernatural creatures., For example my knights silver edged sword has the  usual +1 bonus for being a sword and gets an additional +1 bonus  when fighting Werewolves and vampires. That Special bonus is not added if he’s fighting a human henchman, But he will still get the usual +1 sword bonus.

Does that help?

[Elk101]

You may be overthinking this. I can't speak for the other rule sets mentioned but I have played a lot of FfoL and it is very flexible. We play medieval with the core rules without any issue interms of 'low tech' and as Malamute states, you just slot the Tales of Horror supplement in where you need to. If you are using vampires and werewolves just give your medieval leaders Veteran for free as you would with Hunters. The rules are not intended to be rigid, they are there as a starting point for your own development as you see fit.