“Ten Candles” is the first role-playing game kickstarter from Stephen Dewey and the premise sold me immediately. Everyone dies at the the end of the game. Always. There is no last-minute reprieve or deus ex machina to save everyone. All the PCs will die, but how you face that end is what matters.

A darkness of unknown origin consumes the world and the players represent a tiny story of survival among the doomed millions. Faced with their demise alliances fall, betrayals planned and emotional carnage take a terrible toll in the PCs last hours.

This is a hardcore story RPG with light mechanics and a clever way to track rounds. Lit Candles. Ten candles burn in the center of the table and as the story unfolds and dark events come to pass, extinguished. Slowly the darkness claims the room and eventually the players…

Stephen was kind enough to forward me a beta copy of the rules and I thoroughly enjoyed them. They are also nearly complete and the kickstarter already exceeded its goals, so it looks like this project will complete with no issues. Fair warning, though there are dice this is a story RPG that is far more dependent on player contributions and creativity. A dungeon crawl it is not.

I highly suggest checking out the “Ten Candles” Kickstarter, as it is one of the few I projects I have backed.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer