Candela Obscura

Candela Obscura is the name of both an American actual play web series and a tabletop role-playing game system. The Candela Obscura show is a horror anthology series in which actors play a tabletop role-playing game of the same name. It was created by Taliesin Jaffe and Chris Lockey, directed by Steve Failows and produced by Failows and Maxwell James for Critical Role Productions. It is Critical Role's first series to use a game and a system owned by the company. Over the course of a few episodes, different casts of characters join the secret order Candela Obscura and form a circle to investigate several supernatural phenomenons, guided by a Lightkeeper. The chapters of Candela Obscura are mostly conceived as self-contained miniseries, following a different set of characters within the same fictional universe called the Fairelands. It premiered on May 25, 2023, on Twitch and YouTube and is broadcast on the last Thursday of each month at 19:00 PT. The first chapter's video on demand was uploaded to YouTube two weeks after the first broadcast. However, with the second chapter, the VODs are now uploaded to Critical Role's YouTube channel on the Monday after the live stream. The Candela Obscura game system is based on the – yet to be released – Illuminated Worlds system. A quick start guide for Candela Obscura was published to coincide with the start of the show; the full system is scheduled to release in November 2023. Series The series takes place in the Fairelands, a coastal valley found in the country of Hale, which is plagued by several types of magical horrors that bleed in the world through thinnings of The Flare, a boundary that separates the different realms that comprise this universe. After a cold wave, named the Shiver, hits the region, Hale is attacked by the Otherwhere, who wish to seize their resources. Following a six-year conflict, Hale ended up winning the war thanks to new military equipment created after the invention of the electricity. In 1907, the city of Newfaire is enjoying a period of prosperity, but mysteries that threaten the newfound peace lie under the city, in the ruins of the dead civilization that inhabited Oldfaire. A secret order, Candela Obscura, has dedicated centuries to the study and containment of these phenomenons, which are examined by different circles of investigators guided by a Lightkeeper.