Candela Obscura May Light the Way For New Players

A beacon illuminating the future of tabletop roleplaying?

A Shifting Landscape

In the lead-up to next month’s Gen Con, the premier gaming event of the year, the tabletop RPG industry is poised for massive changes. After a Covid-induced hiatus in 2020, the convention has been slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels, reaching 50,000 attendees last year. While this was still shy of the 70,000 attendees in 2019, this year’s numbers are poised to meet or surpass last years.

Beyond the changes that a post-pandemic world has brought, the industry has been shaken up by the recent Dungeons & Dragons Open Game License (OGL) controversy. Wizards of the Coast’s (WotC) decision to revoke the OGL, which allowed third-party developers to create D&D-compatible content, sparked a wave of outrage amongst publishers and fans alike. While the company ultimately reversed its decision, the fallout prompted many designers to abandon D&D in favor of forging their own RPGs and system-agnostic supplements.

Amidst this upheaval, players are seeking alternatives to the long-standing dominance of D&D, and companies are seizing the opportunity to fulfill this demand. Prominent names like Kobold Press and Cubicle7 have already announced d20-based replacements for D&D, while other companies, like Paizo, are revising their rulebooks to erase any and all connections they might have to D&D.

Lingo check: a d20 game is any game that uses a 20-sided die as its main means of conflict resolution. D&D is only the most popular example of this mechanic.

In the midst of this sea change, one company stands poised to make its mark on the gaming landscape. With a unique set of offerings and an already massive fanbase, Darrington Press has the potential to break D&D’s stranglehold on the market and introduce players to a whole new world of roleplaying games.

Darrington Press Plays a Critical Role

Darrington Press, the publishing wing of the immensely popular web series, Critical Role, opened its doors in 2020. While they have only produced a handful of games so far, it is their ties to Critical Role that really sets them up to make a splash in the gaming space.

Critical Role, with its cast of beloved voice actors from the realms of anime and video games, played a pivotal role in introducing countless individuals to the world of roleplaying games back in 2014. Every week for the last ten years, Critical Role has entertained audiences with D&D livestreams, making it approachable through charismatic acting and captivating, story-driven campaigns. It is safe to say that Critical Role was instrumental in the explosive popularity of 5^th edition Dungeons & Dragons.

After nearly a decade of D&D adventures and the occasional foray into other systems, Critical Role announced that Darrington Press would be throwing their hat into the ring with not just one, but TWO new RPGs: the horror-investigation game Candela Obscura and the fantasy RPG Daggerheart. While details about Daggerheart are still shrouded in mystery, Candela Obscura has already unveiled a quickstart guide to immerse players in its victorian-horror setting. To showcase the system in action, Critical Role hosted a two-part actual play series, further generating excitement for the game.

Lingo check: an “actual play” is the colloquial term for a video or livestream in which a group of people play a TTRPG for the entertainment of an audience.

Contrary to speculation, neither Candela Obscura nor Daggerheart were born in response to the OGL controversy. RPGs take a lot of time and effort to create, making it implausible that anybody would throw one together just to stick it to WotC. However, the erosion of trust in WotC presents a perfect opportunity to entice players into trying new games. This, combined with the overwhelming popularity of Critical Role, means Darrington Press is in the perfect position to turn Candela Obscura into the next big RPG.

Candela Obscura: Gateway to a Greater World

In the world of Candela Obscura, players become members of a secret organization dedicated to fighting an otherworldly force known as “bleed.” Gameplay consists of investigating bleed-related phenomena, containing them, and collecting assets for your particular “circle” within the Candela Obscura organization. The recently released quickstart guide covers the essential lore in its first page, expanding upon the intricacies of the game’s world in a later chapter.

I am going to summarize the mechanics of the game below, but if you’d like a more detailed breakdown of the game and its mechanics, I recommend you listen to Spenser Starke, co-designer of the game, explain it in the video below:

To summarize: the primary mechanic involves rolling a number of d6s equal to your skill level in one of the nine primary skills. Success is determined by the highest roll, with a six representing a success, a four or five indicating a success with consequences, and anything lower signifying a failure.

Lingo check: a d6 is a six-sided die. Likewise, a d4 is a die with 4 sides, a d8 has 8 sides, etc.

This system resembles the game Blades in the Dark (BitD), a popular game and progenitor of the “Forged in the Dark” system. The creators freely acknowledge the influence of Blades in the Dark and other games such as Vaesen.

Lingo check: “Forged in the Dark” games apply the mechanics of Blades in the Dark to different settings. Popular examples include the games Scum and Villainy and Band of Blades.

Candela Obscura distinguishes itself from Blades in the Dark in its particulars. It places more responsibility on the Game Master (GM) to determine when rolls are necessary and guide players along a certain path. In contrast, BitD is more player-focused, encouraging improvisation and granting players agency to shape the adventure. This slight departure positions Candela Obscura somewhere between the GM-led storytelling of D&D and the player-led storytelling of BitD.

This dynamic is exemplified in the Candela Obscura quickstart guide’s included adventure, “Dressed to Kill.” While Blades in the Dark relies on loose quest hooks and D&D relies on meticulously crafted adventure books, Candela Obscura strikes a middle ground by offering players a structured scenario while allowing them considerable freedom within that framework.

For instance, in the opening scene, players are tasked with investigating a bleed-related incident in which a model dies after showcasing an unusually colored dress. The players are presented with multiple options to discover the origin of the dress, including conversations with witnesses or employing special equipment to trace the bleed back to the green room where it was delivered. GMs are encouraged to allow players to proceed however they want, and to adjust the scenario accordingly.

This balance between structured mechanics and open-ended storytelling places it between D&D and BitD in complexity, potentially serving as a bridge for new players exploring the RPG landscape.

By leading players away from the familiarity of D&D and guiding them towards new experiences, Candela Obscura may open doors to a plethora of new RPGs. Players may discover a newfound fascination with mystery and horror, leading them to TTRPGs such as Call of Cthulhu, the World of Darkness series, Trail of Cthulhu, Monster of the Week, and Vaesan.

While the amount of overlap between viewers and players is uncertain, Candela Obscura benefits from its association with Critical Role. The first episode of Candela Obscura has already garnered over 175,000 views on Twitch and more than 775,000 views on YouTube. Leveraging Critical Role’s track record of propelling RPGs to extraordinary success, there is a strong possibility that Candela Obscura will follow suit. If the game manages to captivate fans and entice them into the broader world of story-driven horror RPGs, it may usher in a broader surge of interest in RPGs as a whole.

Conclusion

Now all of this is just speculation on my part. However, I think Candela Obscura is a game worthy of attention. Whether it leads a dramatic shift in the realm of TTRPGs or not, it may still serve as a sign of where the tabletop gaming landscape is headed.

The true winds of change will reveal themselves at Gen Con next month, where players will have the opportunity to experience the mysteries of Candela Obscura first hand, and catch a glimpse of the multitude of new TTRPGs set to be unveiled. Gen Con carries much promise for the future of the industry, and I can not wait to experience the growth and innovation that is yet to come.

In the interim, I encourage all of you to embark on your own adventures, embracing something new and different. The Candela Obscura quickstart guide, available now from Darrington Press, provides a tantalizing entry point into your own horror-tinged campaign. For those who prefer something crunchier, I highly recommended Call of Cthulhu, as it offers a unique and accessible horror experience. And if you crave a little more freedom and flexibility in your games, I recommend you try to pull off a heist or two in Blades in the Dark.

It is important to note that neither Candela Obscura nor any other RPG is going to replace D&D, nor should they be expected to. The tabletop gaming space has room for many kinds of RPGs, each offering its own style and appeal. A diversity of games enriches the hobby for all.

Now I hand it off to you. Are you excited for the future of RPGs? Do you think Candela Obscura represents a sea change, or am I just overhyping this silly little horror game? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear from you! And if you want more hot takes on the future of the RPG industry, don’t forget to subscribe!

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IN OTHER NEWS

• Those who read my article last week might be interested to know that several Free RPG Day offerings have been made available for digital download:

  • The Dragonbane Quickstart from Free League Publishing is available for free over on DriveThruRPG. Dragonbane is the latest version of one of Sweden’s oldest RPGs, Drakar och Demoner (Dragons and Demons), widely available in English for the first time!

  • The Vampire: the Masquerade adventure “A Taste of the Moon” is available from Renegade Studios for $12, as is the GI Joe/Transformers crossover adventure “Cobra/Con Fusion.”

  • The Achtung! Cthulhu mission “Operation Kindling,” is available for free on Modiphius’ website. The Basic rules are included, making this an excellent quickstart guide as well.

• I will actually be at Gen Con this year! I’ll be running several games of Dungeon Crawl Classics to cover badge costs (sorry, seats are already sold out). If you want to get in touch while there, please send me a message!

• Finally, Paizo just released the full version of their ORC license – a licensing agreement that will allow creators to release their RPG rulesets for use in third-party publishing. A direct response to WotC’s OGL controversy, this license is set to change the way games are made. So far, no ORC-licensed products have been released (though Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying System (BRP) has been confirmed as an ORC licensee) but that will likely change fast in the coming months.