How to Play Candela Obscura by Critical Role | GM & Player Guide

[@BobWorldBuilder]

💥 Czepeku: www.patreon.com/czepeku ✅ LIKE & SHARE: kzbin.infovideos ✅ PATREON: www.patreon.com/bobworldbuilder

[@jeffreyfowler6k]

I use the Czepeku maps in my VTT constantly. Great plug, great maps! I love it when my worlds collide!

[@donnajanveau3749]

the mechanics do not end at page 7. if you really look for it in the sample assignment is a framework for assignment creation

[@lucaspettah]

The mechanic of helping eachother by spending drive points reminds me a lot of the friendship points used in tails of equestria, didn't expect that :)

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Haha never read that one, but the mechanic feels like it would be appropriate there too!

[@oz_jones]

Modiphius' Achtung! Cthulhu has a similar mechanic. EDIT: Not quite, but you can use tokens to change the scene or the outcome of a die roll in some meaningful way.

[@lucaspettah]

@@oz_jones interesting! I have never heard of that game but i did a quick search and it seems really fun! I might try an oneshot with my group one time, thanks! :)

[@swankidelic]

Blades in the Dark has entered the chat, lol. The system is *very* Powered By The Apocalypse

[@lyrebirb83]

Isn't tails of equestria really really good?

[@Gumby-vx7ki]

Hopefully, the success of Candela Obscura will encourage people to check out its amazing predecessors such as Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World. I will add that this type game is very fun for players who enjoy the creative, story-building aspects of tabletop role-playing. Players who primarily want to roll dice and kill stuff won't enjoy it as much.

[@nutsymcgregor]

Absolutely agree. As I listened to the rules all I could think was this was just Blades in the Dark with different names and setting. The system might be new to Critical Role fans but most of it isn’t actually new.

[@RobertJacobsMSCIS]

Both happy and disappointed that this is just Blades in The Dark. Happy that CR fans who are primarily D&D-only players will be exposed to new RPG systems; disappointed that it's pretty much Blades reskinned. I love Blades; I think it has added significantly to the hobby. Other than (hopefully) aforementioned exposure, what does CANDELA OBSCURA bring to the table? Nothing of significance that I've discovered yet.

[@kdolo1887]

@@RobertJacobsMSCIS This comment is an insult to Blades in the Dark

[@davidjennings2179]

Seen quite a few people complaining this is similar to blades in the dark (and a few other d6 pool games) and I totally agree...but I don't think that's a bad thing. Critical role could send a load of new players into the world of this style of game. When we had the OGL mess up a ton of people went to pathfinder but no further into the TTRPG world. I'm looking forward to a new era of TTRPGs.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Yeah I don't think people will be complaining if Daggerheart is similar to D&D and Pathfinder!

[@cuttingscizor]

The reason people are complaining this is similar to Blades in the Dark, is that it's *really* similar to Blades in the Dark, and in the marketing they underlined that it was going to be an entirely new, different system they made from scratch.

[@feuerstrassen9446]

This game is not just a wee bit like Blades in the Dark, it's a lazy hack of Blades. I've got nothing against bringing players towards games like Blades, since in my opinion it is THE best designed TTRPG (remember: my opinion). Drives are just stress. Scars are trauma. Skills from "role" and "speciality" are very Baldes-ish (but also Sprawl-ish). Illumination Keys are just EXP-triggers. Gear also works just the same. Helping other people with drive (or stress) works exactly the same. There are some tweeks here and there, I like the look and feel of it, but damn this version of Blades in the Dark called Candela Obscura needs the "Forged in the Dark"-Sticker...

[@davidjennings2179]

@@feuerstrassen9446 And maybe people will try Candella Obscura and then move from that to blades or one of the others - the point I'm trying to make is less a comparison between the systems and more that I think CR have the ability to introduce people to more styles than they would otherwise try. Most people were used to a d20 system so went to pathfinder without branching out into less familiar systems. Perhaps once they've dipped their toes in this they'll be happier to try new systems, maybe more so if the alternatives are more fleshed out. I think this could really be the start of a good thing for the diversity of TTRPGs and am excited for what it might bring.

[@nojusticenetwork9309]

So Candela Obscura is like Blades in the Dark....and? No one was complaining when Pathfinder worked very similarly to D&D 3.5 and still is largely based on that system. If CO takes inspiration from Blades, my opinion is to let them cook because, and this is important to remember, Candela Obscura is still in its playtest phase. The system has only reached a point that they are willing to showcase it to the general public with a quick start guide. It's possible that tweaks are gonna happen between now and when they officially decide to launch the game itself.

[@sventhescribe]

It's very interesting approaching it as a GM since the fact that your monsters and other dangers don't have any stats of their own mean it's very easy to prep but you *really* need to focus on flavor and working with what the players put out into the game. Yes, you should be doing that with any game, but this especially requires it.

[@Morcarag]

Yeah. This is one of the trickiest / weirdest parts of Blades in the Dark. It has to be approached very carefully I feel. It’s easy for the GM to make arbitrary choices and for player actions to feel like they don’t matter as much (which is funny cause everything the GM does is playing off of those actions in theory). It just feels very weird to do something like “I close the distance and try to wreck the enemy goon.” “Ok, as you close in they slash at you with a concealed knife and you take 2 body damage.” No rolling, no sneaky ability the enemy was waiting to spring, no chance to avoid it. It just happens cause the GM felt like this bad guy should do some damage but not too much to really derail things. It can be a weird way to play and really requires carefully handling in a way that something like D&D doesn’t.

[@thegrandwombat8797]

@@Morcarag I don't think that would happen, if an enemy is significantly more powerful than you they might get some damage for free but typically damage would be a consequence of a negative roll. That's definitely how it works in Blades - you can have the enemy use an attack by itself as a GM but unless they outclass the players, at which point it'd take using resources to avoid damage, the attack would be resolved by how successfully the PC responds, whether by rolling out of the way, blocking and counterattacking, or whatever they choose (with different difficulties depending). That said, without the more detailed stats for enemies that D&D has, or a dedicated combat system, it's true that it's more up in the air and needs the GM to put a decent level of thought into it.

[@z-beeblebrox]

Easy to prep IF you're good at improv and comfortable as a storyteller, but like all ttrpgs with narrative mechanics, if you're not that kind of GM it's actually a lot MORE prep for you than a traditional rpg.

[@Keovar]

14:14 - Octarine, the ‘Colour of Magick’. It’s a kind of bright greenish orange-purple, but it may only be visible to your peripheral vision, if you see it at all. At least that’s how I used the conceptual color in my Dungeons of Drakkenheim game. Pratchett nicked it from Lovecraft, and various game materials have carried it forward.

[@greenwithenvy0184]

What Taliesin is referring to with the concept of new colours is the chemical creation of aniline dye, which is the first synthetic dye known. Colours that had never before been seen on textiles appeared and took the fashion world by storm. Mauve, a shortening of mauvine, the first dye synthesized by William Henry Perkin, is only one of the colour words still in common usage that stem from his discovery.

[@Luboffin]

Such a pleasant surprise hearing my name in this video 🥰 Thanks for the shoutout Bob! 💖Great video from you as always.

[@a.block.of.tofu.]

I'm not sure I'd play it over Call of Cthulu or Delta Green but I think it's a pretty good riff on Fitd games. Its simple and will bring a lot of 5e players to try it and hopefully other games as well. I'm pretty curious to see the illuminated worlds system itself.

[@Seth9809]

Yeah, for one, the ability scores and skills are arranged in the weirdest way so far.

[@gordonmcinnes8328]

Second this. Call of Cthulu has a load of established resource and the lore too.

[@lozadorni9195]

Quick rules correction. The circle gains new abilities when the illumination track is fully filled. The bolden circles are called milestones, which interact with certain circle abilities such as 'Resource Management'.

[@Duhad8]

More small, light RPGs is never a bad thing in my book and having one coming from a source as well regarded as CR will likely help draw more attention to RPGs NOT aiming to fill the D&D/D20 system mold. So ya in principle I love this and in practice it looks very solid! So win win!

[@z-beeblebrox]

What I like is that it's a simplification of Blades in the Dark - not that Blades NEEDS to be simplified, but doing so only helps player buy-in - and I love that there's a tracking sheet for the whole party. That's a great mechanical addition that I think more rpgs should have. With games tailored more for one-shots or short campaign, it's necessary to have something that makes the players feel connected with each other, and wanting to come back to this collective of characters later

[@kemanorel3110]

I also think I can see Candela Obscura working for a collection of one-shots with the same party with every small adventure being connected to a greater plot that culminates in a big final one. It makes it really easy to break things up into smaller stories that might _seem_ episodic but then all tie together in a finale, almost like episodes in a season of a TV show.

[@TylerSantinelli]

I appreciate the way it builds in help mechanics, I've seen 5e games in which every skill check devolves into "...and I help!" with no mechanical limit to actions like that. Fun to see a die pool game with big backing like this, too.

[@sillyking1991]

Thats because the help action is, itself, a limiter. Its one way the rules prevent pile on skill checks (i.e. every player making tbe skill check until someone succeeds. The other way is with the introduction of group checks.

[@faadias]

Dammit! Now I found out I absolutely need a video of Bob, Grace and Steve the Animal playing Candela Obscura 😅

[@BobWorldBuilder]

That would be great! :)

[@smilemore7431]

It’s strange that a game about a world consumed in supernatural horrors would have any similarities to Candela Obscura.

[@TakaD20]

Second

[@mordyth]

Yearsh!

[@graylinbeaudry4651]

ive watched a couple of break downs of this rule set and you were the only person who made this seem like an enjoyable game type. thank you for your take on a new way to story tell.

[@tzviizaksonas8572]

hell yeah, i love how simple this sounds

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Totally. It's different from D&D, but it's still simple!

[@deathbykonami5487]

It does look fun, where it lacks in combat encounters, it makes up with Intellect puzzles since it's a horror mystery game. Intellect puzzles, if done right, make you feel like an amateur Sherlock Holmes when you figure out the answer. And the resource pool that you can use at the end of the sessions, while limited, motivates you to make smarter decisions with what you have.

[@ooccttoo]

For anyone confused about this game being very similar to Blades in the Dark: that's most likely intentional. There's a whole set of games out there that are using the "Forged in the Dark" license to make games with similar mechanics. You got Scum and Villainy, Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants, Girls by Moonlight, Band of Blades, Level Zero, Swords Under the Sun, and the wonderful one-page RPG Pigeons in the Park. And many more! So yeah, nothing unusual about Candela Obscura being Forged in the Dark. Although it would be good if they were more upfront about it, since I only realised it was FitD when I watched this video. EDIT: Apparently there is acknowledgment of Blades in the Dark and its writer John Harper in the book, which is pretty much all I need. Could be good to put a little “inspired by Blades in the Dark” tagline in the ads and announcements but I don’t think that would be legally necessary (just helpful to people interested in the game).

[@Morcarag]

That’s the main thing. It’s been presented and marketed (so far) as a brand new system from the Critical Role team. Had it just been presented as a Forged in the Dark game, no one would have had any issue (though the hype leading up to its reveal might have been less).

[@SingularityOrbit]

@@Morcarag There is one person who can speak to this point. His name is John Harper. I'm curious what he has to say, but until he comments publicly then the rest of us are only guessing. That said, it would have been really good of CR to use the opportunity to give BitD some publicity. "If you like our game, there are other games in different genres which are similar enough that they'd be easy for you to try out, too!" Let's just remember that they may own a publishing company now, but they're professional voice actors and not experts in the legal minutiae of these new ventures. Matt and company are learning as they go, and they're doing it with a huge audience watching them make mistakes live. For my part, I want to give them enough time to learn to do things better. But, yeah, it was a mistake not to simply say they were developing a Forged in the Dark game to begin with.

[@johnclikeman5041]

@@SingularityOrbit I disagree that we should grade Critical Role on a curve because they're new at this. They want to be game publishers, so they should be held to the same standards as anyone else who publishes games. But I also don't think there's anything wrong with what they've done here. As a legal matter, they didn't copy any material from the Blades in the Dark SRD, so they are under no obligation to identify themselves as a Forged in the Dark game. Of course they should give credit to games that inspired Candela (not just Blades, but other systems as well). But they've done that. Their lead designer Tweeted thanks to Blades in the Dark the same day the quickstart was released, and said that it would be credited in the full rulebook, which was all they ever needed to do. Also, for the record, John Harper responded to that Tweet and seems completely satisfied with the credit. I think adding the full acknowledgement to the quickstart guide was a positive step, but ultimately we're only arguing about what degree of above and beyond their obligations CR went, or should have gone. People who got the impression that Critical Role was trying to hide the connection between their system and others were reading into their statements things CR never said.

[@SingularityOrbit]

@@johnclikeman5041 I'm not saying grade on a curve, but rather to be patient enough to see if they fix errors in judgement. Such as the pith helmets incident, which they quickly resolved by changing their entire CR Campaign 3 opening. Or, in this case, by adding to the quickstart document to include mention of BitD. There's been some jumping on the bandwagon online around this, when it's enough that it was already mentioned in multiple places online. Beyond that, though, I think your last couple of sentences expressed what I was trying to say better than my whole post. "Arguing about what degree of above and beyond their obligations CR went, or should have gone." Perfect.

[@thewayiseeful]

I feel that beyond this, their game designer for Illuminated Worlds (system used by candela obscura) is Stras Acimovic, who is also a game designer for Band of Blades, Blades in the Dark and Scum and Villainy, as the lead designer for CO Spenser Starke also designed Kids in Brooms, so I don't see much of a problem in the very 'on the nose inspiration', it makes a lot of sense

[@TylerAndToast]

I love the idea of the role play elements even within the character sheet. The character development seems thematically strong. Big fan of that

[@KuittheGeek]

I was never very interested in a Cosmic Horror/Lovecraftian style of game, but I recently picked up a large bundle of Tiny D6 games from Gallant Knight Games, and read over the Tiny Cthulhu system, and I actually want to try it with my gaming group now. And seeing Candela Obscura, I might look into that as well, although I am probably more excited to try Tiny Cthulhu.

[@Rayne_Storms]

Thanks for giving us the rundown! It looks like they're building something pretty cool. Also I think the plot hook you referenced at the end is also inspired by "radium green" and the real-world fallout from trying to use radiation in fun ways.

[@sarahraynore6713]

It is! They do talk about it on the adventure description in quite more detail of what one would expect in a roleplaying quickstart adventure

[@TheTweener54]

I'm excited everyday I see a new Bob video pop up in my feed

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Thank you! :)

[@TheSDBux]

Bob... You have a way of explaining this a whole lot better than the official video. Thank You!

[@gamewrit0058]

Excellent video, Bob. Horror usually isn't for me, but that intro case sounds intriguing. I've played a few sessions of Court of Blades (not to be confused with Blades in the Dark), and its mechanics are way more complicated - and messier, as written at release. I'm enjoying Index Card RPG (Runehammer Games) in the Kane's Kiln community. I discovered it when looking for systems to try between 5e homebrews with my local friends.

[@jamesanderson6769]

Looks like they might be going with simple rules and a lot of published adventures. I'm on board with that. I'm not the best and making my own horror esk stories and having interesting ones to run could be really fun.

[@SpookyGhostIsHere]

The little timers actually helped a lot with managing expectations as you explained things 😊

[@alexandermatthews3493]

I really think that the Dice Pool system will be much easier for newer gamers to understand instead of a modifier number and math. The tactile feel of rolling more numbers and immediate gratification of high numbers is great and will speed up games that might otherwise get bogged down with number crunching. I think instead of filling in and erasing, drive and other resources would be better served with cards/coins/tokens so that they feel more spendable but that's a preference. The only thing I'm not sold on yet is the setting, cause I think the mystery of the week style and is a bit limiting but I think that's actually the point. Will love to see what they do with this engine in their Daggerheart game.

[@SingularityOrbit]

The World of Darkness games use dice pools a bit like this (look for successes, not a specific number or adding up die values), and it has an interesting benefit. Having more dice to roll is obviously better, but it's hard to gauge how much better. In a horror game, like WoD or Candela Obscura, it increases that sense of dice rolls being dangerous. It makes players think more about how they might improve their chances -- which reminds them that they have resources to burn if it's important, frontlining that mechanic. Darrington Press should look into accessories for the game such as custom dice (three fail sides, two mixed sides, one CO symbol for success), tokens for each Drive, and maybe even dry erase character sheets (hopefully larger than regular paper size, because those Drive spaces are far too small on the currently available sheets and will be rapidly destroyed by repeated erasures).

[@harmless6813]

It's a completely different system. You can't really simulate character progression - as in hitting harder for instance - as easily and having recurring enemies with different difficulty levels would be hard to do. But from what I can tell, you won't be fighting all that much in these Candela Obscura games, so that's not a problem. It's simply doing away with stuff that the setting/genre doesn't need.

[@Mankcam]

I have Mage The Ascension, MtA Victorian, Call of Cthulhu, Cthulhu Gaslight, and more recently, Vaesen. So setting wise, I don't think this brings too many new things to the table for me. Despite this, I applause Critical Role for coming out with Candela Obscura, it's very different to their Vox Machina high fantasy stuff. Given the narrative emphasis of the PbtA mechanics, this system should suit the Critical Role live play quite well - simple rules with lots of scope for improv, I can see it being successful for them, I'm sure they will really ham it up. Great free quickstart as well. Good review as usual Bob!

[@taejaskudva2543]

I think people are too fired up about wording. Sure, CO is FitD and they didn't specifically say so other than ACKNOWLEDGING IT AS AN INSPIRATION and having public, complimentary exchanges with John Harper, but I'm pretty sure saying "whole new system" to an audience that mostly plays D&D is them just saying, hey, this won't be d20. Whole new system = different mechanic to what we previously used. Just like American football is a whole new game to baseball. Nevermind that it has origins in rugby. (Or that baseball had its origins in cricket, for that matter). I mean, nobody is freaking out that the game is basically just Rippers, a plot point setting for the Savage Worlds systems.

[@thomasparker6124]

As someone who loves Blades in the Dark, I am glad (and unsurprised) to see Illuminated Worlds taking heavy inspiration from Forged in the Dark. Along with aspects of Vaesen and others. But I do feel it would have been good to specifically shout out BiTD and other systems that served as inspiration in the video. Rather than emphasis on "a brand new system". A single sentence would have done this. D&D doesn't need this, but making Critical Role audiences more aware of other TTRPGs that might suit them and their games far better than.

[@Aequoris]

I agree! For example, Kult: Divinity Lost has a character progression system where each character has dramatic keys (called illumination keys in CO), which are roleplay things a character can do in order to gain one experience point each for completing up to two of them (with smaller in-game bonuses for any more that are completed). The only difference in CO looks to be that you get three, and they're based on your subclass, while in Kult the player makes the first two and the party makes more after the first two are completed (this can result in a lot more unique goals, like "confront your childhood trauma by entering your old home" or "confess a dark secret to someone so you have someone to share the psychological burden with" instead of the "do something illegal" example we saw from CO in this video). At the end of a session, the GM asks the party three questions (sound familiar? it's just illumination questions) and you get an experience point for each "yes" answer. I know that Kult isn't for everyone since the material is very heavy and mature (it's not my thing, personally), but it feels wrong for its progression system to be used without credit. It feels like Critical Role is just stamping its name on someone else's work, and it wouldn't take much at all to at least reference a system it took something from.

[@DerekRawlings]

There was an update to the pdf to include a shoutout to Harper and Blades in the Dark. It was always expected to be there, but wasn't in the first version of the quickstart rules.

[@johnclikeman5041]

And the correct place to put that single sentence is in the acknowledgements page of the rulebook, which none of us have seen because it isn't released yet. They did later update the quickstart guide to add an acknowledgement, which was almost certainly the same sentence they had already written to put in the full book. But ultimately what we're arguing about is whether a quick-start guide needs an acknowledgements page, which I think is pretty silly.

[@Lycaon1765]

They do acknowledge in the PDF but I agree it would've been better if they said so in the video as well.

[@khpa3665]

They have form on this. They failed to shout out Mothership on Ashley's Alien/Mothership mash-up game.

[@tubebubereboot6873]

I've run oodles of D&D, multiple editions, multiple year long campaigns, most reached in to the highest levels of play. At the same time I've run multiple campaigns of PbtA based games, which Candela Obscura is extremely similar to. For the most part both "systems" were run with the exact same players. By far the PbtA games were more fun to run for me, and almost every player had just as much fun playing the PbtA games as they did playing D&D. I still play D&D because it's fun, but once it starts creeping in to the higher levels? Yeah, give me a simpler narrative system. Crunch may satisfy at times, but it can very quickly stop being fun for the one who has to run the game. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if your DM/GM tells you they'd like to try this, or something similar? Say yes.

[@risingphoenixgames6359]

It made me physically smile to read the word "oodles". Thank you and have a great day.

[@Formosus2001]

Thank you for that very good description.

[@mcargent]

As a viewer who considers D&D5e a "third tier" game (there's so many games I'd rather run/play, but I got started on AD&D2e), I love that Critical Role will be giving some love to more story driven games. As someone who played Ravenloft back in the day, I can say D&D/d20/AD&D are not well written for "horror and mystery" games. The characters are supposed to be near-super-heroes, it's hard to buy into the horror element of such a game (especially since 3e, where the rules became so much more cut and dry) when player characters can fight gods and win. Scary moments happen, but an underscore of horror is really tough to pull off, even with a phenomenal GM (been there). A system like Blades in the Dark works better for certain things. D&D/Pathfinder and other epic fantasy games are still great for what they're written for. I still go back to them regularly. Epic fantasy tends to be my favorite genre, but when I want something else, other systems work so well for other genres. 7th Sea does such an amazing job of swashbuckling. Shadowrun does a better than average job of doing cyberpunk (the setting is amazing, the system leaves a bit to be desired). Mutant Year Zero does a fantastic job of survival/hexcrawling. It'll take some GMs and players a fair amount of playing to get used to a system like Candela Obscura, but I think such a system will be a workout to build up those creative story telling muscles in new and interesting ways.

[@GeneralNickles]

Sounds pretty cool. A lot of the mechamics sound very similar to blades in the dark.

[@andyrobinson6611]

This sounds a lot like Blades in the Dark, same dice pools, take Stress instead of spending Drive. Not a knock, its a great and simple design.

[@ShadowoftheMask]

I'd prefer to hearing how system compares to forged in the dark/Blades in the Dark than how it compares to D&D :'D It really took me off guard when person I've seen as very nice overall described this system as "like a Forged in the Dark system but with all interesting parts removed" which just makes me curious of how accurate that burn is :'D

[@DerekRawlings]

I'm fairly immersed in FitD games and I can see both sides of the argument (sort of). The core action resolution system is unchanged in CO, but Drive replaces Stress (which is a single pool rather than 3 and is harsher than CO). There's also no concept of "Effect" in CO (a measure of how successful your action might be), though "stakes" stands in for "position". When your person said the interesting parts are removed, I think that's premature; all we have is a Quickstart to go off of. That said, downtime certainly appears to be simplified (there are no long-term projects, indulging vices, etc), and faction reputation _may_ be downplayed? (hard to say). There are no claims (areas you can take over with your criminal organization), nor is there a weird prison subsystem (that rarely sees use in Blades). I'm now thinking about making a proper breakdown somewhere, but that'd be a long ways off. In conclusion I'd say wait for the main game, but that CO is likely to come in as more streamlined than Blades and that's for better and for worse, imo.

[@ShadowoftheMask]

@@DerekRawlings Hmm so hard to say for sure until full version is out

[@jgr7487]

yours & DnD Short's explanations of CO's rules are far better than the official explanation. kudos.

[@tjduck85]

If you like this, you should really check out its predecessor, Blades in the Dark. I prefer it to Candela Obscura, but I think that's due to how CO strips the agency of players in BitD in order to make the GM a guided storyteller.

[@ErokowXiyze]

I really like the group leveling mechanic.

[@randallfarley76]

Yep. I love this item. I may add it to d&d campaigns

[@Tomicrat]

Lot of ppl I see are saying this is just like Blades in the Dark. At the end of the PDF they do a "tip of the hat" to BITD for inspiration and suggest to take a look at it.

[@melinnamba]

You know, it really baffles me how many people complain they didn't credit BitD. Like, did they even read the pdf? But it's probably just people still being sensetive about the ogl drama.

[@harrysteel864]

​@@melinnamba the credit was added after release. I downloaded mine at launch and it doesn't have it

[@melinnamba]

@@harrysteel864 I downloaded it the next day and it already had the credit. So they must have fixed it really quickly, if it wasn't there from the get go.

[@harrysteel864]

@@melinnamba I'm sure they did, but it wasn't there originally which is why a lot of people are upset

[@melinnamba]

@@harrysteel864 But that was almost two weeks ago now. People really should have picked up on the correction by now.

[@tortillus9029]

Very late to this video, but the setting intrigues me. Strikes somewhere along the lines of Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green with a splash of fantasy, glad my friend has invited me to this game

[@TimpanistMoth_AyKayEll]

I'm interested in seeing more examples of how the core Illuminated Worlds system will be adapted to different genres. Maybe we'll get a few more examples next year.

[@nanorider426]

I really like a dice pool, rather like the old Star Wars system. Great video Bob. 👍

[@David-su4is]

Thanks Bob. Gave this a read, reminds me of forbidden lands for mechanic.

[@DiceDevice_DE]

Hey Bob, I'm almost sure you've come across all of these by now but just in case you haven't allow me to offer a few points of errata: 9:26 Though the language could indeed be clearer, drive and assistance can't be used on resistance rerolls. All language says clearly: "reroll a number of dice equal to your action rating." It is still the same action, thus drive and assistance have already been accounted for. The reroll is the plain action dice pool. 9:42 The guide indeed says nothing about how they are replenished. But Spenser Starke (bless the man!) says in the official How To Play video: "You have a number of these at the start of the assignment." This is to say there is no way to recover them by default other than to start a new adventure. That said, according to Matt Mercer (in Candela Obscura episode 1 at 3:25:48) explains that the Candela Obscura ressource "Refresh" gives back both all spent Drive and Resistances. 11:28 You don't move Drive. You move one dot from any action rating to any other action rating. (Those can even be part of the same drive goup, such as moving a point from Focus to Survey which are both part of Intuition.) 11:56 The character doesn't necessarily die. They can retire, vanish or somesuch. But they can't be a playable character anymore. 12:18 The gm does not ask the Illumination Questions at the end of each session but at the end of each assignment (i. e. adventure), which can take up more than one session (the quickstart guite suggests one to three sessions). 13:00 The Circle advances only when the entire Illumination circle is filled. The bold milestone dots don't serve dedicated function. They are only referred to by some abilities. Hope those help (and don't come across as smartypantsy)

[@sublimetech]

I have been trying to convince my group for 6 months to try a non-DnD game. Maybe I can convivence them to try this now CR is playing it.

[@gojirajenkins8528]

Bob needs his own game and I will play that game

[@alexdlocoa]

I didn't realize that critical role was going to steal my Homebrew that I've been running for 2 years, but I'm here for it. Replace the d6s with d20s, and the skills with the intelligence wisdom Charisma strength Dex con of D&D, and then replace D&D's inspiration mechanic with fate core's fate points system, and you have my game. After saying it all out loud, I guess it doesn't look the same as this new game, but I can guarantee that it plays the same. I even have a succeed with a cost mechanic that activates if your role ever matches the role of the bad guys or matches the DC difficulty. I can throw something ridiculously hard at my players, and if they've got a ton of fate points, they aren't worried about it at all. But getting them to spend those fate points scares them, and then they take the next battle more seriously. They only get their fate points back if they do something related to their backstory, related to their normal lives outside of adventuring, or if they do something that a DM wouldn't award inspiration for, such as good role play, or quick thinking.

[@harmless6813]

Maybe you can explain what the reasoning for the - in your case - fate points is? Because I always find it weird when there's a resource that doesn't seem to be tied to anything tangible. That's why I furrow my brows over the drive points. "Sorry, you can't assist your friend in this, you have run out of drive points." The game mechanic is easy enough - but what does it mean? You are too bored? Exhausted? There has to be a in-game _reason_ why you can't help, no?

[@GamerCorin]

That is for sure a reference to the Colour Out of Space, and now I want to play even more!

[@melinnamba]

I can't wait for illuminated worlds to be released. It seems like a really good system to play with friends and family, who are not all that into ttrpgs (yet 😉). I am not a fan of horror settings, though and would prefer to play in my own homebrew world. Allthough Candela Obscura seems to have a softer approach to horror, that I might actually enjoy every once in a while.

[@GryphonDes]

Fun video and for the record I am absolutely snagging the full game when it is finally available

[@theadventuresguild6514]

Quick correction. When you take a scar, you dont move a drive point, you move an action point (the 3 bubbles under an action).

[@jackhelm9852]

I am not really big into the horror genre, but I understand that the underlying game system is genre agnostic. I look forward to Seeing how this system can be used for other genres.

[@SangoProductions213]

Oh. Animated maps. Now that's interesting. I can't get that through AI yet.

[@werewolfbat7817]

steeped in vibes just how I like it

[@microhomebrew]

There are a lot of similarities to the game I'm designing now. A lot of good design that prevents some of the integrated issues with games like 5e and pathfinder (issues, depending on what you want out of the game)

[@nikoblack1272]

it's a smidge less crunchy than BitD, which makes me like it a smidge more

[@DaveThaumavore]

Fighting the good fight.

[@cwesley2005]

What I like is that it’s the same feel as call of chuthulu butway easier to understand

[@cooperburdick]

On the Circle advancement page it says the bold dots are for milestones and completing a full round is when the circle advances.

[@chrisjacobs4716]

Candela Obscura isn't for me. I love my high-fantasy worlds. Not really interested in Victorian era settings. Nothing wrong with d6 systems though! Loved Hero Quest as an example as a fun but simply d6 system.

[@erikvale3194]

Cultists simulator called. It's happy to have new ivestigators.

[@stephenpatterson2860]

Sounds like it's worth checking out; might play the starter adventure with friends and see how it goes. Don't know if I'll fully commit to it though. I'm waiting for MCDM's new original RPG, probably next year.

[@acrothdragon]

Yeah this game system reminds me a lot of how bBlades in the Dark and it’s sci-fi version Scum and Villiany runs. It’s not a bad things. Theses games work well with highly narrative and role play intensive systems. Where encounters can be resolved much more quickly in some circumstances. Than the long drawn out process in how DnD is usually involved in. And I feel that seems to fit the play style of how the cast of critical roll likes to run their campaigns focused more on the roleplaying, narrative, and theater of the mind vs the mechanics of the game.

[@PokeRedstone]

I think what has people upset about it’s similarity to forged in the dark is that they claim this is their own new system. And I’m unsure how I feel about it. It is by design simpler than forged in the dark. Although it’s drive system is more complicated than stress. The gilded die is a very elegant system and I like it better than how down time works in fitd. It’s clearly simplifying and gamifying certain parts of fitd to better allow the table to take control of the game. I would definitely rather play a one shot of this than fitd. I supposed the question is are these changes enough to make it a different system. And I guess maybe? I wouldn’t call pathfinder dnd but it’s similar by design.

[@TheCharacterSheet]

Fantastic Guide to the new system!

[@oz_jones]

Neat. Rules light game in somewhere else than Forgotten Realms? Always welcome.

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

The "just bought by WotC" TSR made a rules-light Dragonlance game (5th Age, where the Dragons were running things like dictators and you played rebels - or something? Used the same card-driven system they also used for their Marvel game, but with more stats than that game.)

[@cmleibenguth]

Whoa, haircut! Looking suave The name is now Robert the World Architect

[@roninanwar]

The rolling mechanic borrowed from other games sticks out as a problem to me. I listen to a number of Blades in the Dark podcasts (which are great) and the main thing I've taken away from them is I don't think I would like to run or play more than one session of that style of game. The reason why is because the more your roll, the more likely your failures are to stack up on you and destroy you. I feel like this sort of failure/success and complication/success mechanic may be interesting in the short term but would ultimately stifle players from wanting to try things they aren't skillful at. I'm not looking to compare this to Dungeons and Dragons, but from what I've listened to for Blades in the Dark, rolls should be done only when needed and they should be performed with the player's highest skill all the time. Given there are mechanics to help stop that, but they usually come with medium to large sacrifices.

[@mamatthews78]

Seems very similar to the system for World/Chronicles of Darkness (Vampire: The Masquerade/Requiem etc.)

[@Dragondan1987]

The story too sounds very Mage/Ars Mágica

[@elliehansen1345]

That makes very much sense about candela obscura

[@MarioReischer]

Imo it's really close to a Blades in the Dark and Vaesen Baby. For my taste a bit too much but maybe the good thing is flair of Vaesen (without the Scandinavian setting which is daunting for some) but the nicer and cleaner mechanics of BitD.

[@WhizzarD44]

It's Steampunk Shadowrun and I love it.

[@Picklescape]

Great video, thank you!

[@leonidasredmane7492]

Oh my god.. Candela Obscura are the Men In Black

[@JeffandBCProductions]

I will admit, some of these mechanics are quite intuitive and creative, but I’d like to present an alternative opinion. As a disclaimer, I used to be a CR fan in my early days of D&D and watched 2/3 of Season 2 before I couldn’t keep up. After some time, I grew apart from CR due to some personal issues I had (TL;DR: I felt CR had become too “corporate” and the show too much of a “product to be consumed”) That all aside, I tried to compare this new system to its competitor, Call of Cthulhu. I don’t feel as though this gives the same creative liberties as CoC, as it almost seems too simple. Sure, CoC is rather in-depth, but I believe one truly gets to know their character by ranking their skills, strengths, fears, etc. Personally, I choose Call of Cthulhu. Great video as always, Bob!

[@timogul]

I too, have heard of Blades in the Dark.

[@valorin5762]

I read some more in the quickstart guide and it's like Blades in the Dark and Powered by the Apocalypse had an offspring... Since this is a little more than just inspiration taken from these systems, especially from Blades, I wonder why there's no mention of it in the book. It looks really good though and I will definitely try.

[@Olooriel]

They updated the Quickstart guide, so Blades is mentioned now.

[@valorin5762]

@@Olooriel oh! That's great to hear! ❤️

[@СашаБицадзе-щ7г]

“BitD and PbtA had an offspring” Blades is a PbtA though.

[@mathewsmith8031]

Thinking about using this system to play a one shot in the resident evil universe

[@irrevenant3]

Presumably you can spend drive on rerolls since the rules don't say that you can't. You just lose any drive that was already spent on the initial attempt.

[@garwmart]

Less DnD and more CoC. Not my bag, but I'll give it a shot.

[@williammyers9209]

Can't believe I'm about to buy another game

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

Oh I bet you can believe that if you are like the rest of us :)

[@iskandarthegreat0487]

It sounds pretty fun

[@almx1989]

Sounds like "my first Call of Cthulhu" :D

[@spiderwrangler4457]

Definitely though this cat was wearing a Davy Crockett style coonskin hat when I watched the rules video CR put out.

[@tomgartin]

I feel like they must’ve written this after binge watching Cabinet of Curiosities

[@polvotierno]

I asked ChatGPT to give 4 analogies to help understand a mixed success in a d6 pool rpg system. Here is its reply... "Here are four analogies to help you understand a mixed success in a d6 pool RPG game: The Quicksand Escape: Imagine you're trying to cross a treacherous patch of quicksand. You manage to make it to the other side, but not without sinking waist-deep and losing some valuable equipment along the way. You succeeded in crossing, but at the cost of a complication (losing items) that may impact you later. The Stealthy Intruder: You're attempting to sneak past a guard and reach the treasure room undetected. You successfully make it inside, but as you reach for the treasure, you accidentally trigger an alarm that alerts the guards. You achieved your goal, but the complication arises as you now have to face additional opposition in your escape. The Precarious Balance: You're trying to cross a rickety bridge over a deep chasm. You manage to make it to the other side, but during your crossing, a few planks break, making the return journey more dangerous. You succeeded in crossing the bridge, but the cost is that you've compromised your path back, adding a complication to your future choices. The Negotiation Challenge: You're engaged in a high-stakes negotiation with a rival faction. While you manage to secure some concessions and favorable terms, the other party also gains some leverage and information about your plans. You achieve partial success in the negotiation, but the cost is that your opponents now have more insight into your intentions, potentially complicating your future interactions. In all these analogies, you can see how the characters or players achieve their primary objective but face an additional cost or complication that arises as a consequence of their actions. This captures the essence of a mixed success in a d6 pool RPG game."

[@harmless6813]

Sure. But none of this is in any way tied to a d6 system OR a pool system. You may as well define a range for mixed success for a simple d20 roll.

[@scheele1646]

I'm already in a Blades in the Dark campaign at the moment so I probably won't pick this up until I'm done with that (might make an exception to that for a oneshot if my ttrpg friends are all interested in it tho). The systems do admittedly seem very similar, but it seems like they did change up some stuff and they credited BitD as inspo so 🤷

[@cobraregala4571]

just a question. what should i buy in d&d 5th since it's my first time entering in this franchise?

[@do6631]

I enjoyed the video of it. Would love to play a game. I just don't want to be the DM.

[@Decado1628]

I think it is good that CR is moving into other RPGs. I will check out the CO stream but as for the rules, I own a complete collection of Vaesen so most likely will not buy CO.

[@convicsik]

Vampire : The Blades in Darkness Monster of the week.

[@ThatManDre]

14:27 Sheele's green 😮

[@randall6188]

Sounds cool, although the fact that it’s horror based is enough to keep me away

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Yeah, I'm curious to see what other games they develop on this same system. Pretty sure their Legend of Zelda one shot uses it too, but idk if they're going to publish those rules

[@Olooriel]

@@BobWorldBuilder No, their Zelda oneshot did not use this. That system was a Pbta hack (not particularly similar to Blades) that they may not be allowed to publish because they developed it in cooperation with Nintendo.

[@DDCRExposed]

This seems like a better (or easier to play) version of Call of Cthulhu.

[@18ps3anos]

Call of Cthulhu's amount of skills gives you a false impression about its difficulty. As a game/system, it's actually tremendously simple and modular, and I'd argue that it's simpler than any pbta game. What's really difficult about it is capturing the suspense, horror and mystery of the setting, but that's system agnostic. Regarding the "better" version, I'd say that's arguable at best. What Candela Obscura does great, given that it's a "forged in the dark" game, is codifying and creating a structure for storytelling mechanics that would otherwise be abstract tools in other games. Its primary focus is the story, and it's not concerned with skill granularity nor win conditions.

[@robertduckworth1490]

Can we get a dedicated “why play CO and not CoC?” video?

[@acemaster615]

Seems like an even lighter version of Monster of the Week. Similar isn't bad though. Different twists and nuances make it stand apart, plus it's CR branded~

[@ErosTheNerd]

What i'm taking from this whole video is that this is a world of darkness lite

[@LostInNumbers]

Setting sounds interesting, and the rules sounds like a somewhat simplified FitD, albit with no organization menegmant aspect. One element that I find missing from the quick start guide that I really hope will be in the full product, and if not I urge everyone to house rule in is discsion of effect and position. Those two elements help GMs in forged to define the eficacy of a roll so the difficulty wont soley depend on the character skill. (For example: Wrestling down a pick pocket should be easier than wrestling down a greazly bear.) FitD let GM control this by giving them tools to decide both the level of consequence in case of failure or mixed results, and level of effectiveness in case of success. (So in our case, a pick pocket would be a controlled role for full success, while the grizzly bear would be a desperate roll for partial suceess, wich I'd interpret as needing to succeed twice.)

[@vladgdc]

Position is kinda described but under a different name. I think roll can be low, risky and high stakes. Maybe. Something like that.

[@LostInNumbers]

@@vladgdc Yeah it's kind of mentioned. I assume that the full game will have fleshed out rules for it.

[@jshud3]

Would anyone here be interested in this type of d6 dice pool system based on Forged in the Dark for a fantasy game world?