I Think We’re Missing the Point of Candela Obscura.

Even the Critical Role cast seems to have forgotten the point.

The Illuminated Worlds system is intended for one-shots and convention games. It was never intended for long term campaign style play. I wish everyone would take a deep breath and remember that. Candela Obscura is just one game setting for Illuminated Worlds.

I’ve seen a handful of well thought out, well written reviews condemning Candela Obscura for being a bad game. Honestly I’ve heard enough not to spend my sparse cash on this thing. However, I am open to reading a review copy if anyone wants to float me the PDF. (Hey, Darrington… j/k.) For everything else, there’s the quick start guide.

Is the system that terrible?

I can’t comment on it directly, but I have seen reviews from a handful of what I consider to be reputable sources- Taron “Indestructoboy” Pounds, Grim Jim, and Bob the Worldbuilder among others. Anyone leaving anything other than a glowing review for the game seems to be met with extremely toxic behavior. Black Lodge Games went all in on a negative review. I hope those guys are okay. Some of y’all Critical Role fans worry me.

Unfortunately, anyone leaving a negative review faces the wrath of viciously angry Critical Role fans. Some of the reviewers have been threatened with violence, doxing, and death. It has gotten nasty for a couple of people. Even one YouTuber gave Candela a lukewarm review and received serious threats. The toxic culture that seems to be insulating Candela Obscura and Darrington Press might actually be a bigger story for another day.

Candela Obscura is the flagship setting for Illuminated Worlds. IW, in turn, is mostly based on Blades in the Dark, which is based on Powered By the Apocalypse system. I’ve honestly on the fence when it comes to PbtA games. I love Monster of the Week, and I want to review Blades in the Dark and Scum & Villainy one of these days. They’re all fascinating PbtA takes on different genres. Would I feel the same way about Candela?

Illuminated Worlds, by all accounts, has some conceptual flaws. I contend there is no tabletop roleplaying game mechanic that can’t be rewritten or changed so it works. I think Candela Obscura gets by on the highly narrative nature of the PbtA base. Narrative, story based gaming is what the Critical Role cast excels in. They make it look easy, and it’s probably no big deal for them.

I think people were expecting a full-fledged game like they play on Critical Role.

Critical Role ushered thousands, if not millions of fans into the world’s most famous fantasy d20 RPG. That’s great. The Critical Role cast makes it look easy. Matt Mercer is truly an admirable GM. (*Yes, I give Mercer lots of crap on the blog at times, but I really do admire him. I share a birthday with the guy, btw.) The d20 fantasy system is flexible and could have just as easily been used for Candela the setting. I think the idea was to get the Illuminated Worlds line rolling.

Given the reviews and reading the Quick Start guide, I feel like the Illuminated Worlds engine was rushed through production. Yes, the CR cast/Mercer or Spenser make it look good on camera. IW lends itself very well to the narrative environment. I also think the GMs and cast do a very good job of making the rules work, much like they do on CR.

Spenser Starke helped write the game along with Rowan Hall. Any time a game designer runs a session, they can tweak and fix rules on the fly. That’s why I feel writers make for poor playtest GMs because we know what we intended to do. There’s definitely a bit of bias toward making the game fun more than functional. Mechanical issues can be rectified off camera/after the session.

Addressing some of the criticism.

For the record, I like some of what I see with Candela Obscura, but it doesn’t feel like a complete setting or system. Mechanically, it feels incredibly rushed. Criticisms of the setting have gotten my attention but watching the CR cast play it make it seem more friendly. I think both setting as well as system are redeemable.

A lot of the critics point to all of the disclaimers and safety warnings that come with the game. Horror doesn’t bother me in the slightest. (See also my love for Monster of the Week and horror movies.) I usually espouse safety tools for any game, so it’s no big deal to me. I also love Call of Cthulhu and SCP RPG, so they’re never going to show me something too shocking. I can see where people might take issue if they’re sensitive to trauma or squeamish. That’s okay and it’s good to warn players ahead of time.

I also hear the setting is built to basically implode on itself. Gee, where does this sound familiar? Hmm… World of Darkness, anyone?

The original Vampire Camarilla and Sabbat were rife with internal stress and should have never made it was organizations with all of the infighting. Werewolf the Apocalypse had similar issues. It also didn’t help that everything in WoD was at odds with every other faction and creature in the setting. Messed up settings are nothing new in horror games.

The world of the SCP Foundation is another example of a setting that shouldn’t logically come together. Candela reminds me a bit of SCP. Here’s a faction trying to keep the supernatural at bay or contained. The agents of Candela try to protect the public from magic, fay nasties, and other horrors. The monsters are real in both settings. So, I’m used to horror settings that don’t completely make sense from the outside in.

Again, I’m poised to change my opinion of Candela Obscura upon reading the full document for better or worse. The Quick Start Guide is pretty good, actually. I like the adventure. The world is interesting to me and I think the rules could definitely work at conventions, which is what it is built for.

Is Candela a hardcore horror combat game? If you’re big on shooting your way through horror game combat encounters, it’s not as great of a game. Other systems/settings do combat a lot better. If you love social, investigative, and exploration encounters, Candela is fabulous. I think that’s why it does so well on camera. I could have fun with this thing, but there are other games and systems that work just as well.

Critters, please don’t hate me?

Hey, I used to be a rabid Palladium Games fan, especially Ninjas & Superspies, Mechanoids, and Rifts. The Palladium fanbase make the Critters look kinda tame sometimes. I also happen to be a big Beyond the Supernatural fan, so the enjoyment of horror games is nothing new to me. My family doesn’t do horror games making it hard to run them. I’m tough to intimidate in real paranormal investigations, btw.

Honestly, #ttrpgfamily, games are meant to be fun. We’re all (mostly) human. We’re going to make mistakes and disagree, but in the end we’re just here to have a good time. Let’s just enjoy the games we love and let others do their own thing. How many N&S fans are out there? I get it.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I appreciate you, even if we maybe don’t agree. Please embrace that which brings the most joy. See you tomorrow.