Dark Horse Comics and Darrington Press announced yesterday that Candela Obscura, the horror tabletop RPG from Critical Role's publishing arm, is getting its own graphic novel series. Written by Tini Howard and Blake Howard with art by Fernando Heinz Furukawa, the first volume follows an all-new circle of investigators and arrives on August 3, 2027. Check out the official post down below:
Candela Obscura launched on May 25, 2023, as 2 things at once: an investigative horror game published by Darrington Press and a monthly actual play show on Critical Role's Twitch and YouTube channels. Critical Role cast member Taliesin Jaffe created the concept with Chris Lockey, and it was the first Critical Role series built on a game system the company owns instead of Dungeons & Dragons. According to Darrington Press head Ivan Van Norman, the name translates to "the light in the obscure."
The Fairelands, Newfaire And The Flare
The game is set in the Fairelands, a coastal valley in the country of Hale. A cold wave called the Shiver struck the region, and Hale was then attacked by the Otherwhere, who wanted the region's resources. Hale won the 6-year war thanks to new military equipment built after the invention of electricity, and by 1907 the city of Newfaire is enjoying a period of prosperity.
Newfaire is built on top of Oldfaire, the ruins of a dead civilization with advanced knowledge of magick and technology. The Flare is the boundary between the Fairelands and the strange places beyond it, and when something crosses over, it leaves behind bleed, a residue that warps the world around it. Strange creatures and dangerous magick slip through wherever the Flare thins.
The secret order Candela Obscura has spent centuries studying and containing these incursions while keeping their true nature hidden from the public. Its investigators work in small teams called circles, and each circle takes assignments from a Lightkeeper, who is sometimes a former investigator. Other factions chase bleed for their own reasons, including the quasi-governmental Office of Unexplained Phenomenon, an aristocratic secret society called the Red Hand and the Esoteric Order of New Sciences.
Darrington Press previewed a district from the core rulebook ahead of its release. South Soffit is a lower-class neighborhood built into the ruins of Oldfaire beneath the wealthy district of the Eaves, and it includes the Clara House, a soup kitchen and shelter that appears in the first episode of the show. Every district in the book comes with an example assignment.
How The Candela Obscura Tabletop Game Works
Candela Obscura was the first game to use the Illuminated Worlds system, which Stras Acimovic and Layla Adelman designed for Darrington Press. It uses a pool of 6-sided dice and is built for short, arc-driven stories instead of years-long campaigns. Spenser Starke and Rowan Hall led the game design and wrote the book. Starke posted at launch that the system was inspired by John Harper's Blades in the Dark and Free League Publishing's Vaesen, and Harper also created the cover art for the limited edition rulebook.
Every investigator has a role and a specialty. There are 5 roles with 2 specialties each:
- Face: Journalist or Magician
- Muscle: Explorer or Soldier
- Scholar: Doctor or Professor
- Slink: Criminal or Detective
- Weird: Medium or Occultist
Each specialty has its own character sheet, and characters lean on 3 drives called Nerve, Cunning and Intuition. Damage sticks around through a marks and scars system that Starke and Hall built specifically for this game. Starke described it as a system that "lets the impacts of the damage you take live with you and, quite literally, change you." Each group also tracks its team on a shared circle sheet.
A free 26-page Quickstart Guide went up on the show's premiere day with pregenerated characters, and the Candela Obscura Core Rulebook followed on November 14, 2023. The 204-page book has more than 90 pages on the Fairelands, 4 full example assignments and 30 shorter assignment ideas for gamemasters. The standard edition costs $39.99 and the limited edition $59.99, and digital versions are available through Demiplane's Candela Obscura Nexus, Roll20 and DriveThruRPG. Darrington Press also lists Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian translations from Devir, Pegasus Spiele, Jambô Editora and Acheron Games.
Darrington Press added Candela Obscura to its Community Gaming License, which lets creators sell their own adventures and label them "Candela Obscura Compatible." Beadle & Grimm also partnered with Darrington Press on Horrors of the Fairelands, a sourcebook with 8 adventure assignments.
Here is Critical Role's official guide to playing the game:
Every Candela Obscura Episode In Order
The show is an anthology. Each chapter has its own game master and a new circle of characters, and every chapter opens with Jaffe as the Lightkeeper delivering a short prologue. Chapters 1 to 4 run 3 episodes each, followed by a live one-shot:
- Chapter 1, The Circle of the Vassal and the Veil (May to July 2023): "The Cold Embrace," "Ravage of Red Lamp" and "The Collectors," run by Matthew Mercer with Laura Bailey, Anjali Bhimani, Robbie Daymond and Ashley Johnson
- Chapter 2, The Circle of Needle and Thread (August to November 2023): "Eye for an Eye," "Flesh and Blood" and "Broken Path," run by Starke with Luis Carazo, Zehra Fazal, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Marisha Ray and Travis Willingham
- Chapter 3, The Circle of Tide and Bone (November 2023 to January 2024): "The Antiquarian," "The Guardian of Groundswell" and "Candles in the Dark," run by Aabria Iyengar with Ashly Burch, Noshir Dalal, Gina Darling, Liam O'Brien and Sam Riegel
- Chapter 4, The Circle of the Crimson Mirror (February to April 2024): "Seeking Serenity," "The Gilded Graveyard" and "Into the Abyss," run by O'Brien with Jaffe, Aimee Carrero, Imari Williams and Alexander Ward
- Candela Obscura Live, The Circle of the Silver Screen (May 30, 2024): a one-shot recorded at The United Theater on Broadway in Los Angeles, run by Starke with Mercer, Khary Payton, Bailey and Ray
Chapter 1 follows a group recruited after a street kid witnesses a tragedy in the district of the Steel. Chapter 3 sends the Circle of Tide and Bone after a creature from Fairen folklore and an aqueous phenomenon in the district of Groundswell, and Chapter 4 puts its circle at a masquerade attended by Newfaire's major powers. Episodes run between about 3.5 and 6 hours, and Darrington Press lists Critical Role's YouTube channel, Twitch VODs and the podcast feed as the places to catch every chapter.
The Circle of the Silver Screen was the last episode to air. In June 2024, Ray said on Critical Role's Beacon service that the show would pause for the summer and likely return in the fall, and no new chapter has been announced since. Here is the official trailer Critical Role released for the first chapter:
What Dark Horse Has Confirmed About The Graphic Novels
The comic introduces a new circle instead of adapting a circle from the show. Volume 1 follows Amelia Ashford, a junior member of the Circle of the Riddle and Key known for causing trouble, as she goes on an unauthorized hunt for the hidden past of Empress Iomene. Deep in Oldfaire, inside the ruins of the House of Iomene, Amelia finds a relic that links her to the Empress herself. Iomene offers to answer Amelia's questions in exchange for her devotion, while a stern circle member named Javri works to get Amelia thrown out.
Tini Howard has written Excalibur and Knight Terrors: Harley Quinn, and Blake Howard has written Vampire: The Masquerade: Winter's Teeth and Archie Is Mr. Justice. Furukawa drew Dragon Age: Knight Errant, Charlie Kirchoff handles colors after work on Star Trek and Doctor Who, and Ariana Maher letters the book after lettering Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins. The cover is by Furukawa and Rocio Zucchi Yakubecki.
Volume 1 is a 56-page hardcover priced at $17.99, and Dark Horse lists it for preorder from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, local comic shops and bookstores ahead of its August 3, 2027, release.
Critical Role's next Darrington Press show starts this week. Shattered Legends, a canon Exandria miniseries played with Daggerheart, premieres November 13 with Mercer as game master and Ray alongside 4 hololive talents, as detailed in Critical Role's Next Canon Exandria Adventure Is Shattered Legends, A Daggerheart Crossover With hololive.
Would you rather see Critical Role bring Candela Obscura back to the table with a 5th chapter, or is Amelia Ashford's new circle in the Dark Horse comics the right way to continue the Fairelands?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.