“A series of mysterious deaths in the art galleries of Newfaire have left investigators perplexed and concerned for the safety of the city’s more respectable citizens in the Eaves. Some eyewitnesses have spoken of a chilling, almost ghostly figure of a woman, but when questioned further, can’t agree on a description. Your Circle has been requested by Candela to investigate and come to the bottom of this mysterious apparition before whatever this person or creature is hurts anyone else.”
So opens The Woman in Red: A Candela Obscura Assignment from La Lionne Publishing, her first published assignment for the Candela Obscura system from Darrington Press. I picked this up on Itch the same day I found out about it, had every intention of reading it, anddd then life happened and it moved to the “to be read” shelf until I was asked to say a few words.
The short version: I recommend picking this up even if you have no intention of running it as an Assignment. The writing is clear, concise, and descriptive, evoking a surprisingly larger world for a document that comes in at 7 pages. You’ve got a strong villain, interesting characters, and locations that had a little movie starting in my head as I imagined what this Assignment unfolding would look like. I think this does a good job of setting up the major points while leaving plenty of room to maneuver depending on your group’s approach. You can pick up The Woman in Red on DriveThru RPG for $2.99 USD, or on Itch starting at $2.50 USD.
Now for the longer version! The Woman in Red is the first release I’ve read for Candela Obscura, a system I am aware of by name and general murmurs on the internet only. The system itself caught my interest briefly as I heard “horror drama” and immediately looked over. I’m aware that there’s an AP that I’m sure is very good but well – I wasn’t familiar with the system when I read this assignment, and I’m still not! You can find the free Quickstart for Candela Obscura here, something I downloaded as I was writing this. It was neat finding out that The Night Circus and Neverwhere, two of my favourite books which were heavy inspirations for one of my characters, were inspirations for the system.
This is important, because it meant my first time encountering any of the system specific terms was with this document. I now know the game has Exploration and Escalation phases, and that Assignments unfold along those lines. I know that Assignments operate with a “if you do X, Y happens” structure which can be quite specific but from a writing perspective make my brain happy. I also know that Bleed is bad. I’m not sure what it is exactly, and it isn’t the job of the Assignment to tell me as it is made for people familiar with the system, but I know it is bad! And is part of what made me curious enough to seek out the quickstart for some easy answers about mechanics. (Bleed is the corruptive force left behind by powerful magick. It can corrupt your character, take them over, and/or kill them. Like I said: it’s bad!)
The Assignment can be run in one go, or across multiple sessions. Either way, by the time the Epilogue hits a few weeks have gone by. This, to me, made the idea of playing across multiple sessions more appealing – not only because it gives that physical sense of more time having passed, but because it would allows players to think more about what their character was doing before the next Exploration phase started, giving an opportunity for each person to highlight what sort of things matter to their character. I think by now we all know of my love for story, and downtime moments are just as important to that as reaching plot points.
Outside of its technical aspects, I also deeply enjoyed the Assignment’s descriptive writing. I did recoil a little bit in “oh that’s just not right” at the description of a Threat in Escalation 2 right before you’re attacked, and I mean that in the most delightful way. The opening and closing segments for each phase did a great job of setting the tone, while the possibility for continuation in the Epilogue is promising and teasing in the way a TV series might give you a 15 second clip right at the end of the season to go “don’t worry, we aren’t done here.” And I hope we’re not! I’d personally be interested in seeing more Candela Obscura Assignments from La Lionne Publishing, if only because it gives us the opportunity to see the world of Candela through her eyes.
So with that in mind, be sure to pick up your opera glasses and enjoy the story unfolding in The Woman in Red. I know I did, and I hope it brings your tables an interesting experience!
Want to follow along with more of what La Lionne Publishing is doing? Check out her other games, and follow her on social media!
That’s all for this week! Until next time, stay cozy!
The Cozy Cauldron 