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Before they were some of the minds behind brand new TTRPG Daggerheart, Spenser Starke and Rowan Hall worked on the turn-of-the-century horror RPG Candela Obscura, which Critical Role fans may know by the liveplay miniseries of the same name. Recently, Popverse had the chance to chat with Starke and Hall, and as pretty big horror fans, we had to ask if their experience in the realm of terror was carrying over into the new game.

Lucky for us (and you, fright fan), their answer was yes.

"One of the neat things about Candela, begins Starke, "Is how narrative forward is. It puts the, the story in the hands of the the players as much as the GM in a way that invites them to scare themselves as much as the GM to scare them. [...] For those that have played [Candela Obscura], they'll see some similar DNA in the way that Daggerheart works."

Of course, this is a game we're talking about, not just a story, so there's got to be some sort of mechanic that makes the players "scaring themselves," as Starke puts it, matter to the flow of play. Hall clarifies that that mechanic does exist in Daggerheart, and it's a mechanic that Candela Obscura fans should know well. 

"In both Candela and Daggerhart," says Hall, "There are mechanics for scars. In terms of feel at the table, it manifests to capture that hallmark mortality [...] Candela is kind of a race against time. You start at the healthiest you'll ever be and you get the characters to go and go and go and go and fight and fight and fight until they can't fight anymore. You're gonna die, or retire a lot worse for the wear, and there's a scar mechanic that reinforces that."

"In Daggerheart," she continues, "There is a scar mechanic that works to tell the hero's journey as you go up and up and up and up towards what we all jokingly refer to as 'God mode.' [...] [Horror] is about exploring themes of grief, and I think having a scar mechanic that changes people, changes characters as they go on their journey, it forces you to reckon with how saving other people or helping yourself or helping your friends can change you. Hopefully, it feels different because of the genres of each game, but there should be a little bit of that [Candela] DNA."

Daggerheart is available now. 

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