Molly House

St. Paul, MN: Wehrlegig Games, 2025. Unwrapped box, 9x11.5 inches, 2.5 inches deep; in new condition. A tabletop game of medium-weight complexity in strategy, cooperation, and bluffing. Supports up to five players, including a "solitaire" single-player mode designed by Ricky Royal. Playable in 1-2 hours. Rulebook includes a bibliography, and some game components feature excerpts from primary sources concerning the historical molly houses. Set in 1720s London, players are mollies, or gender-defying individuals, who must balance community joy with personal survival. The mollies cruise the streets, indulge the market, and host festivities by collaborating to create poker-like sets of cards to score for victory. But these parties also attract the Society for the Reformation of Manners. A molly's reputation risks gossip, evidence, and even indictments for sodomy, for which they could face the gallows. Such players may betray the community to save their own necks from the noose, by becoming an informant for the society and helping constables raid the molly houses.

For first-time trans designer Jo Kelly, Molly House was a finalist for the Zenobia Award in 2021. Afterwards, Kelly collaborated with Cole Wehrle (Root, John Company) for further development, and under Wehrlegig it was finally published in 2025. (Inventory #: 333961)