What is Bluebeard’s Bride | The Bride | Exploring the House | The System | Buy |
Downloads | The Team | Community
“Beauty…is pain.” The woman mouths the words, but no sound passes her lips.
As you back away, the curtains covering the walls slither down with a hiss. The walls are covered in mirrors. And the woman is in every single one of them. There’s no room for you. The woman steps out from the mirror.
She’s wearing the same wedding dress you are, but it fits her better. She smiles as she pads over the carpet towards you. The woman reaches out. All of the parts of yourself that you don’t like, she touches those places. And when she touches you, it hurts.
“You can make yourself better. Woman aren’t strangers to pain, after all.”
All of the mirrors on the walls shatter, and she turns from you to pick up a shard of glass. As she hands it to you, you find yourself whispering back…“I can take the pain.”
What is Bluebeard’s Bride?
| 3-5 players | 2-4 hour run time | Rated Adults Only |
Will You Open The Final Door?
A young bride is wed to an ugly, but powerful man with a blue beard. He invites her to explore the house… but one room is forbidden. Eventually, the young bride falls prey to her curiosity and opens it, discovering the gruesome display of former brides murdered…
Bluebeard’s Bride is an investigatory horror tabletop roleplaying game based on the Bluebeard fairy tale. Find out if you have what it takes to chill your friends to the bone and if you will make it out of your new home alive…
Explore Bluebeard’s mansion and create your own beautifully tragic version of the dark fairy tale. Experience the nightmarish memories that haunt the rooms of this broken place and discover the truth of what happened here. Decide together whether you are a faithful or a disloyal bride.
If you are a fan of Crimson Peak, American Horror Story, or Company of Wolves, you will love Bluebeard’s Bride!
The Bride
The original fairy tale is called “Bluebeard,” but this game is about his new Bride, left alone in a sprawling house filled with taunting ghosts, creeping horrors, and one very special door.
Ast the Bride, you will:
- Examine ornate, dust-covered, or blood-stained objects for secrets
- Caress a faceless contorted horror to bring it the solace it desires
- Dirty yourself by drawing the blood of violent and haunted servants
- Shiver from fear as the nightmares of the manor appear before you
In your story, each player takes the role of a distinct part of the Bride’s mind—a Sister—who guides the Bride through Bluebeard’s house, armed with little more than a set of keys. The psyche of any person is complex, and the Bride no less so.
These Sisters don’t always agree. Each of you speaks as these aspects of her psyche would speak, deciding what actions the Bride takes, pushing the Bride deeper into the mysteries of each room, as you struggle to determine what happened within. Your wedding ring helps show who is in charge of your physical body.
The Sisters
Animus
You hold onto righteousness with both hands. Others admire your strength and bow to your will.
Fatale
You drip sensuality from your lips. Others watch your every move and crave for you to take control.
Mother
You walk with authority. Others ache your approval, and long for you to soothe their wounds.
Virgin
You see beauty where there is none. Others seek comfort in your warmth and delight in your obedience.
Witch
You braid magic from shadow and blood. Others desire a taste of your sin and pray for your undoing.
Exploring the House
The house itself has a supernatural quality, a foreboding sentience. You may enter a room on the first floor, and exit that same room to find yourself on the third. You can take a morning stroll down a hallway, and by the end of it find the sun is setting. You may stare at a stained glass window, to realize it is a mirror. You can lose time or perspective among the twisted halls of Bluebeard’s house.
Each room contains the story of a former bride who once lived there. The objects and creatures you find there all contain hints as to her personality, feeling for her husband, and her fate. Did your new husband play a role in her demise, or is he simply unlucky in love?
What will you find in your new husband’s house?
What horrors will haunt you?
What darkness will you find within yourself?
But in the end, there is only one question for a new Bride: will you open the final door?
The System
Semi-diceless
Players take turns guiding the Bride’s actions and while some moves retain the use of dice for uncertain outcomes, the maiden moves are special. Maiden Moves enable the Bride to investigate and interact with her surroundings without rolling dice because there is no need for the outcome to be uncertain. Not only does this allow for the tense atmosphere to be maintained at the table, but it harkens back to telling ghost stories around a campfire—there are no dice there.
Tokens or Faithfulness and Disloyalty
When the Bride determines the truth about a room, she proposes what happened, to whom, and why, taking a small object or memento out of the room as evidence for or against her husband. If she deems Bluebeard innocent, she takes a token of Faithfulness, but if she determines his guilt she takes a token of Disloyalty. When a token track fills up, the the conclusion of your fairytale begins.
One Shot with Replayability
Bluebeard’s Bride is a one shot game with its own tragically beautiful ending, but the replayability is high as a new Groundskeepers reveals their dark twists on rooms and horrors you have not yet explored. Even the Bride from your game may leave behind a legacy of her own, inspiring her very own room to be explored by future brides of Bluebeard.
Buy
Downloads
The Team
Whitney “Strix” Beltràn, Marissa Kelly, & Sarah Richardson – Creators
The Core Team:
- Mark Diaz Truman
- Brendan Conway
- Amanda Valentine
- Shelley Harlan
- Derrick Kapchinsky
- Rebecca Yanovskaya
- Kring
- Miguel àngel Espinoza
- Mirco Paganessi
- Tawny Fritz
- Jabari Weathers
- Thomas Deeney
Community
Looking for other Bluebeard’s Bride fans? Have questions about the game? Want to keep up with the latest Bluebeard’s Bride news? Join our online community!
Kickstarter Video
Actual Play
Podcasts: Actual Play and Talks
- Sarah talks Bluebeard’s Bride with Marcelo on Gamerati
- Whitney talks Bluebeard’s Bride with Dr. Tom
- Whitney talks with Caylie on Remeshed (November 2016)
- Whitney talks with Panda, Phil, and Senda on Misdirected Mark (November 2016)
- Whitney talks with Chad, Murf, and Dan on Miskatonic University Podcast (October 2016)
- Whitney with Sean Nittner on Narrative Control (October 2016)
- Sarah talks Bluebeard’s Bride on Misdirected Mark – Bluebeard at 13:38 (August 2016)
- Sarah runs the game for One Shot Podcast (February 2016) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
- Sarah runs the game for The Jank Cast crew (February 2016) Part 1, Part 2
- Marissa talks Bluebeard’s Bride on the Shrieker Podcast (January 2016)
Video: Actual Play
- Whitney run the game on Weekly Affirmations Part 1
- Sarah runs the game for the 2016 Big Bad Con Kickstarter
Interviews:
- Whitney talks Bluebeard’s Bride with J on Pink Fae
- Whitney talks Bluebeard’s Bride with Darcy Ross on Gnome Stew
- Whitney talks Bluebeard’s Bride on Ace of Geeks
- Whitney, Marissa, & Sarah talk Bluebeard’s Bride on RPGGeek
- Whitney talks about Bluebeard’s Bride with Anna Kreider on Go Make Me a Sandwich
- Whitney, Marissa, & Sarah chat about Bluebeard’s Bride and Noir on Last Chance Noir
- Whitney and Bluebeard’s Bride on RPGGeek
