Critical Role Announces Candela Obscura – A Horror RPG 3-Shot With A Brand New System
Critical Role ventures once more into a world of gaslamps and occult investigators. But this time, with their own game: Candela Obscura.
Critical Role’s newly announced Candela Obscura is both an upcoming Horror TTRPG and streaming show. Both the system and the show share the name Candela Obscura. And both are set in a world that is like ours at the turn of the 20th Century (1907, to be precise) but that has been built atop the ruins of an “alchemical civilization.”
Which not only gives strong Call of Cthulhu Vibes, it also evokes the underrated Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, though with decidedly less elves and orcs in tailcoats. Candela Obscura uses the Illuminated Worlds system, itself developed by Darrington Press, Critical Role’s own publishing imprint. The call, it seems, is coming from inside the house. And what a call it is.
Candela Obscura
Candela Obscura is an ongoing 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. Leveraging gaming as a story mechanic, the series features the Candela Obscura tabletop roleplaying game from Darrington Press, which is built on the Illuminated Worlds system.
This TTRPG show is set in a fictional turn-of-the-century inspired region known as The Fairelands, a place of terrifying magick. At the beginning of each episode, an inciting incident occurs, prompting a team, or circle, of investigators to uncover and solve the mystery at hand.
This means that it’s a completely standalone series – you can jump right in on whichever episode you’d like and don’t need to be caught up on any of our other content to enjoy the story.
The series will be a monthly anthology series that realeases the last Thursday of every month. It sounds like it’ll be a rotating cast throughout different arcs. The first one is a three-session story that premieres May 25th and runs through the next three months.
After that, we’ll see where the show amd system go. But this is a big step forward for Critical Role, moving into giving their own games the spotlight. One can’t help but wonder what sort of show might air when Daggerheart comes into fruition.
In the meantime, tune in May 25th for Candela Obscura!
