Candela Obscura – First Read
There is no denying that Critical Role has been hugely influential in the TTRPG space. Since their inception in 2015 they have elevated the profile of Dungeons & Dragons and the actual play genre of content. Cartoons, merchandise, and more have been made about their exploits.
In the last few years they have chosen to start making their own games under the imprint Darrington Press. They have produced a few games already, but one of the first long form RPGs has been “Candela Obscura”. It is designed by Spencer Stark with unnamed artists but a huge list of the Critical Role employees credited. The game is the first to feature the ‘Illuminated Worlds’ system from Darrington Press, which will presumably feature in forthcoming titles.
First Read articles represent me going through the book in question for the first time. It is my initial impressions of the mechanisms, themes, and setting presented within its pages. I have not played the game at the time of writing.
In ‘Candela Obscura’ the characters are part of a Circle that belongs to the larger organisation Candela Obscura. They’ll be sent out on assignments to investigate the weird, magickal, and supernatural and keep it under control. My immediate impression was that it was Victorian Ghostbusters.
The book sets out with ‘What is a TTRPG’ almost before anything else. I think this tells us the kind of game it wants to be. I see it as an intro to the more narrative focused games for those who have come to the game from the world of D&D.
Candela Obscura wears its heritage on its sleeve and one game that is referenced is my favourite “Blades in the Dark”. There are other influences touched upon as well: Vaesen, Apocalypse World, and Kids on Bikes to name a few. It is clear pretty quickly that Blades is the core influence.
The game is careful to lay out the core gameplay early. It emphasises that GMs are not wholly responsible for the fiction and that players will be expected to contribute. The sort of upfront declaration that I love.
It also does a very interesting thing that I’ve seen in other RPGs but never been able to articulate. Early on, page 3, it sets out the essential rules of the game. Not the mechanisms, but the principles that are core to the setting and the experience. The tenets of the setting. The game says
“So long as the following rules remain intact, you are playing the truth of Candela Obscura’.
This made me wonder what the ‘Truths’ of some of my favourite RPGs are. Something to think about.
As we get into the actual mechanisms of the system, the game re-emphasises its collaborative tone. If you are at all familiar with Blades in the Dark, you almost don’t need to read the system.
Characters have 3 different Drives; Nerve, Cunning, and Intuition. Under these 3 Drives we have 9 actions that your characters can take: Strike, Read, Sense etc. You’ll roll a pool of d6 based on how good your character is at these actions. On a roll you set stakes and expectations (what you want and how likely you are to get it). Then you roll and take the highest die. 6 is good, 4-5 good, but…., 1-3 failure. You can spend points from your Drive for extra dice.
There is also an interesting choice presented to players. Some actions are Gilded for your character. This means you toll a single different coloured die along with the other dice. If you choose the result of that die as your results you get Drive back. It might be that the Gilded dice gives you a success with consequences, but you rolled a 6 on a non-gilded dice. Take the hit and get the points back or just straight success? Potentially neat economy here.
Candela Obscura not only gives the players levers to pull on before the roll, but after as well. Resistances are a per session allowance that allow you to re-roll a number of dice equal to your rating in that action. The more of a particular Drive you have, the more Resistance you will have as well. This feels very generous to me, giving the game a potentially more action/pulp vibe.
Of course you can take harm as you go up against the supernatural. This comes in 3 flavours; Body, Brain, and Bleed (trauma from exposure to Magick and weird things). If you take enough harm in a given area it can become a Scar. This forces you to shift action ratings around, representing the new way your character interacts with the world.
Once you have a grounding in the systems, the book moves on to how to actually create a character for the game. I prefer this way around of doing things, it means you aren’t making mechanical choices that will suppress the vision you have of your character.
The art in this section, and actually throughout, is superb. Evocative, diverse representation, and loads of ideas for characters just in the portraits themselves.
You choose a role, like Face, and a speciality under that role, like Journalist or Magician (the performing on stage kind).
This combination gives you the Drives and Action ratings we mentioned earlier, and some points to spread around as you see fit. It will also give you access to some abilities that you choose one from. The game avoids the playbook feel of Blades and Apocalypse World. I think this will make it feel a little more open and approachable to folk coming to this game from a D&D background. The abilities are flavourful and reinforce the roles and specialities well.
Each speciality has a set of directives called Illumination Keys. These are effectively signposts to the sort of direction each speciality should take in play. For instance the doctor has Avoid a Fight, Aid an Ally, and Comfort Someone. These act as experience triggers for the group, not the individual. Characters only advance when the group does and you get this group experience by playing to the character directives and dealing with the assignments that Candela Obscura presents to you.
I like this idea a lot. It means everyone keeps pace with advancement and there is an incentive for players to help each other out in fulfilling the potential of their characters.
Characters are rounded off with some details about how they joined the Candela Obscura, their style, and the pursuit that drives them. Lastly they form relationships with the other characters.
Most of this is boilerplate RPG character stuff, but I really like the inclusion of formed relationships at the start of the game. These are non-mechanical but can be one-sided. You might love another character, but they do not reciprocate. How will that affect your ability to do the job? This should create some lovely tension and hooks from the start.
Leaving our characters behind we form the Circle that they are part of. This is mostly quite narrative and less mechanism focused than character creation; How you formed, the name, where you are based etc. You also get an ability for your Circle and some resources you can draw on during play.
These more mechanical sections are explained well and breezily. It takes little time to get to the next section on how to actually put all this into practice.
The game has some overall guidance for how a session of “Candela Obscura” will go. Each one is an assignment which comes from the wider organisation. A lot of the time this comes from the Circle’s Lightbringer, the person in charge who is a retired member of the Obscura. It falls on the GM to flesh this out. It feels like such a fundamental NPC that it should be a group activity and part of the ‘Creating your Circle’ section in the previous pages.
We get some more detailed advice on how to use the various mechanisms in more detail. Drives, Resistances, and actions are all broken down further but not in excruciating nuance. It is all good, solid advice delivered succinctly. This section rounds out with a full example of play which is something I really like to see in an RPG.
Over the next 90 or so pages the world of Candela Obscura is laid out. From how the supernatural works to individual locations in the main city of Newfaire. I found it to be detailed without belabouring any particular point. It left room enough for me to be able to see the gaps where I could insert my own ideas and interpretations. I think if you like a rich setting, you won’t be disappointed.
There is an odd tonal shift at the start of this section. Suddenly comparisons are made to ‘your world’ like someone is taking us on a cross-dimensional tour. It does drop this style relatively quickly but the change in writing is weird and really stands out.
The art really is excellent throughout. Bits and pieces of the background come out through ‘found documents’ that are scattered throughout the text. I found the font on some of these a bit hard to read at times.
The game makes it clear that despite a history of wars with another country, bigotry and racism are not part of the culture of this world. Prominent NPCs are detailed along with their pronouns. This is something I realise more games should provide, so I think it is worth drawing attention to here.
The setting feels like it has its focus on Newfaire. This is the big city in the Fairelands, the region of the world your adventures will take place in. There is hinted at detail about other places in the world, but our focus is this region.
Each area of Newfaire is detailed along with a brief tourist guide to the prominent places and people. An example assignment for each area is a great touch that gives the GM a hook into that location.
Below Newfaire lie the ruins of the previous city, Oldfaire. This was inhabited by a civilisation that tried to harness the power of Magick, but collapsed. This area is almost as detailed as Newfaire, feeling like a setting in and of itself. It can maybe be an in for the dungeons that fans of D&D will be more familiar with.
Advice for running the game is tucked away right at the back of the book. Here we get a set of GM principles, akin to the ‘truths’ at the start of the book. One of those is ‘make a move when the fiction demands it’. These moves are effectively narrative reactions the GM can deploy in response to character successes and failures.
Session zero is advocated for and there are some example Lightkeepers (finally!). There is even some advice on spotlighting players. It is weirdly tucked under combat advice, but spotlighting properly can be used at all times around a table. I would have liked to have seen this pulled out of combat and expanded upon more if you are going to include it at all.
Countdown dice are introduced as a way to track certain narrative beats. This feels like clocks from Blades in the Dark. I like the use of dice to do this and I might actually steal that for games of Blades in the future. Countdowns in general are a useful GM tool I recommend you look into.
Finally the book rounds out with assignment structures and 4 examples to get you going. This is very welcome as it shows how varied they can be and the different feel and tones you can get from them. It really shows off the potential of the setting.
Candela Obscura is an intriguing proposition. It has taken the core of Blades in the Dark, and then weaved it through an investigative focused game. I like the player economy and choices that lie at the core of the system, and the setting feels alive and interesting. I’ll definitely be putting this on the play pile and bring you the adventures of my circle down the line.
Candela Obscura was given to me by Darrington Press.
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