Molly House Board Game

Molly House Board GameIt's 1723. You walk through the streets of London, hiding your inner most desires from the Society of the Reformation of Manners as you head to Mother Clap's. This may look like a coffee shoppe but inside are back rooms where loud festivities, intimate gatherings, and a thriving queer community is growing. Throw grand masquerades and cruise back alleys as a gender defying molly in early eighteenth century London. In this interactive history game you

It's 1723. You walk through the streets of London, hiding your inner-most desires from the Society of the Reformation of Manners as you head to Mother Clap's. This may look like a coffee shoppe but inside are back rooms where loud festivities, intimate gatherings, and a thriving queer community is growing.

Throw grand masquerades and cruise back alleys as a gender-defying molly in early eighteenth century London. In this interactive history game you must evade moralistic constables who seek to destroy your community within the Molly House.

Immersive Presentation: Explore the captivating subtle details of queer Georgian London in the period-inspired artwork

Evocative Gameplay: Bring desires and threats to Mother Clap's Molly House with compelling card play that sparks joy or incites sabotage.

Luxurious Production: Revel in deluxe components with unique wooden pawns, custom marbled dice, and a lavish printed playmat.

Fascinating Solo Challenge: Dive into a complex and engaging puzzle with the Rookery, a unique challenge for the discerning solo player.

Game Play

Molly House is a deep, interactive historical game bedecked in a fancy party dress.

Over the course of a game, players draft hands of vice cards representing the different gestures, desires, and encounters that were frowned upon by the Society for the Reformation of Manners, a citizen group that sought to stamp out any behavior it deemed deviant in late 17th and early 18th century London. These cards allow players to host festivities with the help of their fellow mollies and create joy. But, those same cards can also lead players to be arrested and might contribute to the ultimate ruin of the molly house.

Parties begin when a player plays a molly card at Mother Clap's. This card sets a collective goal which the table must meet in order for the party to be successful. Players then play cards over a number of rounds in an attempt to fulfill their goal collectively.

But be careful! Only one set of cards will be selected and any others will enter the gossip pile, threatening the discovery of the molly house. A player's desires are also their greatest liabilities.

Over the course of the game, constables will patrol the streets and attempt to corner the players. When a constable is revealed, players will have to reveal one or more cards of that constable's suit. In order to escape persecution, players will either have to renounce that desire or may take on a number of guilt tokens, which will lower their final score. These moments may offer arrested players a critical temptation.

Through the intimidation and coercion of the constables, players may elect to become informers. This will set them against the other players and require them to destroy the Molly House in order to win the game. Informers must try desperately to undermine the community around Mother Clap's historic molly house without being discovered by their fellow mollies.

Unlike traditional hidden role games, Molly House Board Game does not rely on overt dishonesty or a predetermined cast of characters. The game does not require players to become an informer, and players may discover that every player or none had switched sides by the end of the game.

Together, Molly House offers players a novel twist on traditional secret role games where a player's identity is as fluid as the cards in their hand.

This 1-5 player game brims with opportunities for collaboration and coercion still remaining approachable and easily playable within an hour or two.