Molly House deserves more attention than it gets For those…
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Molly House deserves more attention than it gets
For those who haven't heard of it, it's a game in which you play as a queer Londoner in the 1720s, throwing parties and attempting to achieve happiness at Mother Clap's molly house, all while being hunted by the citizen watch group, the Society for the Reformation of Manners. The game is a card game with a heavy focus on hidden agendas and loyalty. It's for 1 to 5 players, best with 4, and takes a couple hours to finish.
You're trying to build a good hand of cards to throw good parties and gain points, but all of the cards that make good party cards are also what will get you arrested if a constable winds up drawing them. Every party represents a choice to risk your personhood for enjoyment and points. It is an interesting tension to experience.
At a specific point in the game, you can be an informer and secretly decide to turn against the community and inform the authorities of all of the shady dealings at Mother Clap's. Because it's a secret, nobody knows if you've done it until the very end of the game, when everyone's fates are revealed at once. This means that in some games nobody informs, and the community is safe, and in some games multiple people inform, and the community is doomed. It also means that in some games, the person who informed wasn't really a bad person, they just got scared and made a choice that hurt everyone. I've seen games where people have been informing while apologizing to everyone at the table.
Mostly posting because I want to know who else here has this one on their shelf. I've mostly played it in groups where the theme is meaningful but not personal, and it makes me wonder how differently it would be approached by a group for whom it's more personal.
#games
For those who haven't heard of it, it's a game in which you play as a queer Londoner in the 1720s, throwing parties and attempting to achieve happiness at Mother Clap's molly house, all while being hunted by the citizen watch group, the Society for the Reformation of Manners. The game is a card game with a heavy focus on hidden agendas and loyalty. It's for 1 to 5 players, best with 4, and takes a couple hours to finish.
You're trying to build a good hand of cards to throw good parties and gain points, but all of the cards that make good party cards are also what will get you arrested if a constable winds up drawing them. Every party represents a choice to risk your personhood for enjoyment and points. It is an interesting tension to experience.
At a specific point in the game, you can be an informer and secretly decide to turn against the community and inform the authorities of all of the shady dealings at Mother Clap's. Because it's a secret, nobody knows if you've done it until the very end of the game, when everyone's fates are revealed at once. This means that in some games nobody informs, and the community is safe, and in some games multiple people inform, and the community is doomed. It also means that in some games, the person who informed wasn't really a bad person, they just got scared and made a choice that hurt everyone. I've seen games where people have been informing while apologizing to everyone at the table.
Mostly posting because I want to know who else here has this one on their shelf. I've mostly played it in groups where the theme is meaningful but not personal, and it makes me wonder how differently it would be approached by a group for whom it's more personal.
#games
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