from the Introduction A Beautiful Death is meant to emulate the experience of being a protagonist in a Shakespearean tragedy. Characters like Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Titus, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet are all cursed to a dark and tragic ending. The characters are complicated, sympathetic, and deeply flawed. They are men and women of great status and nobility who fall from great fortune to utter ruin. Audiences have enjoyed watching the downfall of these characters for centuries, and there is a certain catharsis in watching the chaos of events unfold. In A Beautiful Death you will be playing these ill-fated characters. You will know how your tale ends: in the fifth act, on your deathbed. The real action of the game occurs in the first four acts. The choices you make for your character during these acts will shape how your character’s death will ultimately come about, and what sort of death she will have. It is a game of intrigue and cunning, murder and secrets, love and revenge, and maybe even a ghost or two. Can she have a truly poetic ending? Will her death be beautiful in the end?