Critical Role has announced both a new game and a new show both with the same name: Candela Obscura. The show premieres later this month alongside a free download of the quick start rules.
Candela Obscura seems heavily inspired by gothic horror, such as Call of Cthulu, The Sinking City, and Sunless Sea. The game and show take place in the fictional city of Newfaire located on the coast of Fairelands. The city is enjoying a boom after the last great war with people of all walks embracing vice, hedonism, and spiritualism to come to terms with the global tragedy. The city itself is built on an ancient alchemical civilization that self-destructed after the misuse of magic. Now, dark and sinister creatures lurk in the dense forests and deep seas just off the coast.
To keep the citizens safe, a secret order was established to hunt down and eliminate these dangers. Candela Obscura takes all kinds, from enlightened professors studying the arcane to street magicians that wield magic for the citizen's amusement. Each team is led by a veteran investigator who serves both as a guide as well as a narrator, which will be played by Critical Role's Taliesin Jaffe.
Ashley Johnson and Laura Bailey will also appear in Candela Obscura alongside two newcomers. Robbie Daymond (the voice of Chai from Hi-Fi Rush) will play Howard Margrove, while Anjali Bhimani (Auntie Ruby from Ms. Marvel, Rampart from Apex Legends, and Symmetra from Overwatch) will play Charlotte Eaves. Johnson will play the street urchin Auggie James while Bailey will play Arlo Black. And as usual, Matthew Mercer will take on the role of game master.
"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," read today’s announcement. "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."
Candela Obscura will use the Illuminated Worlds system from Darrington Press, which uses D6s for its rolls. The show is set to premiere on Critical Role's Twitch and YouTube channels on May 25. A quick start guide for Candela Obscura's game system will also release at the same time and will be available to download free of charge.
Critical Role's move away from D&D could be due to the recent OGL controversy, where parent company Hasbro threatened to change D&D's license agreement that would require creatives to relinquish control of their creations and pay a hefty fee as well. The community backlash was so severe that Hasbro walked back those changes, but to many in the community, the damage was done.
With Candela Obscura, Critical Role controls everything from the show right down to the game system it uses, giving them full control. We'll find out if it's good enough to take a bite out of D&D's market share when Candela Obscura arrives on May 25.