Critical Role Dive Into Mystery Roleplaying With Candela Obscura
May 26, 2023 by brennon
Darrington Press, the publishing arm of Critical Role, has now released the Quickstart Rules for their new Horror/Mystery roleplaying game, Candela Obscura! If you're looking to dive into some Gothic Horror storytelling then this might be for you.
Candela Obscura // Darrington Press
Candela Obscura is the new roleplaying game from Spenser Starke and Rowan Hall based on a concept by Taliesen Jaffe and Chris Lockey. In the game, you take on the role of investigators that are working for an esoteric order that uses their talents in order to combat strange and dangerous magicks whilst also dealing with odd occurrences. All of this is in aid of keeping back the source of corruption and bleed within the world.
Candela Obscura Art // Darrington Press
Candela Obscura uses the new Illuminated Worlds System which has been designed by Darrington Press. IWS makes use of six-sided dice that are assembled into pools during gameplay and the focus is very much on narrative drive and story-based play.
If you're interested in learning how to play Candela Obscura, you can check out the video they put together below.
How To Play: Candela Obscura
There is also the Quickstart Guide which can be downloaded for free that comes with the Rules, a Circle Sheet, Field Guide Reference Sheet and also five Pregenerated Characters so you can get started without much hassle.
If you want to delve deeper, Critical Role is also running an actual play series for the game which is available to watch on Twitch and YouTube (video available to subscribers and free next week at the time of writing).
From what I've seen so far, Candela Obscura has a grand set of rules that should be very quick and easy to get into. I like the strong focus on the roleplaying side of things and embracing your failures as well as your successes.
Are you going to be picking up Candela Obscura and giving it a go?
"I like the strong focus on the roleplaying side of things and embracing your failures as well as your successes..."
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I have watched the youtube video of how to play, but rules I don’t think the rules will work well with my gaming group.
Skimmed the pdf, but not read it yet.
I’ve had a good read and I quite like it. I am interested to see how they use the core mechanics for other genres
I’ll watch the crit role episode when it arrives on youtube. Don’t have twitch.
Nah.
Sounds interesting play as the private detectives twins Frank an Stine.
Call of Cthulhu meets World of Darkness dice mechanics in a rules light format. Sounds like a quick ride to hogwash if the GM and players don’t have good understanding of narrative which could end up played as a one shot OVA anime from the 90s or a well cultivated long form drama. Might be interesting to see more input.