Critical Role's New RPG: Full System & Rules Breakdown 

This doesn't sound as enticing to me as CR's more fantasy-oriented campaign, which is the main reason why I've stuck with D&D for so long. Horror is fine...but I prefer READING it than watching it in the form of movies, TV shows or in this case, tabletop campaigns

Cannot enter the competition says my mane and email are spam ???????? :-( (This entry has been flagged by our anti-spam system. (34) )

Sorry do you know if the giveaway is worldwide? I'm in Europe do you think i can participate?

Worldwide giveaway? I'm from south america

There's a scammer pretending to be you that replied to my comment on this video

Seriously main reason I love this channel. Reminds me of LTT in a way, big flashy content mixed with really good ELI5 breakdowns.

This dude could be a college professor with his teaching abilities

Yeah, no kidding. I feel like I could play the game almost now even, just after a mere quarter hour. A * quarter of an hour *. Bonkers, DS. Bonkers.

I enjoy his explaination far more than I think I will enjoy this game system.

I was just happy he lent is diary so they could play this game.

I almost took my little DM Companion corgo to listen in a different room. Stubby is a good boi.

He had the best DM companion!

No, she needs to do better.

@@LegendStormcrow - corgoids are best, right after regular corgis.

i dont think it really has any of its own ideas. in terms of feel it seems to be most like VtM, you focus on RP, character motives (VTM does it better imo) and roll for skills in dispersed moments.

I disagree with that take, and find it very disingenuous. By that standard, practically no games that people enjoy (TTRPG or not) 'stand on their own'. Because VTM (which is WoD) borrows elements from other pre-existing dice systems, and dice systems as a whole borrow their ideas from the gambling game systems that preceded them. Plus WoD is D10, not D6, which does have an impact on granularity of success. Further "Focus on the characters/motives with fewer dice rolls" is not exclusively WoD's idea. PBTA does it. ICON does it. Cogent does it. And those are just the ones I know off the top of my head. Candella is derivative, but 'derivative' does not mean 'unoriginal', nor that it doesn't have its own ideas or execution quirks that let it stand on its own or have its own playfeel.

@@NagaTales the cast of CR played a VtM game and copied it. You can just eatch the episode.

Ah, so VtM/WoD now owns not only the idea of a motive/character driven system, but the gothic horror setting too, and no one else can make a TTRPG with similar themes or mechanics without being an unoriginal knock-off. What a childish attitude. You must be fun at parties. I bet you unironically call every MMO since 2004 a "WoW Clone" too. FYI, I don't watch CritRole. I couldn't care less what they do in their streams; I'm here because I'm excited for a new, interesting-looking D6 system that I would be happy to learn and engage with. If you're determined to continue being a child about this, please go do your pouting in a corner, and not in my replies.

I am almost certain it's explicitly a Forged in the Dark game

I mean, it *isn’t* supposed to be the new “DnD” they are *also* debuting soon. This is something akin to Vampire: The Masquerade. This type of TTRPY is usually more Roleplay focused with minimal combat. So it’s kinda the point that this doesn’t replace the system they’ll use in Season 4. Season 4 is going to be Daggerheart, the direct competition to D&D/Pathfinder. If I remember correctly they (Critical Role) are also dropping a card-based game soon as well. This is just one of several new systems they’ve come up with, and it sounds amazing. I would *adore* seeing this mixed into their new season. Daggerheart for the “meat” of the season’s content, with Obscura for the “marrow”, really deep lore and Roleplay with very little focus on combat encounters.

@@SchmartsyMan But there's so much combat oriented stuff in vtm. Why would anyone have minimal combat in a vtm game? *bigthonk* i wanna note that i've only played v20

@@aronsvanlaugsson5338 I always view combat in vtm as we've run out of options/someone messed up, aside from the times you go into an expected fight.

Depending on when they release I'm wondering if they'll switch partway through Campaign 3.

@@aronsvanlaugsson5338 why are ya fighting in VTM? thats last resort in that game. its like fighting in call of Cthulhu

Look up spheres of power/might 5e

Yessss agreed I've only been studying rpg design for a couple months but stuff like Battlemaster seems like such an obvious thing to give players a breadth of options within a certain theme

Yup, this is why one common homebrew buff for fighter is to make the battlemaster features baked into the class. It helps provide choices for utility/CC/damage, and it allows room for resource management.

@@piranhaplantX reminds me of a convo I had recently: that every class should have SOME 'warlock invocation' list for customization. Battlemaster is basicly warlock invocation for fighter XD

You discribed Pathfinder. congrats

I do like that it is more geared toward GM-led or premade adventures than BitD is. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love how BitD is structured to organically create the story as everyone plays, but it does require a lot of imagination and creativity on the part of both the players and the GM. This system looks great for folks who aren’t as comfortable improvising, and it seems slightly less brutal than BitD’s “play your character like it’s a stolen car” style.

Agree, I see it similar to Monster of the Week in its episodic investigative RP focus. In this case possibly cthulhu lite. Perhaps some cthulhu adventures could be repurposed for a simple game?

That's what I was going to say

THIS

tbf, I took like 2x as long haha

Except for the error that milestones aren't advancement; getting the full track is advancement. Milestones are related to some Circle abilities; in the Quick Start, there's only one Circle ability the milestones affects.

This 100 percent!

@@DnDShorts better to take long and be understandable than short and be left with questions

​@Everything's Alright to a degree. If you leave people with the right questions they're more likely to invest more personal time. People tend to be more open to invest monetarily on things they've already invested time into.

it looks mostly like a reskin tbh

Agreed, 80% of it are the same mechanics. I don't mind to be honest, blades in the dark is amazing, but it's a bit of a shame that it's advertised as "their own systems" without mentioning the forged in the dark system. The creator did tweet about it in passing, but that's it. Hope it's not gonna have negative effects on BitD. But the bottom line is : i love it :D

As far as I can tell it's a modified version of blades but I'm not super familiar with D6 systems

Yeah, i noticed that as well. Feel like blades might be due some acknowledgment by the CR team

@@Inthepotwithdiogenes If they used it as inspiration then yes, if not then no Edit: Apparently they do cite that BitD & Vaesen are big inspirations in their Quickstart Guidebook for Candela Obscura

Also I was amazed at the set design and outfits. It all looked amazing for something of a side project.

The ticking gears behind Matt was pretty crazy. The set design probably wasn't too much since it's all projected backdrops. Just need a few solid digital artists.

​@@terradon852It feels less like a side project to me and more like a product drop from another branch of the company. (Which, I guess it is.) They'll definitely drop the resources to market and display their new game the best they can.

@@means_well It's been confirmed that the set piece behind Matt is a real physical object, which is pretty bonkers. The set the trailer was filmed in (enclosure with eye motifs that Taliesin was in) was also physical, cf. bts videos posted on socials. The backdrops behind the players' tables may be projections or a mix, but at this point I'm not even sure about that, lol. But even so the costuming, lighting choices, player props like dice trays with their names on them were all VERY nice.

I plan on doing so my next work day.

Very very similar indeed. While I haven't played the original Blades in the Dark but the Cyberpunk themed hack called Runners in the Shadow has mechanics almost identical to these. Note: It's been a while so I might remember some parts wrong, but I will explain the similarities to the best of my ability. - How the skills and dice work is the same, pretty much. - Drive and Edge work pretty much identical, apart from the consequences of using up last of your Edge (Trauma) while using up your Drive doesn't seem to have negative effects. Also there's no "Gilded Die" in RitS, so you can only regain Edge via downtime. - Speaking of downtime, "leveling up" is also pretty much identical, although the xp questions are different. There might be more similarities that I'm missing, but pretty much the "core" of both systems is nearly identical. I have to wonder if there were same people working on both projects or if they just were heavily inspired. Legally, you can't copyright mechanics, but even still it is a bit too close, imo.

That was my first thought, they’ve obviously been influenced by forged in dark - which is great as it’s an awesome system.

I was thinking the same but FATE, but I never played blades in the dark yet they make FATE so this makes since. At least with FATE it felt like something was missing by not targeting anything so I look forward to how this plays since it seems more targeted to an idea.

@@backonlazer791 they Take "free inspiration" from Blades in the dark and the settings is essentially Call of Chtulu a bit ler dark

Was exactly my thought. Played a long Blades game and the system is very good for the type of game it is.

While I don't disagree, I do feel it's a bit of a cop-out to laud a system that's super simple to be setting agnostic. If the system was "toss a coin: heads is good, tails is bad", that system would work in any setting as well. The real challenge would be in making a super involved system that still worked for every genre imaginable. Personally, I prefer it when the system is built with the genre/theme in mind. My favorite system is the Deadlands Classic system, which PEGInc made and used before they created Savage Worlds. Deadlands takes place in the "Weird West" - or "wild west with zombies" - and the Classic system is built around not only dice, but also poker chips and playing cards, as if the game took place around a poker table at a saloon. In combat, players are dealt cards, up to five, to represent action economy. Poker chips are gained by playing and succeeding at challenges, and can be either saved, converted into XP, or to boost a hero's die rolls and to power magical effects. The rulebook itself is filled with wild-west-esque language and nods to b-movie tropes. I don't see myself adopting Illuminated Worlds myself. For the theme, I'll probably stick with 20th Anniversary Vampire or Call of Cthulhu instead, neither of which are super complex systems and both of which I know reasonably well. But! The gilded die and the incentive to intentionally fail a roll is somewhat intriguing. There would just have to be more to it than what it seems there is at the moment. _For me, that is._ I'm not trying to dictate what kind of games/systems others are allowed to prefer.

@@TheRawrnstuff while this is true, I thinn that a lot of the same players who play dnd are more up for a theme agnostic system than a specific one. The thing that makes dnd great is that it is easy to get people in with a plethora of styles and themes possible. For most people, the hardest part of playing a ttrpg is actually getting enough people interested in playing. The more obscure and specific a system is, the lower the chance that someone will be interested. Does that mean a system agnostic system is better? No, but if illuminated worlds want to actually make a dent on the market it is the dnd playerbase they need to take a piece from. The players like you who enjoy more specific systems most likely already don't play dnd anyways as it is rather theme agnostic already. It is clear that they are trying to create a new "base system" similar to GURPS but that can actually compete with dnd.

@@PJsutnop Oh, definitely. The d20 system is not great for creativity and roleplay due to its focus on carefully worded spells and focus on melee combat. On that front, the illuminated system has d20 beat, and I'm sure the majority of the new TTRPG renaissance players are only happy to have a less combat-focused system to sink their teeth into. To be completely honest as harsh as it sounds, as someone who likes to DM/GM games to "randoms" online, separating out players who want to play an "illuminated-style" game from the d20-system player pool is a good thing. Not to gatekeep D&D, but a group in which everyone wants the same kind of game runs better than a group where some people want A, others B. I believe it'll strengthen both groups in the long run. And Critical Role has the social capital to realize that difference in a real, perceivable way.

Call of Cthulhu is the Basic Roleplaying system with a mechanic for sanity added. Basic Roleplaying csn be used for anything, really.

It is a d6 pool system and lifts alot from Ghostbusters and other previous d6 sysyesm

People from Blades were consulted and even helped in making CO...

I started right around the time the Covid lock down started. That gave me a bunch of extra time on my hands.

It is heavily inspired by Blades in The Dark, one of the game designers wrote Scum & Villany (a science fiction setting that uses the Blades in the Dark rules).

Because it is Forged in the Dark - it’s all a little underhanded

That's because Illuminated Worlds System is really iteration of Forged in the Dark.

From what I've seen illuminated worlds is to blades in the dark what Cypher System is to D&D. Similar dice used, but different in how the dice are used. So long as Candela Obscura doesn't revolve around the DM counting down different "clocks" it's not blades in the dark. Hell, candela obscura sounds like it has as much in common with blades in the dark as it does with Genesys/Edge of the Empire.

@@CitanulsPumpkin Without seeing the full rules, only seen the QS rules, with the exception of drives this is the same game - hell most of the actions (or “moves” if you’re more PbtA player) are the same. Will be interesting to see how Cirlces compares to Gangs over time (especially around claims) Fully expect license (CC) or acknowledgement in full game (Will say seems to play smoother than Vaesen)

The "danger" of the game reminds me of how City of Mist handles conflict in some ways. Oddly enough, as rules lite as CoM is, compared to Candela Obscura it's actually pretty heavy on first impressions lol. Not a bad thing, it's a nice alternative to other similar games but if GM's are looking for ways to diversify and keep up tension without a D&D style combat, City of Mist has great material for inspiration

Matt really liked the stacking eyes Idea I think from his 2nd campaign. I will admit I thought it was a wonderful little added pressure.

The Delta Green Mailing List used to (and may still) do shotgun scenario contests. Delta Green is based in a modern world cosmic horror conspiracy/investigation setting but a lot of the themes of the resulting scenarios would be very easy to adapt over.

It is a great system and has been since 2017 :)

This will play completely differently. I play Forged in the Dark systems pretty much exclusively, and this is certainly different enough that it seems worth owning both. They certainly won’t get sued. It’s just as different as Pathfinder is from D&D imo. Plus they’re open with the fact that Blades was an inspiration.

@@DrDinoNuggies Apparently John Harper helped design Candela

​@@DrDinoNuggies they wouldn't get sued either way because of the way that FitD is licensed. As long as they give attribution.

I think that IS the intention, actually. It's a flexible system meant for a variety of settings.

It is based on Forged in the Dark (Blades in the Dark) and some other game.

Roleplaying systems are typically easier to understand than combat oriented systems (like pathfinder or warhammer). So it makes sense that this seeks to focus so heavily in roleplaying, it is after all an investigation game, much like Call of Cthulhu, which is also roleplay heavy just not always in the ways people assume. Now granted, they could've made a system that focuses more on narrative but then the system would probably have to be even simpler but these guys are voice actors, of course they'd wanna make a game based on one of their best skills. Still seeing how good this system is, I'm very hyped tonsee what their d20 system will be like, since I've been looking for a good replacement to d&d after using thst for so long.

I really enjoyed d10 systems. Mostly flat-out percentages

This is 100% classic Call of Chthulu just without the sanity system.

Dungeon world, maybe? I played it once and it feels similar to this.

Blades in the dark perhaps? it's what started FitD which is what Candela Obscura is most likely inspired by along with Call of Cthulhu.

Monster of Week also used Powered by Apocalypse system

They ran Monster of the Week which is in the same family of games. Blades in the Dark and Monster of the Week could be considered cousins as far as their derived games.

In their defense, I took twice as long to explain everything than they did haha

Considering Matt has only been announced for GMing three sessions and Taliesin is the resident eldritch god as well as the center focus of the marketing for it, I think the end goal is for Taliesin to take over.

@@michaelgrey1503 Makes sense! :)

The Shadowrun system is terrible, as great as the game is.

I got PbtA vibes immediately as well, tho it seems a bit more involved than that whole system, more resource management, which I'm a big fan of.

Pathfinder 2e is the most obvious replacement. You could also try Mythras (with Classic Fantasy addon).

@@SebThorson I don’t have a lot of experience with PF2e, but I didn’t enjoy my time with it. It gives me D&D4e vibes, which I’d rather just play. I just wish the old programs that 4e had were still available (their death is why I never enjoyed D&D Beyond). I’ve not heard of Mythras, though. I’ll look into it. I recently picked up a 13th Age bundle, but haven’t had time to go through it.

Which is itself a hack of the Apocalypse World system.

​@@LupineShadowOmega Sure, there's nothing wrong with using a system that has a full published SRD. I would just have mentioned that it's an established system already used in lots of games.

@@DavidRourke Agreed. Like I for one am interested in their twists, but it probably should have been mentioned up front.

​@David Rourke I agree completely that they should at least acknowledge systems they took mechanics from. Calling it a new system is a bad look. It's very similar to DM Scotty's EZD6. With the D6 dice pool and resource mechanic.

Stras Acimovic and Layla Adelman worked with Forged in the Dark

I've heard that one of the devs was a consultant on Blades in the Dark and a few offshoots and that there's a full Acknowledgement section in the main book thanking all the contributing influences.

John Harper, the creator of blades, helped with the project (see Touchstones in the quickstart).

@Tal Tamary no way!! That's very neat, ty

Avatar is based on Powered by the Apocalypse. This one is based on Blades in the Dark. The main difference is that you have skills instead of moves, plus the whole group sheet thing (forged in the dark games all have something with a sheet for the entire group, be it the gang for Blades, the spaceship for Scum & Villainy etc).

Dissapointed by not explaining how items work ? Dude. This is a "Quick start" guide. Read up to page 7 and you can play the game as a player. Nothing else needed. The full book on the system will come out later

@@lefterismplanas4977 The adventure included in the guide specifically calls out a point where you should remind players about this item that protects against bleed. Odd when there's no actual guidance on what the item does or how bleed works. Compare this to other quickstart guides for other games where the adventures are designed to walk you through the mechanics presented in the guide and avoid mechanics not present.

@@lefterismplanas4977 Also just worth noting that you said the quick start guide will give you everything you need to be a player but that's pretty useless if the guide doesn't have enough info for someone to GM.

@@Katosepe it has enaough to be a GM too. Enaough to even include some premare scenarios. Qhat a pler need ends at page 7, extra lore and details go untill page 16 or something, and the rest is just for the GM. Pluss, the full book will release soon eoungh anyway

it is ('almost', to be precise, but it really is)

Yeah it's definitely a variant.

I was watching and I noticed that a distinct lack of a hard combat phase was something I missed too, as it's a good way of "resetting" your attention after playing or watching for so long. I've definitely seen other similar systems (typically made using the Blades in the Dark system which this is very similar to) that implement things like spellcasting though, so a more fleshed-out combat system is not unreachable!

interesting that that is your take, I thought this game had too MUCH die rolling. it came across as too many disparate categories. it felt like skills. actions abilities resistance...sort of leaves me cold.

Players can lie about every single aspect of every single game though. Everything else is more of a communication issue. Also the GM does not HAVE to narrate what the players are doing. As with DnD you will always have the option to let them describe what the player does and then fill in the gaps according to the role. :)

I agree.

Coming from an academic background, I heavily believe that "The good guys cite their sources". Consider our reaction of Wizards of the Coast (other villainous corporations are available) re-skinned an existing game and sold it as theirs. I hope the full version (when published) will contain proper citations of major influences.

John Harper himself helped out in the development of Candela Obscura