Download Critical Role’s New RPG Quickstart

The QuickStart rules for Critical Role’s upcoming game, Candela Obscura, powered by their new Illuminated Worlds system, is available as a free download in advance of the livestream of the game which starts this week.

Candela Obscura – Darrington Press

darringtonpress.com

Candela Obscura (bestowed the hashtag #CandelaObscura) is a new tabletop roleplaying game that places you in the roles of investigators working for an esoteric order. In this game of gothic horror, individuals of varied talents are brought together under the organization Candela Obscura. You’ll pursue strange occurrences and encounter dangerous magicks, fighting back against a mysterious source of corruption and bleed. Candela Obscura is the first to use the Illuminated Worlds System, a newly designed system that uses 6-sided dice and lends itself to narrative, arc-driven play.

 

[deganawida]

Ouch. I mean, good for the creators, but really bad look for DP.

 

[Burt Baccara]

Just saw that and was on the way back to mention it.

Still, a bit of a fumble that they did not give the attribution from the get-go. Great to see the message that the attributions will be in the final material.

 

[Micah Sweet]

View attachment 286091

Ah. I should have expected as much. Maybe the other system will be more to my tastes.

Glad to see CR pushing a narrative-style game though! Everybody should be represented.

 

[overgeeked]

Four hours in one go is too much for me. None of the questions I have were answered in the live play before the break.

 

[Aldarc]

View attachment 286091

Yeah, not to make light of the hard work of the creators of this game, but it does initially seem like they could have almost called it "Vaesen in the Dark." I will be curious how the system deviates enough from a Forged in the Dark game to not be called a Forged in the Dark game. I'll need more time to read through the finer details of the Quickstart.

 

[Burt Baccara]

Yeah, not to make light of the hard work of the creators of this game, but it does initially seem like they could have almost called it "Vaesen in the Dark." I will be curious how the system deviates enough from a Forged in the Dark game to not be called a Forged in the Dark game. I'll need more time to read through the finer details of the Quickstart.

To be fair, did BitD ever carry a PbtA attribution or make mention in its marketing material? There is not even a mention of PbtA on the BitD Wikipedia page, even with Blades in the Dark widely accepted as an evolution of Powered by the Apocalypse.

Dungeon World and Thirsty Sword Lesbians reference PbtA in their books or marketing pages.

EDIT: The answer is Yes. Yes, BitD does give attribution in the thank you page to PbtA and its designers.

 

[Aldarc]

To be fair, did BitD ever carry a PbtA attribution or make mention in its marketing material? There is not even a mention of PbtA on the BitD Wikipedia page, even with Blades in the Dark widely accepted as an evolution of Powered by the Apocalypse.

According to Vincent Baker, the criteria for calling yourself a PbtA game is a bit loose:

If you've created a game inspired by Apocalypse World, and would like to publish it, please do. If you're using our words, you need our permission, per copyright law. If you aren't using our words, you don't need our permission, although of course we'd love to hear from you. Instead, we consider it appropriate and sufficient for you to mention Apocalypse World in your thanks, notes, or credits section.

It's completely up to you whether you call your game "Powered by the Apocalypse." If you'd like to use our PbtA logo in your game's book design or trade dress, ask us, and we'll grant permission for you to do so. This isn't a requirement of any sort.

In other words: Is Apocalypse World an inspiration for your game? Enough so that you want to call your game PbtA? Did you follow Meg's and my policy wrt publishing it? Then cool, your game is Powered by the Apocalypse. Get with us if you want to use the logo.

John Harper does thank Vincent and Meguey Baker, first and foremost, in his list of credits:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Several designs influenced Blades in the Dark in various ways. This game would not exist without them.

Apocalypse World, by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker. Dogs in the Vineyard and The Sundered Land by D. Vincent Baker.

My fellow “thiefy game” designers: Vincent Baker, Will Hindmarch, Harvey Smith, and Matt Snyder.

However, it's also not exclusive to Apocalypse World, but it also include his work Dogs in the Vineyard and The Sundered Land.

Blades in the Dark (and Ironsworn) doesn't call itself Powered by the Apocalypse, but I suspect that's because of how it architecturally evolves the game in ways differently from other PbtA games out there, like the ones you mention below, which are much closer in design approaches or even game expectations to Apocalypse World than BitD.

Dungeon World and Thirsty Sword Lesbians reference PbtA in their books or marketing pages.

Sure, but I think it's also safe to say that DW and TSL are much closer to a PbtA game, design and philosophy wise, than BitD is to PbtA.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I think the defining element of being PbtA is having separate Moves (yes, I know, not everything does, but without those there isn't anything there). BitD doesn't have Moves, but acknowledges the influence PbtA had on the game, which seems just right.

 

[DarkCrisis]

About what I expected. Nothing really innovative but its a game being sold as a Crit Role RPG and really that’s all it needed. Could have been Pip farting on a snare drum.

The fans will buy it. Others will buy it for FOMO etc. I’ll probably grab it as a fun book to read through but never actually play.

As long as people are having fun, that’s important.

 

[Burt Baccara]

Four hours in one go is too much for me. None of the questions I have were answered in the live play before the break.

I'm seeing some criticisms that it is not holding up a

According to Vincent Baker, the criteria for calling yourself a PbtA game is a bit loose:

John Harper does thank Vincent and Meguey Baker, first and foremost, in his list of credits:


However, it's also not exclusive to Apocalypse World, but it also include his work Dogs in the Vineyard and The Sundered Land.

Blades in the Dark (and Ironsworn) doesn't call itself Powered by the Apocalypse, but I suspect that's because of how it architecturally evolves the game in ways differently from other PbtA games out there, like the ones you mention below, which are much closer in design approaches or even game expectations to Apocalypse World than BitD.


Sure, but I think it's also safe to say that DW and TSL are much closer to a PbtA game, design and philosophy wise, than BitD is to PbtA.

DOH! My bad, and I cracked open my PDF. John Harper did indeed give an attribution on the thank you page.