![]() ![]() Every character archetype - of which there are five - have distinct roleplay triggers, or Illumination Keys, that fill a pool of experience, eventually filling up and advancing the cohort as a whole. Everything else is divining tea leaves at present.Ĭandela Obscura's version of crews, called Circles, and how they earn Illumination is a clever, interwoven system and shows off this game at its best. ![]() It uses a pool of six-sided dice and favours small campaign arcs with narrative-focused sessions. Tabletop RPGs are translations of standard rules into a specific genre or playstyle, but the designers’ intent with Candela Obscura remains unclear without that original text. I want to pull out bits of design I like and some I don’t, but that discussion should be framed by a curious omission on Darrington Press’ part - we haven’t seen this Illuminated Worlds system, yet. As a final quibble, I wish all designers would make page number references mandatory, already. Key vocabulary, such as ‘marks’, are referenced well before they’re defined, and all of the guidance for running a session is nested contextually inside the example assignment (Candela Obscura’s term for adventures) - the results will be difficult to parse for newcomers. Each individual section is well-written but feels separate from each other. That’s a hell of a pedigree, and even if the digital document doesn’t yet list those games publicly (something Starke addressed on Twitter) it wears them on its structural sleeves.Īs a play document, Candela Obscura’s quickstart guide isn’t the best foot forward. Steampunk heist sensation Blades in the Dark is mixed here with Vaesen’s mystery-based approach to encounters, and there’s a bit of Powered by the Apocalypse’s myriad progeny informing character progression. Lead designers Spenser Starke and Rowan Hall have made no bones about Candela Obscura’s inspirations. Maddie has the lowdown on earning top scares from your RPG players. Couple that with a worrying hesitancy to let the mechanics uplift any actual storytelling, and this first showing of the Illuminated World’s system feels quite dim. The RPG’s richly realised world and fascinating take on 1920s post-war anxiety/optimism is undercut by a deep identity crisis around performing as a horror game. Judging by Candela Obsura’s quickstart guide, released for free in late May, I’m left feeling ambivalent about that possible future. When Darrington Press, the company behind Critical Role and its increasing line of byproducts and spinoffs, announced that monthly actual play Candela Obscura would use a newly designed, bespoke system to power its gothic horror storylines, I wondered if it could be the bridge that allowed the colloquial Critters an avenue into the rich vein of tabletop titles beyond Wizards of the Coast’s shadow. It doesn’t help that some of the most popular titles - those often synonymous with the hobby - have done little to disabuse their fans of this notion. combat eventually ends and gives way to roleplay. Many tabletop RPG players and facilitators make the common mistake of believing that storytelling exists outside of mechanics, that the two facts can be mutually exclusive - e.g. ![]()
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