Bluebeard's Bride

Bluebeard's Bride is an investigatory horror tabletop roleplaying game, written and designed by Whitney “Strix” Beltrán, Marissa Kelly, and Sarah Richardson, and based on the Bluebeard fairy tale.

''In this game you and your friends explore Bluebeard’s home as the Bride, creating your own beautifully tragic version of the dark fairy tale. Investigate rooms, discover the truth of what happened, experience the nightmarish phantasmagoria of this broken place, and decide whether or not you are a faithful or disloyal bride.'' Text source:Magpie Games


 * Core play material
 * Magpie Games on Discord

Fairy tale
"Bluebeard" (Barbe bleue) is a French folktale from the 17th century written by Author Charles Perrault and published 1697 in Paris, France. His version is likely the most famous one.

Summary: The tale of "Bluebeard" tells the story of a rich but very uncourteous, ugly aristocrat, who decides to marry again, although where his other wives remain is a mystery. Soon, the neighbour's beautiful daughter becomes his new wife against her will and he takes her to his isolated palace in the countryside. Shortly after their arrival there, Bluebeard must leave again but gives the castles keys to his wife.

The keys can open every door in the palace, but Bluebeard speaks a strict warning about one of the rooms and forbids her to open it. Being alone in the vast castle, the young bride soon becomes incredibly bored and invites her sister and friends for a party. During the party, the bride's curiosity grows and she decides to take a look into the room.

The room contains the bloody remains of Bluebeard's other wives, hooked to the ceiling. The bride drops the bunch of keys into the blood on the room's floor and must realise the blood stains can't be removed. Shocked, she confides into her sister the knowledge about that room. They plan to escape the castle, but Bluebeard returns shortly after and finds the blood stained keys. He is furious about her disobedience and threatens to kill the bride but she can convince him to have a final prayer with her sister.

Bluebeard's blood thirst grows and he tries to attack and murder his wife, but the sister and her brothers arrive in time and kill him. At the end, the wife is the heir of wealth and castle.

More about Bluebeard can be found here:
 * Bluebeard
 * Analysis of the tale on interesting litarature
 * Bluebeard on Google Books

"Bluebeard" also appeared in a lot of adaptations and variations in litature, films and games and inspired many artists.

Game art
The artwork was created by Rebecca Yanovskaya, a freelance illustrator from Toronto, Canada.

Guides

 * How to play guide for Bluebeard's Bride

Magpie games
The company was founded in early 2011 by Mark Truman and Marissa Kelly.