Tangled Blessings: A magic academy horror RPG for 1-2 players

No game master required!

On the eve of your final exam at Brackroot Academy, what mysteries, secrets, dread, and drama will you recall from your last four years of schooling?

Tangled Blessings is a solo journaling or two-player RPG inspired by dark academia media, ghost stories, and graduate school. Featuring a wizarding college, wandering specters, assigned houses, curses, devils’ bargains and more supernatural flavor, Tangled Blessings blends horror and the fantastical to help players craft a story that spans their time at the academy — culminating in one final showdown against their rival.

A deck of tarot cards and a way to record the story are the only items required to play. Based on the ENnie-nominated Anamnesis game system by Samantha Leigh, players first draw from the Tarot deck to discover which house they belong to and then they'll discover who of 22 possible rivals will shadow their time at the Academy. In two-player games, players rival each other, working together to unravel their shared and complicated history at the academy shrouded in darkness.

Who is Tangled Blessings For?

If your favorite stories ever involved sneaking around an ancient building, uncovering dangerous secrets, studying in a dusty library, practicing spells on the lawn, or making perilous deals with creatures lurking in the darkness… This game is for you.

If you ever romanticized the university or boarding school experience, add a dash of terrible magic and this game is for you.

This is your chance to study somewhere special and threatening. You’ll find magic mingled with risks. You’ll be a magnet for disaster, but you could also lead others to ruin.

Tangled Blessings in a snapshot

• Estimated to offer a 2-4 hour experience.
• Playable in one or multiple sessions with natural breaks.
• Supports solo play or two players without the need for a game master.
• Doesn’t require a character sheet because there are no skills to track.
• Diceless; only tarot cards are required to play.
• Inspired by dark academia, ghost stories, and graduate school.
• Over 60 unique and thematic prompts.
• 22 unique and robust rival descriptions,
• Includes several pieces of original art, NPC ideas, and more to inspire playthroughs.

Structured Journaling

Even if you’ve never played a journaling game before, Tangled Blessings makes it easy to dive in, walking you through the simple character creation process step by step. As you play, you’ll draw cards from your tarot deck and respond to prompts that guide you through 4 years at the academy. You can record your responses in whichever way pleases you most.

Two-Player

When you play with another person, you’ll take turns exploring what the Academy holds for you, adding to each other’s memories as you go. Just like in solo play, you’ll use a single tarot deck to uncover events where your characters cross paths.

Rivalry (for solo and two-player versions)

A highlight of many academic-centered tales is the rival. 

In Tangled Blessings, your rival can be your best friend, a family member, a stranger, an enemy, a romantic interest or a combination of relations. Your rival is present in most of your memories at the academy. How your relationship evolves with them is up to you, but at the end of four years, you’ll still stand against each other in one final test of academic and magical mastery.

What people are saying

“Brackroot Academy doesn't waste any time pretending to be a fluffy, chintzy magic school. The larger magical world doesn't pull its punches, and neither does Tangled Blessings. Danger will find you early and often. The first lesson you need to puzzle out is how to protect yourself... and from whom.”

-S. Kaiya J., designer of Her Odyssey and many other TTRPGs

“This game is beautiful and eerie and you can (and should) romance your rival. Top tier stuff.”

-J.C. Darcy, writer, game master, and producer

Official Playlist

Through a collaboration with Sam Leigh, there's an official Tangled Blessings playlist! Find the Spotify version below or listen on YouTube!

Content Warnings 

This is a horror game that explores the harmful areas of academia. You will find mention of dark magic, rituals, murder, death, violence, depression, suicidal thoughts and ideation, isolation, claustrophobia, and self-harm.

Not sure if Tangled Blessings is for you? Take a look at the free preview that was part of the crowdfunding campaign.

Community-made Content

Here's a link that includes all the official and community-made pieces that you can add to your playthroughs! Many of these are Pay What You Want, but please support, tip, and pay the authors!

https://itch.io/c/4135051/tangled-blessings-unofficial-and-official-add-ons