Ten Candles

Author: Stephen Dewey.
First published: 2015.

Nearby question

How can a foretold tragedy remain meaningful without making player choices irrelevant?

Ten Candles is a tragic-horror game in which the characters' final deaths are known. Ten candles literally light the session, act as a countdown, and structure its progression; character elements can also be physically burned.

What it makes possible

Light, time, atmosphere, and information about the session's state are combined in one device. The final outcome is not the primary uncertainty: choices concern what the characters do with the time they have left.

The device also removes some responsibility from the GM for producing a tragic arc: material time makes that arc perceptible to everyone.

For Resonance

Ten Candles shows that system need not reside only in local resolution. The arc of an entire session can be carried by its material and temporal apparatus.

Source: Cavalry Games — Ten Candles.