Candela Obscura vs Public Access
Compare Candela Obscura and Public Access side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Candela Obscura | Public Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Investigation, Mystery, Corruption, Mission-Based, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Resource Management, Atmospheric, Character-Driven, Strong GM Support | Investigation, Mystery, Collaborative, Player-Only Rolls, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Atmospheric, Corruption |
| Core Mechanic | 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. | When a move is triggered, roll 2d6 plus one of five ability modifiers. A 6 or less is a miss, while many moves split hits into 7–9, 10–11, and 12+ tiers. After a result is narrated, a player can turn a Key to raise it one tier and replace that outcome with a different timeline. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Low | Medium |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | Darrington Press Community Gaming License 2.0 | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Community gaming license | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Darrington Press | The Gauntlet |
| Year | 2023 | 2023 |
| Languages | English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish | English, French, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want episodic occult investigations with lasting injuries and shared recovery resources. Character-specific goals reward taking risks during assignments. | Groups seeking a finite collaborative analog-horror campaign where player-built theories, personal histories, and found-footage prompts shape the truth behind a small-town conspiracy |
| Highlights | 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. | Clues have no fixed locations or canonical answers, so players assemble them into a theory and roll to establish whether it is true. Turning a Key raises a resolved roll by one tier and replaces the narrated failure with an alternate timeline. Odyssey tape prompts let players author uncanny broadcasts that become a campaign timer and feed connections back into Deep Lake. |
| Considerations | 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. | Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Night must occur in order, which constrains free-form scene pacing. The Keeper must synthesize campaign discoveries into a custom final TV Odyssey mystery. The intended campaign engages childhood trauma, body horror, ritual sacrifice, and other dark material. |