Bear Witness

Your eldest daughter got a speeding ticket. Your middle son has tennis practice at the same time the twins have ballet. Your youngest child is a pirate today and will not be persuaded otherwise. You’re concerned about your spouse’s late nights – are they really working overtime, or is that new secretary at the office distracting them? You’re bored and frazzled; no one ever told you being a stay-at-home spouse was this much drudge work. You’re starting to think about going back to university.

Oh yeah, and there’s a girl in the sub-basement whose broken body could be a gate to the Other Side.

Bear Witness is a solo RPG based on the 2008 film Martyrs by Pascal Laugier that uses a deck of playing cards and a d20.

(Or: it is a beautiful day in the suburbs and you are a horrible cultist.)

Content Note

This game deliberately rips the politeness off of far-right suburban middle-class cruelty and personalizes it in the form of a cult that tortures young women to force them to view the afterlife, if there is one. It is meant to be both brutal and banal, with very little player payoff, even as the character might get everything they think they want.

As such, please be aware that it contains instances of the following: psychological and physical torture, cult/high-control group abuse, domestic abuse, religious abuse, spiritual nihilism, dehumanization, imprisonment, and personal justifications for all of the above. In addition, it may contain harm to children, infidelity, natural disasters, and the death of an elder.

Take care when playing. You know your own limits best.