Walking the Silently Screaming Halls
over 7 years ago – Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 04:15:28 PM

The day isn’t even over, and you’ve already broken through another stretch goal. You. Are. Incredible.

Just incredible.

And we still have plenty of stretch goals left to go, all devoted to making Bluebeard’s Bride still more awesome!

The South Ward Unlocked

Can’t you just feel it? The peace? The tranquility of this place? It’s calm, and quiet, as you pass through the white hallways. One room has a number of beds, sheets crisply folded on top of it, and...are those straps?

Surely not.

Another room is clearly an infirmary, most likely for the manor’s many servants. A desk covered in vials and needles, an examination table, stethoscopes, pressure cuffs...is that blood staining the speculum?

Surely...surely not.

A meditation chamber, of course, with broad glass walls letting in a brilliant sunlight, and soft, white cushions to lie upon. A gentle breeze passes into the room from one of the cracked windows, and you could easily imagine losing yourself here...but...are those screams upon the wind?

Surely…

With the South Ward unlocked, we will be adding another 5 rooms to the Book of Rooms, bringing it up to a total of 45 rooms and 90 pages and finishing that tome. The Book of Rooms will have horrors aplenty for countless sessions of Bluebeard’s Bride.

And it’s time to reveal the next two stretch goals...

Stretch #12 - $40,000 - Haunting the Wires

The modern world has its own dark corridors, its own terrifying contrivances and byzantine nightmares. Of course, Bluebeard is willing to rise up to accommodate the contemporary lifestyle. If we reach this stretch goal, we’ll create Roll20 overlays for Bluebeard’s Bride, to make it easy and simple to play the game online over Roll20, in addition to other digital resources to facilitate online play, including releasing PDFs of the Deck of Objects and the Tarot of Servants to everyone who backs at least $20.

Stretch #13 - $42,500 - Finding the Rings

Hidden throughout the manor is the evidence of your husband’s actions. More than you could ever truly comprehend. But nothing....nothing….so damning as the rings. The elegant, engraved, embellished rings of previous Brides. Each one, an entire horror story embodied. These three deluxe cards will complete the Deck of Objects, bringing it up to a total of 55 gorgeous cards.

An Infinite Floorplan

There are still so many rooms to explore in Bluebeard’s manor—so many more awesome stretch goals to unlock, so many more awesome pieces to add!

As always, thank you for being so amazing. Bluebeard’s Bride owes its phenomenal success to your support.

Remember, if you want to talk more about the game, join our Bluebeard’s Bride G+ community: https://plus.google.com/communities/112865691443527494870 

And keep talking about Bluebeard’s Bride so we can make it still more awesome!

Made it Through the Night
over 7 years ago – Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 12:25:51 PM

Unbelievable. Even overnight, you kept being amazing. You blew past the three stretch goals we put up last night. Just...unbelievable.

All three. 

The Cellar Unlocked at $27,500

The wooden stairs give way to a floor of dirt beneath your heels. You sink a touch downward with every step, like the ground is trying to pull you close.

The darkness is a warm thing here. Tangible. It would enwrap you like a blanket if you let it.

You pass through a stone door into a root cellar. Barrels of potatoes and carrots sit against the wall. You make them out faintly as your eyes adjust. But they burst under your fingertips, rotten mush sluicing past your hand. They smell of urine and corpses.

And then the darkness stirs. Something moves amid the stench and shadow. It slithers. It shudders.

You are not alone here.

With the Cellar unlocked, we’re adding 5 more rooms to the Book of Rooms, for a total of 40 rooms and 80 pages. Bluebeard’s manor is filling up this book! 

The Music Room Unlocked at $30,000

Red velvet curtains line the walls, and plush chairs sit scattered amid the instruments. An ornate chaise lounge lies close to a carved harpsichord, its surface covered in spiderweb patterns. The ivory keys are yellowed and cracked, but a single press, and a clear note cuts into the air around you.

In the corner stands a harp, the body black and green, shaped like a gaunt woman. Her mouth open at the top. Singing? Screaming? The strings are clean and tight, but for the middle, where a black red crust coats them, down and down to the harp’s base. Blood. As if the player had played, and played, and played, until the strings sliced their fingers open. Her fingers open, you are sure.

Countless more tools of music lie strewn about the room. A trumpet made of silver, kept pristine and unstained by fingers. A broken violin atop the mantle, the wood and strings haphazardly reassembled as if the thing could be put back together. A victrola atop a marble stand, the horn gaping at you, a blackness inside too deep to penetrate.

Each one is waiting for you to touch it. To bring it to live. To let it speak.

Do you imagine, for even one second, that your ears could withstand their cries?

Unlocking the Music Room adds 6 more objects to the Deck of Objects, bringing it up to a total of 52 cards. That’s a full deck of strange and mysterious objects, each one with art and rules to bring it into your game! 

Making the Roll Call $35,000

The servants stand arrayed before you, stock still, upright, at attention. As if statues to be examined. Soldiers, showing their obeisance. It is difficult to tell if they are even breathing, so motionless do they stand.

There, the footman with heterochromia, one eye a brilliant gold, one eye a piercing blue. Both of them gazing upward at the ceiling...except for when they flicker to you. And for a moment, you see the lust screaming from within him. And you stand paralyzed by that look.

Here, the elderly nurse in her white smock. Her wrinkled and powerful hands folded in front of her, lined with blue veins and knuckles straining against waxy skin. She stares at you with every step, her eyes roving your body as if cutting you up into component parts. Hips. Breasts. Womb.

These servants are all at your beck and call, says your husband. They are your servants, after all.

You wish you could believe it.

Unlocking the Roll Call adds 40 new cards to the Tarot of Servants, bringing it up to a total of 78 cards, each one with its own gorgeous art to help you bring these twisted servants into your game of Bluebeard’s Bride.

And now, our next stretch goal... 

Stretch Goal #11 - $37,500 - Unlocking the South Ward

The South Ward is a place for rehabilitation, meditation, and restoration of mental faculties. After all, even the strongest willed of Brides sometimes need to be forced to rest. If we reach this stretch goal, we’ll add 5 more rooms to the Book of Rooms, bringing the Book up to a total of 45 rooms and approximately 90 pages.

Tarot of Servants Preview

Next, to whet your appetites for the Roll Call, we’ve assembled a preview of how the Tarot of Servants could work in play.

Sarah draws the Lovers from the Tarot of Servants. She places it as she drew it, upside down, and reads the text for the card.

“This card represents choice, sexuality, and temptation. The women pictured on the card represents the desires we all feel, and give voice to them. An inverted Lovers indicates that there is a pull between what we feel we should do, and what we want to do.

Two Servant Girls appear, either when called during cry out for help or during a lull in the story. One is fair haired and pale complected, the other just as pale but with hair as dark as wine. If the card is drawn right side up, both woman will encourage the Bride to give into temptation, and to embrace her sexuality. If the card is inverted, then the dark haired servant tempts the Bride to forbidden desires; the pale haired servant serves the Bride by reminding her of what is proper and expected.”

Sarah uses this information to create Ahdri and Ingrid, two handmaidens for the Bride. Ahdri, the dark haired servant, will offer to teach the Bride the pleasure of physical love between women; Ingrid will plead for the Bride to think of her wedding vows, and warn her of Bluebeard’s displeasure should he discover the affair. 

The Never-Ending Manor

We’re still going strong, well into our second day, and we can’t wait to see what other awesome things we add to Bluebeard’s Manor! Thank you, again, for being so impossibly amazing, and please, as always, talk about the game, share about the game, and let others know how awesome you’ve made it! 

Dusty Books and Rusty Tools
over 7 years ago – Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 08:06:31 PM

Magnificent! You’ve unlocked two more stretch goals with a total over $25,000. And that’s all in less than 24 hours. We are blown away by your unrelenting support. You’re like a freight train made of awesome! 

West Wing Unlocked at $22,500

In one room, dust lines the tables and shelves. It fills the air. The disuse, the lack of attention. Motes float in the stillness, as if illuminating ethereal roadways to the books, the scrolls, the gazettes, the folios, and the compendiums all along the shelves. Many lifetimes worth of knowledge, ensconced in heavy oaken shelves. Who knows what terrible secrets you might find therein!

In the next, an old brass telescope sits forlorn, staring out through a single window, aimed towards the heavens. But the lens is smudged by a reddish stain. The stand is rusted and tarnished with age. And when you look through it...you see not the stars, but the crimes and atrocities of this very manor. Dare you look for long?

The West Wing provides the Book of Rooms with 5 more rooms and ten more pages, bringing it up to a total of approximately 35 rooms and 70 pages. All those rooms will come with the tools needed to bring them into play at your table. 

The Workshop Unlocked at $25,000

Nothing could rival the privacy one can find in a man’s workplace. Just alone with the tools. The blades. The axes and the hammers. The files and jigs. The sandpaper and the chisels. These are a man’s things, of course. Made yellow with a man’s sweat. Made rusty with age.

Each one is a thing of creation. Each one could be turned to great pain. And each one comes with its own story.

When you take one up in your hands...you can feel the power. The tension. And the fear.

Just exactly on what...or whom...did your dear husband use these tools?

The Workshop adds 6 more mysterious items to the Deck of Objects, bringing it up to a total of 46 cards, each one with its own art, each one with its own story, and each one with its own use in your games.

And of course, we have two more stretch goals on the horizon, fast approaching.... 

Stretch Goal #8 - $27,500 Unlocking the Cellar

The Cellar is a place of storage, of aged wines and enwrapped relics, of the creatures that dwell beneath the ground and out of sight. If we reach this stretch goal, we’ll add 5 more rooms to the Book of Rooms, bringing the Book up to a total of 40 rooms and approximately 80 pages. 

Stretch Goal #9 - $30,000 Exploring the Music Room

A man must, of course, have a place to indulge in his artistic and emotional expression. If we reach this stretch goal, we’ll add 6 more mysterious objects to the Deck of Objects, bringing the Deck up to a total of 52 cards. 

Stretch Goal #10 - $35,000 - Roll Call

The manor is a place of shadows and secrets, filled with creeping terrors and subtle servants. As you explore the house, the masks will drop and the truth will be revealed. If we reach this stretch goal, we’ll add the Minor Arcana to the Tarot of Servants, cards that will help the Groundskeeper add depth and deceit to each servant the Bride encounters. That means 40 new cards, for a total of 78 cards in the deck, all tarot-sized.

Into Darker Domains

Thank you so much for your support. This project is only going to become better and better as we hit these goals and reveal new ones, and we are so excited to make it as amazing as possible. Please keep sharing Bluebeard’s Bride with your friends and loved ones. After all...such a big house gets awful lonely without others nearby...

Populating the Manor
over 7 years ago – Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 03:56:00 PM

Incredible. Over $20,000 in a single day. In less than 8 hours. Absolutely incredible.

Thank you all for your considerable and repeated support. We can’t really enunciate what it means to us to have so many of you behind this project so much. But it’s important.

Thank you. 

New Staff, Hired 

There are new faces in these empty, dusty halls. New eyes watching you as you stride from room to room. New sneers, judging you for every faux pas. New hands, clutching at you, shoving you into new dresses, made with new fabrics.

They’re just here to help. At least, that’s what Bluebeard says.

With the new staff added to the manor, the Tarot of Servants expands to include the Major Arcana. Cards like The Fool, The World, The Devil, The Hanged Man, Judgment, Temperance—they will all be included, complete with unique Bluebeard’s Bride-themed pieces of art to make them come alive. These new cards will also be tarot-sized and come with the rules necessary to use them in your games, just like with the face cards already in the Tarot of Servants. With these cards, the Tarot of Servants is now up to 38 total cards in the deck...and more may still be coming.

Our next stretch goal, unlocking the West Wing, still awaits us at $22,500. And now we’ll reveal what comes after... 

Stretch Goal #7 - $25,000 - Exploring the Workshop 

A man must, of course, have a place to dirty his hands and do his work, along with the sharpened, heavy tools necessary to do it. If we reach this stretch goal, we’ll add 6 more mysterious objects to the Deck of Objects, bringing the Deck up to a total of 46 cards. 

The Mansion, Refined 

Thanks to you, Bluebeard’s Bride just keeps getting better and better. More rooms, more objects, more cards in the Tarot—every single piece is getting improved. We can’t wait to work on the final versions of these exquisite elements. Thank you so much for your continued support, and as always, please keep sharing and shouting to the rooftops about Bluebeard’s Bride!

Into the Dusty Halls
over 7 years ago – Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 01:01:54 PM

Wow! Just...wow. The project has been live barely 4 hours, and we’ve already blown past a full 4 stretch goals. You opened up the East Wing and the North Gardens. You found the bizarre artifacts in the Trophy Room and the Gallery. And you’re still going.

You’re all amazing, and we’re so excited that you’re helping to make Bluebeard’s Bride such an incredible project!

The North Gardens Unlocked

Trellises covered in vines with...are those faces, hidden among the flowers? Surely not.

Topiaries, shaped into the forms of Bluebeard’s past brides...are they screaming? Surely...surely not.

A fountain with a carved statue of a beautiful muse, water pouring from the urn in her hand, yet...is...is that blood? Surely...no. No.

The North Gardens add 5 more rooms to the Book of Rooms, bringing it up to a total of approximately 30 rooms and 60 pages. Each room is a full two page spread, and will come full of text and ideas for use in your own game of Bluebeard’s Bride. And as always, remember—anyone getting the PDF stretch goals will get a PDF copy of the Book of Rooms with all these additional rooms!

The Gallery Unlocked

A quiet place. Oil-painted portraits framed in gold line the walls. The ceiling is itself a beautiful mural. There, a bust carved from marble atop a pedestal. Next to it, a suit of armor, standing proud and still.

It could be a place of beauty. But the images in the oil-paintings shift every time you blink. And the people depicted there are torn asunder by vile beasts, oozing from the sides of the painting. The bust is changing from a handsome young man to a vile lech, mouth open, tongue reaching out for your body. The suit of armor grows tarnished and stained with blood, seeping out from the places where some ancient weapon pierced it.

The objects in the Gallery betray the darkness of the manor...if you choose to look at them.

With the Gallery unlocked, we’ll add another 6 objects to the Deck, bringing it up to a total of 40 cards! Each card details a whole object, along with the text and information you need to use it in your game.

And now, for our next stretch goals... 

Stretch Goal #5 - $20,000 - Hiring on New Staff

The manor has grown! And this means that new staff is needed to keep it in good repair, and to serve you as you venture from room to room. Because of course the staff have your best interests at heart. Of course. If we reach this stretch goal, we’ll add the Major Arcana to the Tarot of Servants. That means 22 new cards, for a total of 38 cards in the deck, all tarot-sized. We’ll be adding our own interpretations of cards such as the Empress, the Hierophant, the Hanged Man, and the Devil to join our interpretations of the face cards. And all will come with instructions on how to interpret these cards to come up with your very own handmaidens, butlers, and other helpful inhabitants. 

Stretch Goal #6 - $22,500 - Unlocking the West Wing

The West Wing of the manor is a retreat, a place of dusty studies and packed libraries, of observatories with stained glass and workshops with rusty tools. If we reach this stretch goal, we’ll add 5 more rooms to the Book of Rooms, bringing the Book up to a total of 35 rooms and approximately 70 pages. 

The Tale Continues...

We’re not even done with the first day yet, and we’ve already come so far! Thank you all, always and forever, for all your support, and please keep sharing and talking about Bluebeard’s Bride!