A board game about the queer underground of Georgian London is up for one of the biggest awards in games-for-good. Molly House, set among the secret molly houses of early 18th-century London, is one of three finalists for the 2026 Best Board or Tabletop Game for Impact at the Games for Change Awards, with the winner revealed on 21 July. For a game steeped in British social history, it is a notable bit of international recognition.
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See how it worksGames for Change is a long-running American non-profit that champions games with a social purpose, and it added a dedicated tabletop category back in 2023. This year's three finalists come from three countries and tackle strikingly different subjects. Alongside Molly House sits Ciclo do Poder (Cycle of Power), a co-operative game from Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation that turns the taboo of menstruation into open conversation, and UnCri!!, a co-operative disaster-triage board game from Japan's Spica-Design that is used in real medical training to teach split-second decisions under pressure.
If you have not played Molly House, it is a 1-5 player game of quiet defiance, where you throw parties and find pockets of safety as one of the city's gender-defying mollies while dodging the moralising constables of the Society for the Reformation of Manners. It is designed by Jo Kelly with Cole Wehrle, the designer behind heavyweight favourites Root and Arcs, and published by Wehrlegig Games. The result is a warm, tense game about finding joy and community under threat.
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Set up your group for freeThe winner is announced live at the Games for Change Festival in New York on 21 July, with the ceremony streamed on Twitch. Whichever game takes it, the shortlist is a reminder that tabletop gaming can do more than pass an evening. Fancy building a community of your own around games that matter? Start one on Backseat Gamer.
Sources: Games for Change | GamesBeat | Wehrlegig Games
