Critical Role announced a new campaign on Tuesday by dropping a dramatic, spooky trailer featuring Taliesin Jaffe.
One of the most exciting things about the new show, titled Candela Obscura, is that it is based in a completely new world. Fans will be leaving Exandria behind for a turn-of-the-century inspired region known as The Fairelands, a place of terrifying magick.
Even more notable, though, is that Candela Obscura will be based on a brand-new RPG model. The system, also called Candela Obscura, uses the Illuminated Worlds system that is due for release by Darrington Press later this year. The Candela Obscura system will use a D6 pool style of gameplay. The new show will be the first look at this system and how it can be used for different types of play. On May 25, in line with the first episode, a free quick-start guide to the system will be released, with a full rulebook to follow later in 2023.
Critical Role introduced the new campaign on their website with the following:
“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.“
Each episode of Candela Obscura will begin with a new inciting incident for the Investigators, with the concept having been created to produce standalone episodes that viewers can jump into at any point.
The cast of Candela Obscura includes Critical Role veterans Ashley Johnson (Blindspot), Anjali Bhimani (Overwatch), Robbie Daymond (Marvel’s Spider-Man), and Laura Bailey (Avengers Assemble), with Matthew Mercer (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) at the helm. The episodes will also feature a “Lightkeeper,” Taliesin Jaffe (One Piece: Stampede), who will narrate for the audience and act as steward.
Critical Role describes the new show as “steeped in the genre of gothic horror, ancient evils, and the encroaching magickal bleed.” While the show is intended to be more supernatural than scary, there may be certain themes or scenes that are uncomfortable for some.
Candela Obscura will begin airing on May 25 at 7 p.m. PST, with new episodes dropping on the last Thursday of every month after that. This will coincide with the break weeks for Campaign 3, so fans of Bells Hells will not have to choose between the ongoing show and the new addition. The podcast and YouTube VOD will be available two weeks after each episode’s initial broadcast.
All episodes will be available on Critical Role’s Twitch & YouTube channels.
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