As is so often the case with falling in love, the first attraction to Poupée de Son is physical: “I could see myself with this good-looking person; I could see myself playing this card game gorgeously illustrated with rabbits and brides.” 

But that’s just the start. This attractive game you were just looking to one-night-stand evolves into a complicated narrative where you are laying down cards about relationships and getting all tangled up in the messy emotions of another player. I almost forgot if I was writing about the game or my life there.

This contest of seduction between woman and burrowing, plant-eating mammal is based on Grimm’s “Hare’s Bride.” But how the fairytale ends depends on how you play, which depends on how you feel deep down inside, which has something to do with how manipulative you are. The game was created by Winnie Song, Pierre Depaz, and TCLZCJA, students at NYU Game Center. Hopefully it makes it out into the wild.