Critical Role’s production arm, Darrington Press, released the core rulebook of Candela Obscura today. The rulebook comes in a basic and limited edition and includes rules on character building, running a campaign, and lore about the Fairelands.
Critical Role’s Candela Obscura has been a series on their channel since May of this year, with their Twitch stream revealing the new system’s existence. The system, focused on occult investigation, was poised as a “monthly horror drama that follows an esoteric order of investigators as they use centuries of knowledge to fight back against a mysterious source of corruption and bleed.”
Unlike their flagship game of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Candela Obscura promised to expand into a new Illuminated Worlds system, with a “Lightkeeper” replacing a standard Dungeon Master.
While players could watch Critical Role’s journey through the horror-inspired land, they lacked information from the horse’s mouth about what the world was all about. There were also no published rules—though the system is purposefully rules-light—so it was impossible to realistically play yourself. The only guide we had before now was a six minute video and watching along with the cast.
That changed Nov. 14th, with the release of the Candela Obscura rulebook. In addition, Darrington Press released several resources for starting the game, including character sheet tools through Demiplane Nexus, an online repository of tabletop character sheets and rules.
The books themselves cost $39.99 for the standard edition and $59.99 for the limited edition. The limited edition’s cover is faux leather with a embossed metallic design on it, making it striking from a distance. However, the limited edition is mostly collector eye candy and support for the business; the base rulebook is all you need to start enjoying the system for yourself.
Candela Obscura is currently observing tentative success on Critical Role’s channel. Nestled between their more popular DnD 5E campaigns, it still surpasses 100k views on YouTube consistently, as well as thousands of live viewers on Twitch. With a core rulebook to direct players and Lightkeepers alike, the system will likely be revitalized in ways we haven’t seen since May.
While we don’t expect to see Candela Obscura overtake the TTRPG world from more traditional options, it is always nice to see competition show up from talented designers, artists, and minds. And Candela Obscura offers a more high-power look on occult investigations than old stays like Call of Cthulhu, making it fresh and engaging. It has a class-based—or Specialization-based—character building style, a world that is fascinating to explore for mystery builders and solvers alike, and many different ways to roll six-sided dice.
We’re excited to see if Candela Obscura will continue to get support, either through expansions or traditional adventure guides. For now, follow the light, brave investigators. But mind its flicker.
