Critical Role’s Candela Obscura is but a pale shadow of its inspiration, Blades in the Dark

polygon.com:

Critical Role kicked off a new actual-play series in May titled Candela Obscura. Now its Darrington Press publishing imprint is ready with a tabletop role-playing game based on the same themes and mechanics. Starting Nov. 14, fans will be able to find Candela Obscura Core Rulebook for sale at their local game shop and online. But while the game may be embraced by fans of the program seeking episodic adventures set in the same fictional world, this initial release lacks either the depth or the novelty for much wider appeal.

Candela Obscura the game, just like the streaming program, uses the Illuminated Worlds system developed by Stras Acimovic and Layla Adelman. Acimovic is best known for his work on Scum and Villainy and Band of Blades, which both use the Forged in the Dark license of John Harper’s Blades in the Dark. Illuminated Worldsshares a lot of that same DNA. Candela Obscura designers Spenser Starke and Rowan Hall acknowledge that Harper’s work inspired both their mechanics and also the tone of the book’s intro, and Harper even designed the deluxe edition of the game’s cover. But Candela Obscura can’t hold a candle to the critically acclaimed Blades in the Dark game itself, or Harper’s evocative world-building.

Like Blades in the Dark, Candela Obscura employs a d6-based system where only the players roll dice and they can call on their own character resources to give an extra die to one of their allies. The difficulty system is also the same, with a roll of 6 being a true success and lesser rolls resulting in failure or success with complications. There are also countdowns — represented by dice used as numerical markers rather than by filling in a clock face with a pencil as in Blades in the Dark — used to ramp