Imagine putting questions to a questioner. Here, I ask game designer Will Fish questions to uncover the gothic details about the investigation TTRPG Candlelight Investigation.
The gothic noir game is about investigation, intrigue and introspection, and it’s being crowdfunded by the indie game studio Black Mouth Cur Gamecraft. The Kickstarter video features people playing the game, but you can skip to around 1:45 to meet Will and hear from him about the game.
We’ve until August 31st to back the Kickstarter.
If the crowdfunding is successful, Candlelight Investigation will be about 200 pages, suit 1 to 4 players, and the book will have everything you need.
Mechanically, there are inspirations from PbtA and Gumshoe, which are made for investigation games. Interestingly, there’s also inspiration from Fullmetal Alchemist, which we see in the grim setting.
Backers at $5 can get an introductory version of the rules, and those who can pledge $20 get the core digital rules and character tokens for VTTs.
Interview with Will Fish
Let’s start with an introduction! Who is Will Fish, and is there a story behind your brand name, Black Mouth Cur Gamecraft?
I’m a young game designer in my mid 20s from Austin, TX. I’ve been working as a freelance game designer, and working on games as a hobby for years, and this is my big push to make a professional studio myself.
As for the name “Black Mouth Cur Gamecraft”: the reason behind the name is pretty simple. “Black Mouth Cur” is a dog breed and I love dogs. I’ve been obsessed with dogs ever since I came out of the womb. Also the breed originates from the US South, like myself. They have a kind of a sinister, dark sounding name, but are known to have a sweet friendly temperament. This is somewhat like my games and art: I tend to make kinda somber, dark games, but ones that ultimately have a positive, hopeful outlook.
Your Kickstarter for Candlelight Inquisition is live now! For readers who are just hearing about it, how would you describe this “Gothic Noir” world of investigation and conspiracy?
Candlelight Inquisition’s industrial-era setting focuses on the decaying empire of Vinndes. Once the “Empire of Enlightenment”, the institutions of Vinndes have become corrupt and dysfunctional. Now many competing factions jockey for control. You of course got the Inquisition: Vinndes’ equivalent of the FBI, CIA, and Witch Hunters all in one. They are part of the Cathedral: the theocratic, authoritarian bureau-state that worships ancient technology and a gnostic-inspired idea of enlightenment.
In opposition you have insurgents, the Amber Revolution and their newly declared republic, the Free Scholars who perform (not always ethical) research on relic-tech or the new mystic Dream Sorcery, and various Dream cults who buck against the state faith’s rigid idea of truth. The old aristocracy, new-industrialists, ruin-delving labour unions, and more factions are detailed in the book.
Not one of these factions is righteous, each of them are involved in their own dark schemes. However, this is not a grimdark setting. It’s not Warhammer 40K where everyone is a different brand of evil. There are pockets of good. Much of the game is about separating the good from the evil in these factions. That’s part of the reason I choose the Inquisition to be the “default” faction for the game: inquisitor player characters are poised well to uncover conspiracies within their own kith. That being said, nothing is stopping you from hatching your own dark plans, either!
You mentioned that this project began when you were just 13 years old. That’s an incredible journey! How has Candlelight Inquisition evolved from that initial spark to the ~200-page RPG it is today?
The very first version of what would become “Candlelight Inquisition” was made the summer before my 8th grade so I could play it with friends at a summer camp. At that point in time, I just wanted to make an RPG and had no grand plans besides a setting idea. Needless to say it was a mess. There are some funny stories from “Will’s Totally Legit RPG”, like the overcomplicated wound system that allowed my friend’s paladin-esque character to get his lungs punctured several times but keep on going!
But I could tell then it needed a lot of work, and I also realized I need a stronger focus than just “I want to make an RPG.” Rather than be discouraged, this is where I really discovered how much I loved game design. How I loved designing systems, testing them, seeing them break, and racketting my brain on how to solve them to make the game more evocative, more streamlined, more fun. I had dabbled with game design even younger as a kid but this is where I really went all in. This project not only became the seed for “Candlelight Inquisition” – but motivated me to work on other games, like my video game projects.
But I digress, back to Candlelight Inquisition. Over the years of testing and redesigns, the project that became Candlelight Inquisition went through 4 major versions. The previous version, which I had called “Bluesteel Rusts”, is significant because only then did I truly identify what I wanted the game to be about. The RPG had kinda been a generic adventure RPG until then – but now I knew it was about “investigation, intrigue, introspection.” It also was the original source of a lot of system design that made its way into Candlelight Inquisition, such as the willpower and rerolling system.
“Bluesteel Rusts” was ultimately scrapped while I was in college because I discovered ways to push the idea of “investigation, intrigue, introspection” even further. This last version, Candlelight Inquisition, is the culmination of all those discoveries.
The Kickstarter mentions a “novel investigation system,” “Dream sorcery,” and “relic-tech.” Without giving too much away, could you give us a taste of what makes the mechanics of Candlelight Inquisition special for players and GMs?
I am really excited for you all to play with the investigation systems. Many RPGs struggle with investigation scenes. To use an analogy, in your standard d20 system, if you come across a locked door, then fail your action rolls to lockpick it or knock it down, play stalls. Do you have to find another way? Is there even one? The GM might just let you roll again, but it feels unsatisfying. A skilled GM can use tricks to avoid this problem – but even the most skilled GM’s aren’t going to be on their A game all the time. This “locked door” problem is exacerbated even further when it comes to searching for clues. If “opening” the solution to the mystery requires that you find certain “key” information, but you keep failing action rolls to find clues, you won’t find the “key” and therefore play will stall. But unlike the door example, where you still have the concrete goal of getting through somehow on a failure, missing the information from an investigation scene might leave your party without any direction at all!
One RPG I was inspired by, “Gumshoe”, dives deep on this issue. It solves this “locked door” problem by making searches always succeed. I feel though that something is lost if characters never fail on investigation; missing or misinterpreting a few clues is a staple mystery trope. Therefore, Candlelight Inquisition uses the Two-Question search system. You ask two questions whenever you investigate. Success, you get both answered. Failure, the GM still answers one, but they get to pick. This way, the GM can give the players the most critical clues to keep moving the plot forward, while allowing the possibility of missing some important details that can come back to bite the investigators dramatically later.
I talked a lot of theory on the Two-Question system so I’ll be briefer. You told me not to “give too much away” afterall. A last note on investigation: Candlelight Inquisition also has a “Faction Plots” system, a GM tool for building your own conspiracies and managing actors in the background as time advances. Mystery and intrigue is a hard genre to run as a GM, and this makes it easier.
Moving on, Dream sorcery is the “soft” magic system of the setting. It allows dreamers to connect to the alien realm (or possibly world conscious) of the Dream when they sleep, and navigate its shifting landscapes to talk to spirits, cast illusions, forge memories, see into the future, and the like. Despite being a “soft” magic system narratively, gameplay requires more direction, so Dream Sorcery is split into several flexible “hard” powers: Clairvoyance, Exorcism, and weirder ones relating to Eldritch powers within the Dream. Each power can be used in a number of creative ways, and has a very ritual, occult feel in play. Moreover, having Dream Sorcery as part of the setting is great for crafting mysteries – it allows for some really trippy, mind-bending twists. Things aren’t as they seem.
In thematic opposition to the Dream, relic-tech is the physical technology used in Antiquity. These are extremely rare, and often revered as holy objects. These are your magic items, legendary items. But they aren’t as great as they seem. Without getting too much into it: the ancients liked their biotechnology, and there is some pretty bad body horror going on with some of these relics.
You’ve shared that the game’s themes are shaped by your own search for truth, grappling with spirituality and personal struggles. How did channelling those complex experiences into the setting of Vinndes and its factions help you create something unique?
I have something that is both a blessing and a curse, natural skepticism of pretty much everything yet also a need to have a concrete true deep worldview and strong ideals. I’ve long since wrestled with my Evangelical Christian upbringing, my own personal philosophies, mental illness, and uncertainty about what is true in this world of disinformation. In truth, really, we can know nothing fully, especially not what is right and good if such things even exist. But despite that realization, I have come to a more confident place in my faith, politics, and philosophies.
We may not be able to know truth fully, but we can approach it. This journey- the doubt, the shifting uncertainty, yet the possibility to approach truth – I put into Candlelight Inquisition. I mentioned earlier that no faction of Vinndes was righteous, nor evil in entirety? You, as the player character “Seekers”, have yourself to find the thread of truth – to find for yourself the good within the mire of lies and deceit. In fact, many of the “big mysteries” in the setting I leave open ended. I give some suggestions to the GM about what it might be, but it’s up to them to determine what it is or leave it open-ended themselves.
I think the Dream emphasizes this theme further. The Dream is ever-shifting, its reality unclear. Is it an alien dimension? Is it a collective-unconscious mimicking reality? Or is it the fundamental essence of reality, the Dream of God more real than even the waking world? Knowing so little about the Dream, can an investigator trust any of their visions from it? Can an investigator even trust the waking world knowing it could be altered by the Dream? But in order to act and do good one must believe something.
You’re a ‘first-time’ TTRPG designer, but you have experience in video game development, including your current work on Downward Spear. How has your background in digital games influenced your approach to designing a tabletop experience?
This is a hard question to answer because I always designed tabletop games and video games concurrently. I just love games. While most of my professional work has been in video games, I have designed a number of board games, board game “mods”, micro RPGs, RPG adventure modules for existing settings for friends and as a personal hobby.
But back to the question. I would say the biggest takeaway from the digital sphere for me is a design principle I call “mechanical clarity.” Unlike with board games, and especially unlike TTRPGs, video games players aren’t willing to read massive text walls to play the game. The game must teach itself. I’m sure a lot of readers have seen breakdowns of Super Mario Bros level 0-1 where the level layout and control scheme itself teach the player to play without the need for text at all. However, players need to learn more than just the basic mechanics and controls of a game. They need to learn its depth, to continuously learn the hidden connections between systems and thus improve their skill and enjoyment of the game. I used this principle in a tactics RPG project I designed, “Moonrise Hope”. In that game, your heroes are pretty squishy, but enemies are stunned for a turn if you break past their guard points to deal heart damage. This reward, stunning an enemy, was both strong and satisfying, and subtly communicated to the player what strategies were effective. If you stun a bunch of enemies- that’s a good strategy! In this way it became a framework to teach players more complex things, like the difference between guard points and heart damage.
I brought his design philosophy over to Candlelight Inquisition. While there is certainly “required reading” like most RPGs, I think my experience with video games has helped me design the mechanics in a more intuitive way, and allowed for opportunities for players to learn and discover details and depth about the systems.
Regarding “Downward Spear”, I hesitate to talk about it much, as I’m still very new on the team and I don’t want to spill the beans without the project lead’s say-so. But I’m working on some pretty exciting levels for that isometric survival horror.
The Kickstarter has a very transparent and modest funding goal, with you personally covering a significant portion of the art costs at first. What was your philosophy behind this financial approach, and why was it so important for you to get this game made?
I’m glad it’s considered transparent! I want to be as transparent as I can be with my backers about the process and costs – what their money is going towards. As for modest and me covering much of the art, well, despite my big efforts my reach is not very wide yet. Funding is already hard enough to get in such a competitive field as games. The $5000 goal was determined by the minimum I’d need to make for me to be able to produce the product I want (lots of art paid for at a fair rate, physical books, and so forth) without disastrous personal cost to myself.
Even should I never recoup these costs post-Kickstarter, it will be super worth it to me to get this book out there. If it’s not clear from the rest of this interview, I’ve put a lot of my heart and soul into this book. Financial success or no, I feel like I have something of value – a great game and something to say – and I’m deeply invested in getting it out there.
That being said, I really hope we exceed $5000. Both because that’s a little easier on my wallet, but also because that money could be put towards further improving the game (like adding the another starting module to the book, one of the campaign’s stretch goals) and possibly even future works. Though I can’t complain. I’m in a very privileged situation to be able to dedicate this much of my own funds to my passion project, and as of writing this the kickstarter is going very well. I’m very grateful for everyone who has made that possible.
The goal of these interviews is always to see what’s on the horizon. With Candlelight Inquisition now coming to life, what’s next for Will Fish and Black Mouth Cur Gamecraft? Are there other TTRPG stories you’re already itching to tell?
The future of Black Mouth Cur Gamecraft and Candlelight Inquisition heavily depends on its reception and success. I would like to continue it though. I have some ideas for more modules, “Casefiles” as I call them in the book, as well as some splatt book expansions with more lore, factions, archetypes, abilities, dream powers, etc.
The biggest thing I’d like to do is make a modkit for Candlelight Inquisition, a “Powered by the Inquisition” if you will. The systems for Candlelight Inquisition are pretty setting flexible but there is enough tie-in to the specific setting of Vinndes that would make it some work for a GM to modify. I’d like to put together a booklet for people to easily modify the system of Candlelight Inquisition to the needs of their own campaign settings and even to other genres. That is, something much more extensive than the customization recommendations already included in Candlelight Inquisition as is.
I could go for a long time making “Casefiles” and expansions for Candlelight Inquisition if there was demand, but in terms of fully new TTRPGs I don’t have desire to make anymore for the foreseeable future – I’ve said my thing. That doesn’t mean I won’t get inspiration for another at some future point. Rather, once I take Candlelight Inquisition as far as I can take it, I intend to take Black Mouth Cur Gamecraft to other mediums. I have two video games and one card/board game I want to make. The card game is about conspiracies and may be in the same setting as Candlelight Inquisition, we will see. The video games are completely different, one is an Art House co-op arcade game, the other is a long, gruelling strategy-management game about a tribe on a dying world.
If I am extremely fortunate and Candlelight Inquisition is a blowout success, maybe I could hire more people to help and we could work on Candlelight Inquisition content and these other project ideas concurrently. I already know several people who are willing to design Casefiles and would be great at capturing the spirit of Candlelight Inquisition. This is all far future stuff, and much is a pipe dream right now, but you never know. I’m going to try for it all, at the very least.
Finally, the Candlelight Inquisition Kickstarter is live as we speak. Where can readers go to back the project, and what’s the best way for the community to show their support?
You can back our crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, or learn more at our website candlelightinquisition.com. We have several tiers, with physical print books at $60 and some amazing artisan-crafted dice at our premium level. Even as little as a dollar is helpful to us. If you want to support us in another way, the best way to help out is by letting your friends know about Candlelight Inquisition and spreading the word. You can also follow us on Bluesky (@candlelightrpg.bsky.social) or join our community on Discord (https://discord.gg/8hU7y3Qd). I’d be grateful if y’all checked out the personal work of other people on the project, the dice-maker Long Dog Dice and of course, the artist of the project himself, Anton. Lastly, if you’re in Texas, I’m going to be at TFest gaming convention in Pflugerville this August 8th-August 10th. My games are pretty much full now, but if you have any questions or just want to say hi, be sure to swing by.
Thanks, Will!
Kickstarter
As previously noted, you can get the PDF for $20 andthe hardcover of Candelight Inquisition (it will be a limited run) for $60.
There’s also a $90 tier that adds your name to the credits and a set or reusable character sheets. Will estimates deliver in August 2026.
