These things are true.
The world is dark.
And we are alive.
I am very happy to report that last night I had a successful first time running Ten Candles, a tragic horror one-shot TTRPG written by Stephen Dewey and published by Cavalry Games. In this game, players collaboratively tell the tale of a group of survivors, attempting to do one last act of defiance against the enemy (Them) that will slowly and surely consume them in the darkness. It is very much intended to be a game played in person, with much of the game’s mechanics being linked to the visual display of the game, as ten candles are lit in a circle and each player literally burns their trait cards one by one as they are used up.
I don’t currently have ten candles, a fireproof bowl, or a group of people with time to run this game. I also didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of people by discovering halfway through a game that I can’t do horror very well. With that in mind, I had to improvise, running the game online through Discord and Roll20.
Below isn’t necessarily a full review of the game itself, but instead a reflection on how it went running the game on a digital platform, and what lessons from this session could be brought into future games both on and off the computer.
