Bluebeard's Bride

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Lately I've been rereading Bluebeard's Bride and was struck by how well its sensual body horror fit ED.

Is there any interest in this game here? Even if just to chat about it.

[IsabellaRose]

Everyone tells me I should read and play this, yet I still don't even own it. :(

[WritesNaughtyStories]

It is a strange animal. It's based on the fairy tale Bluebeard. Bluebeard is immensely wealthy and marries a much young, very poor girl, which lifts her entire family out of poverty. He takes her to his palace and tells her that she may go in any room, except one and gives her the keys. She is the most recent of many wives, all of whom have died. The game is the "Sisters" - different aspects of the Bride's personality, exploring the palace (for the game it can be a mansion, estate, palace or anything else) to determine if the Bride believes Bluebeard to be a good husband or not.

It is a horror game at it's root because Bluebeard's mansion is full of trauma, ghosts of his past wives and often terrifying servants. It is deeply sensual and intimate, I highly recommend the purchase of the PDF at the very least. The book is gorgeous - easily one of the best looking RPG books ever made - but its contents are absolutely worth a read. Having run it a couple of times, I really feel like it might truly shine with a woman as the Groundskeeper - it is ultimately a feminine story, about a young wife and a possibly monstrous husband.

Edited March 14 by WritesNaughtyStories

[WickedCadrach]

I have the PDF and played a game of Dread once where the host borrowed from BBB rather than teach us a new game. Unfortunately, I've never had the right group to play. 

The hardcover does look beautiful, but the digital version on DriveThruRPG isn't bad (and it's on discount right now). The guidance and play examples the book gives are haunting. 

My take is that the initial story and context is solid horror on its own, but as narrow as it sounds, it really gives space to explore so much more about being in an uncertain and dangerous situation where the power imbalance is staggering. You can't kill Bluebeard (he's not even really present). You may escape, with difficulty. But the journey itself pushes you to figure out who you are (as the Bride), what poisons you willingly drink and which are too noxious: how much you'll compromise—how many pieces of yourself you'll give up or cut off, how many you'll break in order to defy him (or love him). 

It is an incredibly intriguing concept for a game.

[IsabellaRose]

I think as the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth people to tell me about this game, I'm finally convinced to give it a buy and read it.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

@WickedCadrach, do we think Bluebeard's Bride would work well in this community? It is sensual, intimate and horrific. I rather dislike playing BB with my usual group because our relationships are distinctly not sexual and the game leans that way which pushes the conversation into uncomfortable territory,

But, because of the established sexual content of most of the conversations at ED, I think it is an excellent fit.

[WickedCadrach]

tl;dr: Yes, I think that would work fantastically. I have concerns that may be unfounded. 

 

I think you have a good point. I would certainly write things here that I would hesitate to say aloud to the group I was pretending to be a Ninja Turtle with the week before. And holy cow, we have some talented storytellers around here that I confidently believe could tell an amazing story in the system. 

 

On the other side of the coin—and I may be giving too little credit or showing my ignorance here, so bear with me—but it might be a trap to try and play this sort of game from an erp context? Because in BBB, the sex and violence isn't 'the point,' per se. It's a means of exploring the Bride's sexual self-determination, her fears, and other themes in those veins. And intention feels like it matters a lot to the quality of game you'd get out of this. 

I'll use myself to hopefully explain what I mean. I have red tags for torture, watersports, and a few other things in my RP preferences. They aren't there because I can't stomach them under 'any' circumstances, but because when I'm looking specifically for erotic RP partners, those aren't ideas that get me aroused. I don't seek them out 'for their own sake'. However, this game is extremely evocative and intrigues me, and from a symbolic, narrative-driven perspective, I would be comfortable including scene beats that play off those concepts. 

So what happens if a group has people coming from different sides of that perspective divide? Myself, writing body horror because it evokes more grounded trauma and hopefully gets us tapping into these themes, and another writer who really enjoys the aesthetics of gore and can enjoy the description purely as an end in itself.

Again, I may be totally off the mark here. That's my initial take, and I whole-heartedly concede that I tend to overthink and spin my wheels when a topic is interesting to me. 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I think the concern is legitimate. Bluebeard is inherently about a kind of violence women have faced in very real ways for generations - which is why I'm never 100% comfortable running it (which I think is probably a good thing). The risk of a player leaning into that violence as gratification is real, but I don't think it's especially high in this community. I also think that since the Sisters share the Bride, the other players can mitigate most of that kind of inappropriate horror that slips past the way Ring moves work.

Additionally, since the Groundskeeper controls most of the servants, the opportunity for a player to hijack the narrative to revel in mistreating the Bride.

The game is delicate - I think it's meant to be as delicate as the young Bride is.

[WickedCadrach]

True. The game mechanics do feel like they give a lot of the tone-setting power to the GM/Groundskeeper, which I suppose is as good a place as you could want to keep it.

You know, maybe part of why I leapt to being overly cautious here is because of that real violence the story of Bluebeard is conjuring. Like you said, it's delicate. Because while the game is surreal and uses gothic horror to tell a ghost story, the spirits of the dead brides and servants are almost stand-ins for the specters of real women taken by violence (physical or otherwise) and the people around them too powerless or terrified to help when they could have (or at worst, complacent and active accomplices to that violence). 

I think part of my trepidation is just that skydiving feeling. No matter how good the system and parachute is, you feel that quailing sensation because you're about to jump out of a fucking plane. Ultimately, the game taps into powerful themes, and it makes perfect sense to be a little nervous approaching it. 

(Geez, I'm chewing my keyboard today. And it occurs to me that I may be pontificating these ideas a bit here because I just read Let's Go Play at the Adams' recently, and that book fucked me up)

Edited March 14 by WickedCadrach
grammar

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I don't think it's pontificating. Bluebeard's Bride is scary. It should be - the actual fairy tale is as grim as they come. Moreover that grimness is backed by hundreds (perhaps thousands, depending on culture) of years of lived trauma. I think it's important to talk about whether we can make it the good kind of uncomfortable.

I think we can make it the right kind of horror, but I'm not so confident that I ran it out as "OK, so I'm starting a game."

Having jumped out of a few planes over the years, the hard part is standing at the door, waiting for the "Go!" Once you're standing there and you feel the pressureof the people behind you, jumping is easy.

I'm only passingly familiar with Let's Go Play at the Adams' but I think I can see how that might be troubling - When Rabbit Howls still haunts me.

 

Anyone else who's been following along, if I go live with this game, who's interested?

Edited March 14 by WritesNaughtyStories
Typo

[IsabellaRose]

Obviously I'd be interested, but I can't guarantee enough availability, so I'm not going to sign up.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

*sigh*

[WickedCadrach]

May be obvious from my posting, but if more interest perks up, I am in. 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I hope we'll see a another person want to join. Two Sisters would be enough. I'd hoped it would be Izzy 

[IsabellaRose]

Life is being unkind to me at the moment, and I'm not really in the mental space to do... well, anything.

[WickedCadrach]

I can see why. She seems like a very cool person. 

Whelp, in the meantime, I've got my notifications on. Fingers crossed.  

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I get it Izzy, I really do. We just never quite synch up... One day though, and it'll be awesome.

[IsabellaRose]

I hope so. I really do. 

[DreamsnThings]

I have no clue what it is, but as a general rule I will try nearly anything once, and I have not tried this yet! additionally its mildly interesting from my POV based on the conversation...

we can always tweak a few of the details to make it a better fit for ED if worse comes to worse, but I think having a few players share a character (if im reading this correctly) is rather interesting

my personal interest is about a 6.5/10

[WritesNaughtyStories]

All the players share the Bride's body and their characters are each an aspect of her personality.

• Animus - You hold onto righteousness with both hands. Other admire your strength and bow to your will.
• Fatale - You drip sensuality from your lips. Others watch every move and crave for your to take control.
• Mother - You walk with authority. Others ache for your approval and long for you to sooth their wounds.
• Virgin - You see beauty where there is none. Others seek solace in your warmth and delight in your obedience.
• Witch - You braid magic from shadows and blood. Others desire a taste of your sin and pray for your undoing.

Each Sister has a "power" that only she can use. She picks it at the beginning of the game but does not have to tell her Sisters what it is.

I don't think it would need tweaking - it's already very sensual, and this community, in my experience, would be happy to explore the sexuality openly.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

What do we all think of me trying to recruit a player or two from over in the Dark Urges club? I'd really like to see this get going but there doesn't seem to be much interest among our current members.

[WickedCadrach]

I can't really say since that club seems to be some kind of 'super secret' club that doesn't appear in my searches or the club directory.

But I'll follow your judgement. I am also really curious to try this out.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Yeah, weird it doesn't show up in search results, but it's in the "See All Clubs" directory.

But I'll go see if I can find some interested people.

[WickedCadrach]

Odd.

Yeah,  all I see is *frowny face* "Sorry, we can't show this content because you do not have permission to see it."

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Interesting. The link showed up when I pasted it in, but now it's empty. I wonder if there's a setting Izzy turned on that screens the violent content in that club from showing up in this one.