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Illuminated Worlds System

Illuminated Worlds is a game system originally created for Darrington Press's supernatural investigation game Candela Obscura. It was based on the Forged in the Dark system of Blades in the Dark and the Year Zero Engine of Vaesen. The system uses pools of six-sided dice and focuses on teams of investigators delving into fantastical mysteries. The core mechanic involves rolling a number of d6s based on your character's rating in the relevant Action and reading the highest result. If the best die is a 3 or less, the action fails and consequences ensue. If it's a 4 or 5, the roll is a mixed success; you accomplish what you wanted, but there's a cost or complication. On a 6, the roll completely succeeds with no consequences, and if multiple 6s appear in the result, it's a critical success and you gain an additional bonus. Illuminated Worlds gives players a few tools to tip the scales in their favor: Drives represent characters' ability to push themselves, and they can spend points of their Drives to add bonus dice to an important roll or help an ally. Drives also have some number of Resistances that allow players to re-roll dice when they don't like the result. Each character will also have Gilded Actions, which replace one die rolled for that action with a special d6 called a gilded die, which replenishes one point of a drive whenever you choose to use its result (even if it's not the highest one). In addition to creating characters with unique abilities, Illuminated Worlds also has a system for creating a Circle, or the group to which your characters belong. The Circle has abilities and resources that everyone in the group has access to, and represents the strength of their organization. The Circle can grow, change, and advance just like player characters can.

Popular RPGs using Illuminated Worlds System

Candela Obscura

Candela Obscura follows a circle of paranormal investigators who solve occult mysteries in a 19th-century inspired industrial fantasy city.

Dungeon Masters using Illuminated Worlds System

Voice Actor

2 years on StartPlaying

70 games hosted

DMs Guild Writer
Streamer
LGBTQ+
Queer
Neurodivergent
Published Writer
Cosplayer
Women/Femme Identifying
Game Designer
Multi-lingual

2 years on StartPlaying

480 games hosted

Streamer
Podcaster
LGBTQ+
Queer
Neurodivergent

3 years on StartPlaying

644 games hosted

Average response time: Under 1 hour

Response rate: 100%

LGBTQ+
Queer
Disabled
Neurodivergent

3 years on StartPlaying

303 games hosted

Veteran
Game Designer

3 years on StartPlaying

634 games hosted

Average response time: Under 1 hour

Response rate: 100%

Published Writer
Game Designer

4 years on StartPlaying

496 games hosted

Average response time: Under 1 hour

Response rate: 100%

Streamer
Podcaster
Asian
Teacher/Educator
Game Designer

1 year on StartPlaying

128 games hosted

Average response time: 3 hours

Response rate: 100%

Veteran
Published Writer

3 years on StartPlaying

162 games hosted

Average response time: Under 1 hour

Response rate: 100%

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