Critical Role began streaming their ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ sessions in March 2015 with no greater ambition than showing the world how much fun role-playing could be. Eight years later, they have an empire on their hands, including comics, animated series, books, adaptations within the ‘D&D’ universe, voice acting in various series and video games, and now, finally… their own role-playing game. But of course, there is a problem with ‘Candela Obscura.’
It’s time to bring the heat!
The publishing arm of ‘Critical Role,’ Darrington Press, has announced that on November 14th, the game manual created by the team will be released for $39.99, or $59.99 for the deluxe edition. In the case of ‘Candela Obscura,’ it features a gameplay system with six-sided dice called Illuminated Worlds and is set in a world immersed in an industrial explosion with a Victorian aesthetic. Players take on the roles of members of a secret society investigating strange and magical events happening around them.
The problem is that they have played ‘Candela Obscura’ on their channel themselves… and the results have been good, yes, but the audience still prefers their classic ‘Dungeons & Dragons‘ sessions, raising a couple of doubts. First, the need to consider whether they are milking the cow too much with so many derivative products. Second, if something works, it might be a better idea to pace it… Although it depends on the results they aim to achieve with ‘Candela Obscura.’ If they don’t intend to create the new standard for role-playing and mystery games, they might not fare badly.
Currently, the most viewed video on the channel is the first episode of campaign 3, with over 10 million views, while the first episode of ‘Candela Obscura’ surpassed one million, and from there, the numbers have declined, especially since Matthew Mercer stopped being the dungeon master. Is there a future for the role-playing game created almost from scratch, or do people want to see what they already know they want to see?
We will find out on November 14th: for now, everything ‘Critical Role’ touches turns into gold. Will the same happen with their own game?
