Roleplaying Games

‘Ten Candles’ is the Perfect Halloween RPG

I heard about Ten Candles for the first time on a podcast. It was discussed in hushed tones, with all hosts agreeing that it was really good, some even calling it their favorite RPG, but without anyone sharing any real information on what it was. Elsewhere on the internet, I heard about it again and again, that it was a definitive horror RPG experience, that it was a favorite one-shot RPG, that there was almost nothing else like it. My interest thoroughly piqued, I went to the publisher’s website, read two sentences of their description, and smashed the buy button. Everyone was right, Ten Candles was a pitch perfect horror RPG.

For a horror RPG, atmosphere is everything. A good horror RPG should feel like a good ghost story: faces just visible in the dim, flickering light; quiet conversation; a little tickle of excitement and fear in the pit of your stomach; a sense that anything might happen in this little circle, and that for a little while, the world outside the circle ceases to exist. Ten Candles is dripping with that atmosphere.

Ten Candles is played by a GM and 3–5 players, with no prep. Everyone is arranged in a circle, with ten votive candles and a fireproof bowl in the middle of the group. The game plays like a ritual.