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Candela Obscura Core Rulebook
Investigators, ready yourselves. Candela Obscura needs you!
The Candela Obscura Core Rulebook is a fully detailed guide on playing and gamemastering the collaborative investigative horror tabletop roleplaying game. As an investigator of the paranormal secret society Candela Obscura, you and your circle are charged with exploring, fighting, and protecting the people of Newfaire from supernatural dangers lurking in the folds of a bustling world unaware of the occult magick simmering beneath. Candela Obscura is the very first game to use the Illuminated Worlds System as well as the first full RPG from Darrington Press, as featured in the ongoing anthology series on Critical Role.
Inside of the Candela Obscura Core Rulebook you’ll discover:
- 204 detailed pages, with a satin ribbon to keep your place.
- The core rules to play and create your Candela Obscura investigators and their circles.
- Over 90 pages detailing the turn of the century-inspired setting of the Fairelands, and in detail the city of Newfaire and the ancient ruins beneath known as Oldfaire.
- 4 full example assignments for gamemasters to dive in with their players.
- Over 30 example assignments to explore far-flung corners of the Fairelands and the organizations and people operating within it.
- An extensive guide to preparing for and gamemastering Candela Obscura.
- Immersive, in-world ephemera and notes strewn throughout the chapters—illustrations, sketches, research notes, correspondences, advertisements, maps, and more to bring the Fairelands to life.
Now is your time to accept the call of Candela Obscura! Ready your dice and accessories and get ready to play!
Cover Design: De La Rosa Design
The Candela Obscura Core Rulebook is a fully detailed guide on playing and gamemastering the collaborative investigative horror tabletop roleplaying game. As an investigator of the paranormal secret society Candela Obscura, you and your circle are charged with exploring, fighting, and protecting the people of Newfaire from supernatural dangers lurking in the folds of a bustling world unaware of the occult magick simmering beneath. Candela Obscura is the very first game to use the Illuminated Worlds System as well as the first full RPG from Darrington Press, as featured in the ongoing anthology series on Critical Role.
Inside of the Candela Obscura Core Rulebook you’ll discover:
- 204 detailed pages, with a satin ribbon to keep your place.
- The core rules to play and create your Candela Obscura investigators and their circles.
- Over 90 pages detailing the turn of the century-inspired setting of the Fairelands, and in detail the city of Newfaire and the ancient ruins beneath known as Oldfaire.
- 4 full example assignments for gamemasters to dive in with their players.
- Over 30 example assignments to explore far-flung corners of the Fairelands and the organizations and people operating within it.
- An extensive guide to preparing for and gamemastering Candela Obscura.
- Immersive, in-world ephemera and notes strewn throughout the chapters—illustrations, sketches, research notes, correspondences, advertisements, maps, and more to bring the Fairelands to life.
Now is your time to accept the call of Candela Obscura! Ready your dice and accessories and get ready to play!
Cover Design: De La Rosa Design
204 pages, Hardcover
Published November 14, 2023
26 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 19, 2023
Candela Obscura is the first TTRPG system by Darrington Press, more commonly known as the folks from Critical Role. As such, I found it an interesting choice that they did not go for stealing a share from the DnD crowd and instead released this game. It's a horror game set in a fantasy world with a technology level loosely equivalent to early 20th century. There's magick in the world, and it is bad, and it must be investigated by a society called Candela Obscura. Main location for the setting is the city of Newfaire, a mix between New York, Amsterdam, Paris, maybe Edinburgh. It's been built on the ruins of Oldfaire, a previous empire that used magick heavily and perished in a cataclysmic event near 2,000 years ago.
The rules system itself is called 'Illuminated Worlds' and was created by Stras Acimovic, known for Scum and Villainy, and Band of Blades. To me, Illuminated Worlds really did not seem very far away from Forged in the Dark, but what do I know? It genuinely feels like a love letter to Blades in the Dark, only less punishing, not as heavy on the rules that make BitD such an intimidating system to run. Each character has three main stats, called drives: Nerve, Cunning and Intuition, with 3 moves each per drive. You can spend points in your drive pool to get extra d6, which reminded me of using Effort in the Cypher System. Each character has gilded moves, which allow you to roll a second set of dice that can be used to replenish your drive pool. When you roll, the highest die result counts, with 6 being a full success and 4-5 being partial. And that's pretty much it. As GM, you only have to set the stakes for a roll, there are 9 possible actions, it's pretty straightforward.
The book itself is gorgeous. From the beautiful cover, to gorgeous maps, to evocative artwork, it's really a gem. The setting is quite interesting, I always love a bit of technology in my fantasy game. As far as worldbuilding goes, I was a bit disappointed. Much like Blades in the Dark, Newfaire's city districts get one page each, with a few plot hooks, and that's it. I prefer my settings a bit richer than this, but this might be a me-problem. Also, why play this over Vaesen? Vaesen has the same premise. Secret society hunting magic, in the late 19th century. I love Vaesen and its super-evocative art, and it's folklore-rich stories.
My biggest disappointment is probably that I do not see longevity for a really long campaign here. The book presents many factions, and you can probably craft yourself a campaign arc here, but all in all it's probably best as a short story arc game, Monster of the Week style. I will definitely run it at my table, but much like the Critical Role streams, it might not have more longevity to have more than 3-5 assignments for a circle of investigators.
If you're looking for a fresh horror game, thought BitD is too complex and haven't tried Vaesen, I highly recommend picking this up. Despite my misgivings, I am excited to run this game in February.
The rules system itself is called 'Illuminated Worlds' and was created by Stras Acimovic, known for Scum and Villainy, and Band of Blades. To me, Illuminated Worlds really did not seem very far away from Forged in the Dark, but what do I know? It genuinely feels like a love letter to Blades in the Dark, only less punishing, not as heavy on the rules that make BitD such an intimidating system to run. Each character has three main stats, called drives: Nerve, Cunning and Intuition, with 3 moves each per drive. You can spend points in your drive pool to get extra d6, which reminded me of using Effort in the Cypher System. Each character has gilded moves, which allow you to roll a second set of dice that can be used to replenish your drive pool. When you roll, the highest die result counts, with 6 being a full success and 4-5 being partial. And that's pretty much it. As GM, you only have to set the stakes for a roll, there are 9 possible actions, it's pretty straightforward.
The book itself is gorgeous. From the beautiful cover, to gorgeous maps, to evocative artwork, it's really a gem. The setting is quite interesting, I always love a bit of technology in my fantasy game. As far as worldbuilding goes, I was a bit disappointed. Much like Blades in the Dark, Newfaire's city districts get one page each, with a few plot hooks, and that's it. I prefer my settings a bit richer than this, but this might be a me-problem. Also, why play this over Vaesen? Vaesen has the same premise. Secret society hunting magic, in the late 19th century. I love Vaesen and its super-evocative art, and it's folklore-rich stories.
My biggest disappointment is probably that I do not see longevity for a really long campaign here. The book presents many factions, and you can probably craft yourself a campaign arc here, but all in all it's probably best as a short story arc game, Monster of the Week style. I will definitely run it at my table, but much like the Critical Role streams, it might not have more longevity to have more than 3-5 assignments for a circle of investigators.
If you're looking for a fresh horror game, thought BitD is too complex and haven't tried Vaesen, I highly recommend picking this up. Despite my misgivings, I am excited to run this game in February.
January 13, 2024
The rules that this book provides have stunning gaps in what is meant to be a narrative story driven game. Candela Obscura is a game where you play a character who is part of a secret society who investigates magick phenomena and the occult, in a horror setting. A reviewer I watched called it more Penny Dreadful than Lovecraft. I tend to agree. Think if the X files was set at the turn of the 20th century. The lore of the setting called the Fairelands was pretty inspirational, and fun and almost made me want to play this game. Horror driven investigation games are not my usual thing, but if I ever find some willing “victims” I might give it a try. I think the system really misses the point on what normal ttrpg gamers want in a gaming system, most of us are not playing to an internet audience and that seems to be what this is optimized to do. Theater of the mind can be fun, but the GM has no way to act against the players only react to what they do, and combat is way too nebulous for my taste. It doesn’t have to be D&D combat but maybe a few more rules wouldn’t hurt. The lore was fun though. C+
August 16, 2025
Honestly, just play Call of Cthulhu instead. And or use this as a ‘setting guide’ for other systems.
October 21, 2025
A Penny Dreadful world of fantasy-overlapping-Edwardiana-mired-in-weirdness, Candela Obscura provides a setting that falls somewhere between Blades in the Dark (city, factions, group resources, equipment when you need it) and Vaesen (society vs the supernatural, working for a society that seeks to save the world from the shadows, shades of grey) with a game system that leans hard into the notion of narrative-over-crunch.
The good stuff? I love the layout and the scattered notes and images from the world. The setting felt engaging and offered enough examples that you could pick something and use it as the basis of an assignment.
The game uses six-sided dice, making it accessible to people who aren't familiar with or laden with polyhedrals.
The bad stuff? The game system runs very thin, and often, the text suggests "run with it" as the key approach to navigating the lack of guidance or system.
There's a watered-down version of Blades in the Dark scattered around, lacking the thorough subsystems or engagement that has made BitD so popular and hacked. Indeed, I wish they'd just Forged this setting rather than riffed off vague notions of BitD.
The setting I enjoyed reading, but the names were horrible, primarily fantasy fare that somehow pulled me out of the immersion. The game places a strong emphasis on inclusivity, which is commendable, but in its effort to avoid cultural appropriation in the setting, it veers into an awkward sort of fantasy. The intent is right, but the execution comes off feeling weird and disconnected.
The story-first approach is good, but the mechanics-last writing leaves the GM with a lot of mid to low-level stuff to make up on the fly or gloss over with theatrics. Enemies don't have stats; they represent different measures of threat that pose a problem for a short, medium, or long period of time (a sort of countdown die approach, which also gets a look-in, rather than BitD clocks). In a game filled with a sense of risk and threat, the outcome proves to be far less hazardous than an awkward or diversionary happenstance.
Yes, a lot of Year Zero has this feel of whittling away at conditions rather than dying, but there's mechanical substance to those conditions, but nothing so problematic surfaces here, and it makes the threat of a world that feels Old School into something like a Victorian cosplay pillow-fight.
Epilogue The whole of Candela Obscura feels a bit flimsy, almost like a game written based on a license that has to be published solely to make the whole deal worthwhile. It feels like they reached the end of the year and needed to get something over the wire before the stroke of midnight. The setting has promise, and a lot of the location material I would happily use elsewhere, but the system lacks sufficient substance.
The good stuff? I love the layout and the scattered notes and images from the world. The setting felt engaging and offered enough examples that you could pick something and use it as the basis of an assignment.
The game uses six-sided dice, making it accessible to people who aren't familiar with or laden with polyhedrals.
The bad stuff? The game system runs very thin, and often, the text suggests "run with it" as the key approach to navigating the lack of guidance or system.
There's a watered-down version of Blades in the Dark scattered around, lacking the thorough subsystems or engagement that has made BitD so popular and hacked. Indeed, I wish they'd just Forged this setting rather than riffed off vague notions of BitD.
The setting I enjoyed reading, but the names were horrible, primarily fantasy fare that somehow pulled me out of the immersion. The game places a strong emphasis on inclusivity, which is commendable, but in its effort to avoid cultural appropriation in the setting, it veers into an awkward sort of fantasy. The intent is right, but the execution comes off feeling weird and disconnected.
The story-first approach is good, but the mechanics-last writing leaves the GM with a lot of mid to low-level stuff to make up on the fly or gloss over with theatrics. Enemies don't have stats; they represent different measures of threat that pose a problem for a short, medium, or long period of time (a sort of countdown die approach, which also gets a look-in, rather than BitD clocks). In a game filled with a sense of risk and threat, the outcome proves to be far less hazardous than an awkward or diversionary happenstance.
Yes, a lot of Year Zero has this feel of whittling away at conditions rather than dying, but there's mechanical substance to those conditions, but nothing so problematic surfaces here, and it makes the threat of a world that feels Old School into something like a Victorian cosplay pillow-fight.
Epilogue The whole of Candela Obscura feels a bit flimsy, almost like a game written based on a license that has to be published solely to make the whole deal worthwhile. It feels like they reached the end of the year and needed to get something over the wire before the stroke of midnight. The setting has promise, and a lot of the location material I would happily use elsewhere, but the system lacks sufficient substance.
August 31, 2025
Une grande (re)découverte pour moi, qui avait entendu parlé de ce système de JDR d'enquête fantastique sans vraiment m'y pencher. Je le conseillerai à quiconque s'intéresse avant tout à la dimension narrative et aimerait bien se dispenser de devoir faire des maths pour jouer. Je trouve les règles cohérentes, intuitives et parfaites pour inciter les joueureuses à s'allier !
Pour ce qui est de l'ambiance, ça me semble pas mal d'avoir en tête qu'on est plus sur un setting de paranormal, fantastique, étrange qu'un univers véritablement orienté horreur lovecraftienne (même si je pense pas que ce soit incompatible).
J'ai parcouru la grande majorité du livre, avec quelques lectures en diagonale pour ce qui était du lore et de certains exemples donnés. Tout est très riche, avec des tonnes de cas pratiques et de conseils d'écriture. On sent vraiment la patte progressiste de Critical Role & co dans cet attachement aux outils et réflexes pour s'assurer le confort de tout le monde autour de la table.
Je crois que j'aurais bien aimé quelques pages supplémentaires dévolues à la construction de monstruosités et horreurs en tout genre !
Pour ce qui est de l'ambiance, ça me semble pas mal d'avoir en tête qu'on est plus sur un setting de paranormal, fantastique, étrange qu'un univers véritablement orienté horreur lovecraftienne (même si je pense pas que ce soit incompatible).
J'ai parcouru la grande majorité du livre, avec quelques lectures en diagonale pour ce qui était du lore et de certains exemples donnés. Tout est très riche, avec des tonnes de cas pratiques et de conseils d'écriture. On sent vraiment la patte progressiste de Critical Role & co dans cet attachement aux outils et réflexes pour s'assurer le confort de tout le monde autour de la table.
Je crois que j'aurais bien aimé quelques pages supplémentaires dévolues à la construction de monstruosités et horreurs en tout genre !
March 3, 2024
Candela Obscura is a cosmic horror game focused on investigating (and hopefully) surviving supernatural mysteries in a setting similar to our world at the start of the 20th century. In this world, magic exists as a source of power, but a source that is about as healthy to access as sticking your hand in a nuclear reactor.
I had a lot of fun reading this! The rules are easy to understand, the example game scenarios equally so, and the setting is inspiring and leaves a lot of possibles game-starters and game-styles. What I found extra enjoyable is the story being told through the margin notes, where you get to follow Lightkeeper Ezra Ashford and their relationship to Candela Obscura as an organization.
Looking forward to playing this!
I had a lot of fun reading this! The rules are easy to understand, the example game scenarios equally so, and the setting is inspiring and leaves a lot of possibles game-starters and game-styles. What I found extra enjoyable is the story being told through the margin notes, where you get to follow Lightkeeper Ezra Ashford and their relationship to Candela Obscura as an organization.
Looking forward to playing this!
December 12, 2024
A light version of Blades in the Dark, this is a Call of Cthulhu type game with more safety tools and less rules and lore.
The setting is bare bones but still set near that 1900 timeline that many of the Cthulhu games are set. It leans heavily on the gameplay that the Critical Role voice actors have done to support the game.
It is very streamlined and bare-boned. The game relies on the players to fill in the gaps of the setting and the rules but can be fun.
The setting is bare bones but still set near that 1900 timeline that many of the Cthulhu games are set. It leans heavily on the gameplay that the Critical Role voice actors have done to support the game.
It is very streamlined and bare-boned. The game relies on the players to fill in the gaps of the setting and the rules but can be fun.
December 7, 2023
The team at Critical Role has created a fantastic world and a great RPG system. I like the focus on story and mystery, with less emphasis on 'quests' and battles which seem to feature much more prominently in traditional DnD campaigns. That's not to say I don't enjoy Dungeons and Dragons.
I am excited to GM my first campaign.
I am excited to GM my first campaign.
July 29, 2024
The world is accomplished and this is a beautiful book to look at. Rules-wise it takes heavy inspiration here and there but manages to make mostly everything work in a coherent way. I dislike the Gilded Dice mechanic - while ok in principle, I don’t like its implementation as it never really demands a sacrifice but mostly relies on randomness. Will definitely try to run it.
February 14, 2024
I WAS HERE TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE GAME NOT TO CRY OVER THE NOTES OF LIGHTKEEPER EZRA ASHFORD
Anyways the rulebook is so beautifully put together and I can’t wait to master a game of Candela Obscura
Anyways the rulebook is so beautifully put together and I can’t wait to master a game of Candela Obscura
January 1, 2024
Interesting world building approach; but the rules feel unfinished, pulling the book into two different directions.
Read
January 25, 2024A mile wide and an inch deep
June 27, 2024
have not read cover to cover due to SPOILERS but combining what I have read with the 20+ hours of this game we've played, I am counting it toward my yearly total.
June 17, 2025
Great read, looking forward to running this. Highly recommended.
January 30, 2024
Absolutely amazing from start to finish, I can't wait to run my first game!
The rules are explained very clearly, and the (fascinating) universe still has a lot of room for your own creations, which I love. The art is gorgeous and exactly as creepy as it needs to be, and I absolutely adored the little "side story" in the margins - which may end up being an interesting assignment.
Kudos to all involved!
The rules are explained very clearly, and the (fascinating) universe still has a lot of room for your own creations, which I love. The art is gorgeous and exactly as creepy as it needs to be, and I absolutely adored the little "side story" in the margins - which may end up being an interesting assignment.
Kudos to all involved!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews