Ashen Stars vs Candela Obscura

Compare Ashen Stars and Candela Obscura side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Ashen Stars	Candela Obscura
Genre	Sci-Fi	Horror
Tags	Investigation, Mystery, Mission-Based, Ship-Based, Space Opera, Resource Management, Character-Driven, Strong GM Support, Skill-Based, Crunchy	Investigation, Mystery, Corruption, Mission-Based, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Resource Management, Atmospheric, Character-Driven, Strong GM Support
Core Mechanic	Ordinary tests roll a d6 plus ability-pool points spent before rolling, succeeding by meeting or beating the difficulty. Investigative abilities work differently: a core clue is simply given when the right ability is used, no roll needed, with point spends buying extra benefits.	Roll d6s equal to your action rating and take the highest result: 1–3 is failure, 4–5 is success at a cost, and 6 is full success. Multiple 6s give a critical success. Spend drive to add dice, up to six total. With no dice, roll two and take the lower result. Taking a gilded die’s result restores one drive point. Burn resistance to reroll only your action dice. The GM sets stakes and expectations before the roll.
Dice	d6	d6 dice pool
Complexity	High	Low
Availability	Free quickstart	Free quickstart
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	5 of 5 book tools
License	All Rights Reserved	Darrington Press Community Gaming License 2.0
Third-Party Publishing	Commercial publishing allowed — GUMSHOE Community on DriveThruRPG	Commercial publishing allowed — Community gaming license
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Pelgrane Press	Darrington Press
Year	2011	2023
Languages	English	English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Best For	Groups who want episodic space mysteries with a shared ship and recurring personal subplots. Cases put the crew's pursuit of justice in tension with its need to earn a living.	Groups who want episodic occult investigations with lasting injuries and shared recovery resources. Character-specific goals reward taking risks during assignments.
Highlights	Automatic core clues keep missed information rolls from blocking a case. Reputation changes the wait between contracts, connecting ethical choices to the crew's upkeep bill. Ship combat assigns different attack modes to crew stations, spreading decisive actions across specialists.	Gilded dice let investigators accept a worse outcome to recover resources. Character-specific goals contribute to shared advancement after each assignment. The assignment framework identifies essential reveals that keep investigations moving.
Considerations	Investigative pools normally refresh only when a case ends, making extra benefits a case-long budget. The rules assume a working Laser crew; fugitive campaigns require changes to that framework. Ship battles use abstract goal-point races rather than positional movement on a tactical map.	Recovery draws from a limited pool shared by the whole circle. Scars usually persist throughout a campaign and can force a character out of play. Combat uses narrative judgment rather than initiative or fixed enemy health.