Molly House
Molly House Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
This section contains an accounting of all components as well as their general function.
Board and Playmat
Molly House uses a four-panel board as well as a playmat.
Rules and Aids
There are two rulebooks: this one and the solo rules. In addition there are two large aid sheets and five poker-sized aid cards.
Game State Markers
There are seven game state markers. The gold octagon marks the current week. The black disc is used to mark community joy. The candelabra is used to indicate the current festivity runner and to determine the start player at the beginning of a week.
In addition, each molly house has a token to indicate that it has been raided and a pair of tokens used to mark the adjacent cruising sites to show that they are now more dangerous.
Cubes
There are sixteen cubes in each of the four suit colors. These cubes represent permanent reputation if in a player's area or evidence against a molly house if on the board.
Draw and Multiplier Tokens
There are ten draw tokens. These tokens indicate that a player will draw a card at the start of the next week. There are five multiplier tokens. Cubes and draw tokens are not piece limited. You may place either on a multiplier to indicate that it counts as three of that piece.
Player Pieces
Each player has a joy marker, a pawn, a player board, and four encounter tokens in their color (one informer and three loyal). The joy marker indicates joy on the star side or hanged on the reverse.
Dice
There are two custom six-sided dice, which are used for movement, and four ten-sided dice, which are used to record the values of rogues and resolve indictments.
Small Cards
There are twenty item cards, eight major indictments, and eight minor indictments.
Solo Game Components
For the solo game, there are four standard six-sided dice, a 25-card orchestration deck, five play/pass tokens, and four joker tokens. The solo game requires only four play/pass tokens, but we have included a fifth so that players may use them as an aid in multiplayer games to show who has passed.
Vice Cards
There are 52 vice cards that form the heart of Molly House. The three different types of vice cards are described here, along with their general game function. Many concepts and rules that are discussed in greater detail later are mentioned here in passing.
Desires. These cards represent the different gestures, desires, and encounters that were frowned upon by the Society for the Reformation of Manners. All desire cards have three important attributes: value, suit, and joy. A card's suit and value are used to build festivities at molly houses. The stars on a card indicate the amount of joy gained when the card is scored during festivities. Desire cards also feature a fragment drawn from a period source and a citation. We have preserved the original spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
The suits of Molly House are: Pentacles, Fans, Hearts, and Cups.
Threats. There are two types of threats: constables (C) and rogues (R). If players ignore them, they can lead to the collapse of the community. However, by scoring them in festivities, you can protect the community and clear cards in your reputation. Unlike desires, these cards do not score joy. They also have a special effect when played during festivities. Constables feature the names of officials, while rogues are the names of known informers.
Mollies. There are two types of mollies: jacks (J) and queens (Q). Mollies have a joy amount, which is used only in specific circumstances. In addition, mollies offer a scoring bonus. Each molly is modeled after a named historical counterpart. Mollies do not have a normal joy value; however, they may score joy for the community if selected at festivities.
Discard Reminder. Both mollies and threats include a reminder on the bottom right to place them in the gossip pile if a market discard removes them from the market.
Molly Bonus. A molly icon means that you score two joy whenever you add a matching-suit desire to your reputation (see Molly Bonuses).
Setup
General Setup
- Place the board and the playmat in the center of the play area.
- Place the cubes, house raided markers, dangerous cruising markers, dice, multiplier tokens, and draw tokens nearby.
- Create the vice deck. Gather molly cards (jacks and queens) and threat cards (constables and rogues), then add numbered desire cards as indicated below. Shuffle this deck and place it to the right of the topmost slot on the board's right side.
| Two Players | Three Players | Four Players | Five Players | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desire values used | 1–6 | 1–7 | 1–8 | 1–9 |
- Fill Market. Deal four cards, face up, to the four slots below the vice deck.
- Create the Gossip Pile. Deal one card, face down, and place it in the gossip pile.
- Place the community joy marker on the "0" space of the joy track and the current week marker on the "1" space of the week track.
- Shuffle the 8 major and 8 minor indictment cards and place them in two stacks near the board.
- Shuffle the 20 item cards and deal one, face up, on each shop site. Place the remaining items in a stack near the board.
- Give a random player the candelabra. They will be the first player.
Player Setup
- Take a matching player board, pawn, and set of four encounter tokens. Keep the encounter tokens face down near your board. You may always look at them.
- Deal Player Hands. Deal four vice cards to each player. If playing with two players, deal five cards instead.
- Place your joy marker on the "0" space of the winding joy track.
- Each player secretly selects one card from their hand and places it face down in their reputation area to the left of their player board. Then, all players simultaneously reveal their card. They then place their pawn on the molly house that matches the card's suit. Then:
- If it was a desire card, they score the amount of joy indicated on the card.
- If it was a threat card, add it to the safe pile (a face up discard pile placed anywhere near the area of play).
- If it was a molly card, nothing further happens. Players often choose this option to score molly bonuses later.
General Rules and Concepts
Sharing Information
Players are free to talk about the game and their hands, but they may never directly reveal cards in their hands to other players unless instructed. As an example, any player may freely declare that they have two sevens, but may not directly reveal those cards to verify it. They could be lying. Figuring out how much you should say about your hand and whom you should trust are two of the central challenges of the game!
Matching Pieces
Various rules in the game will refer to a "matching" game piece. Matching pieces are those that have or are associated with the same suit and color.
Hand Limits
Players must observe a hand size limit of six cards. Additional cards may be taken into your hand, but you must add any excess cards to the gossip pile face down at the end of your turn.
The Gossip and Safe Piles
Throughout the game, cards are often added to the gossip pile, located on the bottom right corner of the board. All cards in this pile are face down; the order in which cards are added does not matter.
The gossip pile is examined at the end of each week. If threats are discovered in the pile, it can lead to the gathering of evidence, the raiding of houses, the indictment of players, and the destruction of the wider community.
In contrast to cards in the gossip pile, cards in the safe pile will not harm players or the community. The safe pile may be placed anywhere near the area of play, and it can be freely inspected at any time.
Reputation
Throughout the game, players will add cards and cubes to their reputation, storing cards to the left of their player board and cubes on the player board itself. These cards and cubes are used to measure a player's reputation in each of the game's four suits.
To determine a player's reputation in a specific suit, add up the total number of cubes and cards matching that suit in their reputation. A player's reputation boosts their actions at matching sites but also makes them more vulnerable to indictments if that house is raided.
Reputations are public information, and any cards there should remain face up. During the game, cards will often leave a player's reputation. In contrast, cubes in a reputation are never lost.
Threats and Being Exposed
Throughout the game, threats will sometimes be added to the gossip pile. When this publicly happens, a specific player or players will be exposed. When a player is exposed, they must add all cards in their reputations matching the threat that triggered exposure to the gossip pile and take a matching cube for each. The various methods for determining who is exposed are described throughout the rules.
Molly Bonuses
If a player has a molly in their reputation, they will score bonus joy when desires (numbered cards) in the matching suit are added to their reputation. This bonus is two joy with a matching jack, three joy with a matching queen, or five joy with both.
During a festivity, it is possible that both mollies and desires will enter a player's reputation at the same time. When this happens, add mollies before desires. This rule ensures that you gain your Molly Bonuses for newly added cards, even if those cards are then lost due to a threat at the same party.
Loyalty and Informing
Players begin loyal to the molly houses. However, as houses are raided by the Society for the Reformation of Manners, players will be given opportunities to inform on other still-active houses. If an informer's assigned house is raided before the end of the game, they will be granted a pardon for their past crimes and gain another path to victory if the Community Infiltration ending occurs.
Sequence of Play
A game of Molly House is composed of up to five weeks. Each week is composed of several rounds of player turns. On a player's turn, they will usually move their pawn around the board and then take an action. Many of these actions deplete a central deck of cards, called the vice deck.
If the vice deck is empty at the start of a player's turn, they should take the candelabra and then resolve the End of the Week phases. That player will take their turn after resolving these phases so long as the game has not ended.
How the Game Ends
A game of Molly House may end when resolving the End of the Week phases. There are three different endings, and each uses a different method for determining the game's winners and losers.
- Community Infiltration occurs if all four houses have been raided or if at least one raided house has accumulated seven or more evidence. All players are hanged except those who became successful informers. The informer who was most useful to the Society for the Reformation of Manners wins. Informers become useful by ensuring the right suit of evidence is gathered and by keeping a low profile.
- Community Survival occurs if the community joy marker has equaled or surpassed the threshold corresponding to the number of players as indicated on the joy track (e.g. 30 with four players). In that event, the player(s) with the most joy win(s). Though players will have to resolve indictments, the community has demonstrated its persistence and will continue to thrive despite persecution.
- Community Atrophy occurs if neither of the above conditions has been met by the end of the game's fifth week. All players lose. This ending represents the erosion of the molly houses: although the Society failed to persecute the mollies, their culture failed to become self-sustaining.
Your Turn
Roll the two movement dice and resolve market discard(s). For each market discard icon you roll, take the card from the market that is farthest from the vice deck and add it to the safe pile. If it is a molly or threat card, add it to the gossip pile instead. Remember that the safe pile can be freely inspected while cards in the gossip pile are always face down.
The Most Infamous is Exposed. Whenever a threat from the market is added to the gossip pile, the most infamous player is exposed. To determine the most infamous player, each player adds up the numerical value of cards in their reputation matching the threat (with mollies being treated as tens). The player with the highest sum is the most infamous. If there is a tie, all tied players are exposed. If none of the players have a matching card in their reputations, no player is exposed.
Next, move your pawn. Count the number of boot icons on exactly one or both of the dice you rolled. Move your pawn that exact number of sites along the board, without backtracking. If one of the dice rolled was a market discard (no boots), you may remain at the same site. If you rolled two market discards, you may choose to be picked up by a fancy fellow in a carriage and place your pawn on any site.
Then, you must take one action. You always have access to the three basic actions and your site's action. Actions are described below.
Finally, refill the market and check hand size. Shift the remaining cards in the market down to fill any empty spaces, and refill the market from the vice deck, if possible. If your hand has more than 6 cards, add the excess to the gossip pile. Threats will not expose players if added to gossip in this way.
Play then continues with the next player clockwise. If the vice deck is empty, the next clockwise player will resolve the End of the Week phases before taking their turn.
Basic Actions
These actions can be taken on any site so long as the action's requirement is met. For instance, you can indulge only if there is a market card matching your site.
Lie Low
Draw the top card of the vice deck and add it to your hand.
Indulge
Select a card in the market matching the suit of your current site and add it to your hand. You cannot take this action if you are at one of the four shop sites, since they do not match any suit.
Accuse
If another player is at your site, you may reveal one of their placed encounter tokens (these tokens are often placed during the End of the Week). Note that while their pawn must be at your site, the encounter token you reveal may be at any house, so long as it has not yet been revealed.
- If it shows loyal, lower your joy by three spaces.
- If it shows an informer, score three joy and then advance the community joy marker by the same amount. The accused player is now a revealed informer.
Site Actions
These actions can only be taken if your pawn is at the corresponding site. If a molly house has been raided, players may not Throw a Festivity at that site.
Many molly houses were public coffee shops or boarding houses that offered access to the molly community for trusted patrons. In the game, it is assumed that all players have already earned the trust necessary to enter these communities.
Cruise
The cruising sites are adjacent to each molly house. While there, take one desire card (not a threat or a molly) that matches the site from your hand and add it to your reputation. If you already have a molly in your reputation matching the card you cruised with, remember to score the bonus!
Next, draw cards from the vice deck equal to your reputation in the site's suit, but no more than four. If there are not enough cards in the deck, take a draw token for each card that you could not draw. You cannot take this action if you do not add a desire to your reputation, even if you have a reputation with this site's suit!
Dangerous Cruising. After a molly house has been raided, cruising becomes more dangerous at its adjacent sites. After playing a card and drawing cards (and scoring any molly bonuses), you must add the card you just played to the gossip pile and gain one matching cube.
Shop
The shop sites are located at the mid-point along each edge of the board. While there, take the item from the site and place it, face up, on one of your player board's item slots. If you already have two items, you must discard either the item just taken or one of your other two. Note that you do not refill the shop; new items will be placed during the End of the Week phase.
Finally, perform a market discard as described previously (adding the farthest card from the vice deck to the safe pile if the card is a desire, to the gossip pile if it is a molly, or to the gossip pile and resolving exposure if it was a threat).
Throw a Festivity
This action offers players their primary way of scoring joy. It can be taken at one of the four corners of the board, so long as that house has not been raided. Unlike other actions, this action is resolved over a number of phases, which are described below. You must have at least two cards in your hand to take this action (or three if playing with just two players).
Running Out of Cards. During a festivity the vice deck will sometimes run out of cards. If a player has to draw a card and there are no cards remaining, they instead gain a draw token for each. Any timing issues around drawing are decided clockwise, runner first. If the community has to play a card, shuffle the gossip pile and draw from that.
First, bring the party to order. To indicate that a party is about to begin, take the candelabra and place it in front of you. You are the festivity runner.
Second, play cards. Cards are played over two rounds (or over three rounds in a game with two players). At the start of each round, reveal the top card of the vice deck and place it in the center of the board; it is considered to have been played by the community. Then players each take a turn, starting with the runner and proceeding clockwise. When it is a player's turn, they must either pass or play:
- If they pass, their turn is skipped for the remainder of the festivity.
- If they play, they place any card from their hand on the table in front of them. The festivity runner must play a card each round.
Rogues are Fickle. If a player plays a rogue, they must set its value to any number from zero to nine, indicating the value with a ten-sided die. This card will act as a desire of that value when determining the festivity rank. If the community plays a rogue, determine its value randomly by rolling a ten-sided die. A rogue may take a value, such as zero, that is not otherwise in the game.
Third, determine and score the festivity. After all rounds have been played, the best set of four cards is selected to be scored from among those played, using the following ranking:
- Surprise Ball: Four desire cards of the same suit in sequential order.
- Christening: Queen and 3 desire cards of the same value.
- Dance: Jack and 3 desire cards in sequential order (ignore suit).
If multiple sets of the same rank could be made, the set containing the desire with the highest value is selected. If the winning set could be made multiple ways (e.g. with a rogue instead of a desire of the same value), the festivity runner decides which specific cards will be selected.
If no set of the above ranks can be made, a Quiet Gathering occurs. The four lowest desires are selected as the winning set, ignoring rogues. If there were fewer than four desires played, score only those.
Constables are Intimidating. During Quiet Gatherings, treat constables as zero-value desires. This means constables will always be selected during a Quiet Gathering.
Then, each selected card is added to the reputation of the player who played it and is scored. Each card scores its player as much joy as indicated by its stars (or lack thereof) and may trigger molly bonuses. If a community card was selected, advance the community joy marker by the amount indicated, then add the card to the safe pile. If the community played a molly card that was selected, count it as having four stars. Remember that mollies do not have regular joy values, so players never score this.
Foiling a Threat. Scoring a threat at a festivity represents a successful effort to outfox the Society and protect one's own reputation and the wider community. If a threat card is part of the selected set, add it to the safe pile instead after all other cards have been resolved. The player who played the card then adds all matching cards in their reputation to the safe pile. If a threat played by the community was selected, all players do this.
The Pride Rule. Any player who adds cards to the safe pile at this time may take a matching cube for each card added to the safe pile. They may not do this partially: it is all or nothing. Decide any timing issues in turn order (clockwise starting with candelabra). If multiple threats are selected as part of the same festivity, the party runner decides the order in which they are foiled.
Fourth, generate gossip. The festivity runner then adds the remaining cards on the table to the gossip pile, one at a time. Each time a card is added to the gossip pile, the player who played it draws one card from the vice deck. No cards are drawn to replace those played by the community. Remember: if the vice deck runs out of cards, players gain draw tokens instead.
- The Party-goer is Exposed. If a player played a threat that was added to the gossip pile, that player is exposed.
- The Community is Exposed. If the community played a threat that was added to the gossip pile, all players are exposed.
Fifth, score the runner's bonus and the community's bonus. If a Surprise Ball, Christening, or Dance occurred, the festivity runner scores joy equal to their reputation matching their pawn's site. If a Quiet Gathering occurred, the runner loses this amount of joy instead. Then the community joy marker is advanced +3/+2/+1/-1 if a Surprise Ball/Christening/Dance/Quiet Gathering occurred. Joy cannot go below zero.
End of the Week
If the vice deck is empty at the start of your turn, take the candelabra and resolve the phases described in this section.
Reveal Threats
Each player must reveal all threat cards in their hand and add them to the gossip pile (for revealed informers, see Betraying the Mollies). Any player who reveals one or more threat cards gains a single draw token.
The Hesitant Players are Exposed. Each time a player adds a threat to the gossip pile, they are exposed.
Note on verification: if playing the game in a tournament setting (or if you are bothered by the possibility of cheating), have a third party quickly check the hands of players to ensure that there are no undisclosed threats that would otherwise need to be revealed now.
The Society Investigates
Each week the Society for the Reformation of Manners gathers to review the evidence it has obtained from its many spies. During this phase the Society may raid houses and undermine the community.
First, prepare the gossip pile. Shuffle the gossip pile. Add one third of the cards to the safe pile, rounding down. Reveal the remainder.
Second, gather evidence. Examine the revealed cards. Each threat generates one matching evidence for each matching desire or molly. Place this evidence on the matching molly houses.
Third, check for raids. If an open molly house has seven or more evidence, it is raided! Place a "House Raided" token on that site and a "Dangerous Cruising" token at the two adjacent sites. Then return seven evidence from that house to the supply, leaving any remainder.
When a house is raided, the player(s) with the most reputation in the matching house gain(s) a major indictment. The player(s) with the second most reputation in the matching house gain(s) a minor indictment. In the case of ties, all tied players receive the same type of indictment. This means that if there are three players tied for first and two players tied for second, the three players will each get major indictments and the two players will both get minor indictments. Players with no reputation matching the raided house are not considered.
Any indictments gained should be placed, face down, below their player's board. Players may inspect their indictments at any time. There is no limit to the number of indictments a player may have.
In the very unlikely case that a stack of indictment cards runs out, no cards of that type are gained. Instead, any players who would have gained that indictment lower their joy by four for a minor indictment and eight for a major indictment. Joy cannot fall below zero.
Fourth, check for game end. Then, check to see if the game has ended.
- If all four houses have been raided or a raided house has accumulated seven or more evidence, the game ends with Community Infiltration.
- Otherwise, if the community joy marker has reached or exceeded the game end threshold for your player count, the game ends with Community Survival.
- If neither of these conditions has been met and the fifth week has been completed, the game ends with Community Atrophy.
If the game ends, skip any remaining phases in the End of the Week and resolve final scoring.
Encounter the Society
Simultaneously, all players who gained indictment cards this week must select one of their encounter tokens and place it, face down, on the nearest open molly house to that player's pawn (going clockwise if tied). Encounter tokens are considered to match the suit of the molly house where they are placed. Players may inspect their own encounter tokens at any time. It is possible for the same player to have multiple encounter tokens on a single house. If a player has one or no encounter tokens, they may skip this phase.
Cleanup
Perform the following steps to prepare for the next week.
- Shuffle all vice cards except those in players' hands, players' reputations, and the market. This deck of cards becomes the vice deck.
- Deal one card to the gossip pile face down and refill any vacant market spaces with face up cards from the vice deck.
- Starting with the player with the candelabra and proceeding clockwise, each player draws one card for each of their draw tokens, then returns those tokens to the supply.
- Discard any item cards on shops and then deal one new item, face up, to each shop site. If the item deck is empty, shuffle the discarded items to form a new item deck.
- Finally, advance the current week marker to the next week. Play now resumes with the player with the candelabra.
Betraying the Mollies
Historically, the molly houses were brought down by a network of informers who were coerced into helping the Society for the Reformation of Manners.
Players often become informers by playing their informer encounter token during the Encounter the Society phase.
An informer succeeds if the house where they placed their informer token has been raided by the end of the game. There are two potential benefits to being a successful informer:
- Indictments Pardoned. If the game ends with Community Survival, successful informers discard all of their indictments.
- Another Path to Victory. If the game ends with Community Infiltration, successful informers are not hanged. Instead, they will score victory points (not joy!) based on their performance as an informer.
However, being an informer is not without risk! An unsuccessful informer will gain an additional major indictment if the community survives.
Revealed Informers
If a player's informer token is revealed during the game, they become a revealed informer. They must immediately add all cards in their reputation that match their informer token to the safe pile. In addition, they must follow the benefits and restrictions listed below.
A Social Pariah. Revealed informers must add any cards in excess of their hand size to the safe pile (instead of the gossip pile) at the end of their turns.
A Known Threat. After sets are determined and scored at festivities, any cards in a revealed informer's reputation matching their informer token are added to the safe pile. Note that this happens before threats that failed to score expose player(s)! At the end of the week, they do not reveal threats matching their informer token.
Unwelcome near the Molly House. Revealed informers can no longer take the Throw a Festivity action at the molly house matching their informer token or the Cruise action at the adjacent sites. If a festivity occurs at that molly house on another player's turn, they must pass and the community then plays an additional card. They also cannot play items at festivities at that house.
A Rush to Resolution. If all players are revealed informers in the last open house, the week ends immediately and should be treated as if it is the fifth week. This rule allows the game to end at the moment when players no longer have a way to meaningfully contest victory. This should be a very rare situation.
Game End and Victory
If the game end is triggered, follow the corresponding resolution below.
Community Infiltration
All players reveal their encounter tokens. Players without informer tokens and those with an informer token matching an open house are found guilty of sodomy and hanged; flip their joy marker over to its hanged side. Players with an informer token matching a raided house are not hanged. Instead, they set their joy to zero.
Each of these informers will now tally their score. They score two victory points per evidence at the house with their informer token, plus two victory points for each reputation point of all other players that matches that house. They then will subtract one point for their own reputation in all suits. This includes the suit they informed against!
The game is now over, and the player with the highest positive number of victory points wins. If any players are tied for the highest score or no player has a score greater than zero, all lose.
Community Survival
All players reveal their indictments and encounter tokens on the board.
Pardon successful informers. If a player's informer token is at a raided house, they have successfully collaborated with the Society. That player discards all of their indictments. Then, any played loyal tokens belonging to that player are discarded.
Prosecute failed informers. If a player's informer token matches an open house, their failure to collaborate is punished by the Society. That player gains one major indictment card.
Score loyal tokens. Each player scores 2 joy for each of their loyal tokens at an open house.
Finally, in turn order, each player with at least one indictment must face a trial, resolving each of their indictment cards in any order as follows: Roll a ten-sided die and lower their joy by the amount indicated on the card for that die result. If the amount shows a noose icon, the player has been hanged and must flip their joy marker.
The game is now over, and the player with the highest joy who hasn't been hanged wins. If there is a tie, tied players share the victory.
Community Atrophy
All players lose.
Item Powers
Players may have up to two items stored in the slots on their player board. These items do not count as part of a player's reputation. When players use an item, they should resolve its effect and then discard it.
Items use a variety of timing windows. Molly House is not a real-time game, and players should allow one another a little grace if a timing window is narrowly missed. Any timing conflicts should be resolved clockwise, starting with the player with the candelabra.
Bottle of Gin. Play after the last card of a festivity is played but before the winning set is selected. All players—even those who passed—play an additional round. Do not play an additional card for the community. Players, including the runner, may pass during this additional round. Revealed informers who were previously barred from playing may play during this round as if the festivity were at another house.
Bribe. Play on your turn instead of taking an action. Examine the gossip pile and secretly add one card of your choice to your hand.
Domino. Play before revealing gossip during the Society Investigates phase. Your reputation is ignored if any houses are raided. For example, even if you have most reputation in a specific house (and would have taken a major indictment), you will take no indictment, and other players may receive the major and minor indictments instead.
Dress. After you play a card during a festivity, you may also play the dress item in the matching suit. The requirement for a Surprise Ball for this festivity is now four desires of this suit rather than its usual requirement of four sequential cards of any one suit. As usual, if there are more than four cards played of that suit, the highest are selected. Remember too that rogues count as desires. If multiple dresses are played, multiple suits may be used to build a Surprise Ball. For instance, if the cups and hearts dresses are both played, a Surprise Ball could be formed with one cups and three hearts. Any played dresses are discarded at the end of the festivity, even if the set was not a Surprise Ball.
Newspaper Notice. Play on your turn instead of taking an action if your pawn is at an open molly house. Place one of your encounter tokens, face up, at this site. Add all matching cards in the market to the gossip pile, scoring 2 joy for each card if you placed a loyal encounter token. Any threats are resolved as if added to gossip by a market discard. Players often use Newspaper notices to become informers, and, as they play their informer token face up, they become revealed informers immediately.
Violin. Play at any time during a festivity before the set is selected. Draw an additional two cards for the community. If the vice deck is empty, shuffle and draw from the gossip pile.
Historical Notes
Molly House draws on real primary sources. Desire cards feature fragments drawn from period sources, preserving the original spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. The mollies, molly house owners, constables, and rogues in the game are modeled after named historical counterparts documented in The Proceedings of the Old Bailey and other records.
On Presentation and Identity
While it's tempting to project our own ideas onto the past, the designers tried to meet the mollies on their own terms. Where possible, the game uses their "maiden names," as these are how they would have referred to each other within the community. There is certainly evidence that some mollies often or always took on female personas and referred to each other as "she."
Mollies
- Flying Horse Moll — Mentioned as one of 40 misbehaving "men in women's clothes" apprehended after a private masquerade in January 1725, who "generally go amongst themselves by Female Names or rather by the Names of the Racers at Newmarket."
- Orange Deb — Indicted under the legal name Martin Mackintosh in July 1726 for assaulting Joseph Sellers, a Society constable, with intent to commit sodomy. Sentenced to pillory, a 10 Mark fine and a year in prison.
- Princess Seraphina — Perhaps the most well-documented molly from the time. She brought a case against one Thomas Gordon for allegedly stealing her clothes; witnesses referred to her as "she" and "her."
- Prety Criss — One of the list of molly names given by James Dalton, described only as "a Soldier of the 2nd Regiment."
- Queen Irons — Subject of a story of a wedding between Queen Irons and another molly, with Miss Kitten and Princess Seraphina as bridesmaids. Convicted in October 1726 for assault with attempt to commit sodomy.
- Aunt England — Named by James Dalton as a "noted soap boiler" and a steward at Sukey Bevell's molly house.
- Susan Guzzle — Mentioned in James Dalton's 1728 confession as the midwife at a "lying-in," a mock birthing ceremony.
- Miss Kitten — The bridesmaid from Queen Irons' wedding, convicted of extortion under the legal name James Oviat in February 1728.
Molly House Owners
- Julius Cesar Taylor — A Black molly who ran a molly house where the christening ceremony is known to have occurred, in which mollies were given a maiden name by having gin thrown in their face.
- Sukey Bevell — Mentioned in James Dalton's narrative as a place of extravagance in The Mint (a district in Southwark) and the location of Queen Irons' wedding.
- Mother Clap — Margaret "Mother" Clap was a cis woman who ran a molly house at a coffee house owned by her husband, reported to regularly have 40 attendees. Raided in 1725.
- Miss Muff — Miss Muff's molly house was raided by Thomas Willis and accomplices in October 1728.
Constables & Rogues
The Society for the Reformation of Manners was a group active in the late 17th and early 18th century, set up to enforce laws against behavior its members deemed immoral. Samuel Stevens, William Davison, Thomas Willis and Joseph Sellers were agents of the Society who gathered evidence against mollies and recruited informers. The rogues of Molly House take their names from informers, including Ned Courtney, Mark Partridge (the most prolific informer of the time), Thomas Newton, and Jonathan Parrey.
Credits
- Original Concept and Design: Jo Kelly
- Illustrations: Rachel Ford
- Additional Design: Cole Wehrle
- Solo Design: Richard Wilkins
- Development: Jo Kelly, Cole Wehrle, Drew Wehrle
- Research, Essays, and Historical Notes: Jo Kelly
- Editing and Proofreading: Jon Healey with Leonard Ash
Molly House, First Printing, 2025. Game Published by Wehrlegig Games LLC. This game is licensed under Creative Commons license BY–NC–SA 4.0.