Motto All the news that’s fit to whisper.

Legendary Whores

Weather Fog over Wapping. Dust on Main Street. Neon on the Strip from nine.

The Scandal Sheet · No. 1 The newspaper of the Eternal District London 1895 · Dakota 1876 · Las Vegas, tonight

Extra! Extra! An open-source multiplayer deck-building game

Local Harlot Becomes Legend

Become the most legendary harlot in history. Read each gentleman’s weakness, play the cards he can’t resist, and climb from Common tart to Mythic courtesan.

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Dolly Mopp, a Victorian parlourmaid in a white cap, grins at a candlelit table and holds up a purse and a playing card over a pile of gold coins.

Miss Dolly Mopp, London, blushing to the ears and counting in guineas.

Fanny Faro, a Wild West faro dealer in a green visor, holds up a stack of chips beside a heap of coins.

Miss Fanny Faro, Lower Bottoms. One eyebrow does all the work.

Jackie Potts, in a silver sequin dress on a neon Las Vegas street, fans out a handful of banknotes and looks faintly bored.

Miss Jackie Potts, Las Vegas. Has seen everything twice and filmed none of it.

Miss Dolly Mopp of London, Miss Fanny Faro of Lower Bottoms and Miss Jackie Potts of Las Vegas, photographed with the evening’s takings.

Run London, the Wild West and Las Vegas side by side, and outscheme your rivals for the seats at the top. In the next edition: poison, spies and a killer in the fog.

Stop press
  • Police seek a gentleman last seen in the fog. Ladies are advised to check references.
  • Lady L.’s champagne tasted of almonds. She is said to be furious.
  • Arrested at the Drowned Rat: the landlord, the gin and a parrot that knew too much.
  • “For the ledger.” The Velvet Spur’s madam, on buying her second shotgun.
  • A goat at Hog Ranch Row has been elected sheriff. Turnout was low.
  • Chapel of Love, Saturday: vows at 10:02, annulment at 10:15, Elvis giving her away.
  • “Technically, this is a consultation.” Ivy League, law student, to Metro Vice.
  • Crypto whale buys a casino to win his money back from it. Loses the casino.

How to play

Read the gentleman, then try your hand

How it’s done

MP Puts Little Skirts on His Piano Legs. Sharp Girl Takes the Hint.

From our Society correspondent, Mayfair

Lord Plunkett-Bottomsworth, a portly bald MP in white tie, throws up his hands in a gilded drawing room.
Lord Plunkett-Bottomsworth, MP. Flinches pleasantly whenever a door slams.

A gentleman in the District wears his tastes on his calling card and keeps one more under his hat. Lord Percival Plunkett-Bottomsworth, MP, likes Wit and a Mask. Frolic makes him faint. He has also put little skirts on his piano legs. Make a note of that.

You hold a hand of cards: a Saucy Quip, a Peek-a-Boo Fan, an anonymous verse. Play up to three on the gentleman you’re entertaining. Cards that suit him win you Sway; cards he can’t abide cost you. When the Curtain falls, the highest Sway is paid first.

“Madam, I am a Member of Parliament. Kindly be gentle with the Member.”

Lord Plunkett, to the Salon

Between nights, watch him from across the room. Study him once and you learn his Secret Taste. Study him twice and you learn his Kink, which is worth more than all your Wit put together. Spend your takings on the cards and curios that charm him, and build a deck no rival can match.

Try your hand

His Lordship is at the Salon tonight

You are Dolly Mopp, a shy Bluestocking, and he is weak for one (+2). Reach 10 Sway to be paid at all. Lady Lavinia is expected with about 12. Pick up to three cards.

Likes
🪶 Wit 🎭 Mask +1 each
Can’t abide
🔥 Frolic −2
Secret Taste
? Study him to find out

Tap a card to play it. Each one shows what it’s worth on him.

Your Sway 0

0 of 3 cards

A best play: Anonymous Verse, Saucy Quip and the Come-Hither Look. That’s 14 Sway with his weakness for a Bluestocking, one point you couldn’t see (he has a Secret Taste for Silk), and Lady Lavinia goes home second. Lord Plunkett has fainted. His valet says it is the good kind.

Strategy

Climb the titles, take a seat, pick a road

The climb

From Dollymop to Grande Horizontale

Our City editor on the price of a reputation

You start Common. Win Renown, the District’s word for fame, and climb to Rare, then Epic. Above Epic there are only seats: two Legendary seats and one Mythic Crown in each era.

dollymop dress lodger pretty horsebreaker prima donna grande horizontale

The Exchange All the titles, all three eras
RungLondonLower BottomsLas VegasScore
Commondollymopcrib girlstreetwalker1
Raredress lodgersoiled doveoutcall entertainer4
Epicpretty horsebreakersporting womanranch girl13
Legendaryprima donnaparlour-house boarderhigh-end escort40
Mythicgrande horizontaleparlour-house madamcourtesan to the whales121

High Road titles, with the Whorescore each rung is worth. The Low Road keeps its own: the Richest Tart in Wapping, the Queen of Hog Ranch Row, Off-Strip Royalty.

One Mythic courtesan scores 121. Three Legendary ones score 120. The arithmetic is deliberate: master one era and you outrank a dabbler in all three.

The sporting page

Lady Lavinia ‘Not Amused’ by Newcomer

Lady Lavinia peers down her nose through a lorgnette.
Lady Lavinia Loosely-Laced, the Swan of Belgravia, through a lorgnette she does not need.

The District is shared, and so is the Curtain. You choose your Place for the night; so do your rivals. When the Curtain falls, the room is ranked. First takes the lion’s share, second and third take less, and the rest go home with a door gift.

When the arena opens, players hold the seats, not the house, and they change hands by Duel. Challenge whoever holds one: you pick the Place, she picks the gentleman who judges it. Hold a seat to season’s end and your portrait hangs in the Hall of Legendary Whores. Take the Mythic Crown and you hang higher. Gutter Throne holders hang in the Rogues’ Gallery, which has the better parties.

“How quaint. You’ve brought your own enthusiasm.”

Lady Lavinia, on hearing of you

The Boards Opening with the arena

Four leaderboards: Whorescore, Richest, Most Notorious and Most Respectable. Your Whorescore is for life and follows you from season to season.

Your road

Society Pages or Police Gazette?

Two roads to the top. One is lit by chandeliers, the other by a police lantern.

Lady Lavinia in a blue silk gown and long white gloves, smiling at a compliment.

The Society Pages

The High Road

Charm the toffs and your Standing rises. Posh doors open, invitations arrive, and in time a Patron pays you a retainer for the pleasure of your acquaintance. On your portrait, the pearls grow longer.

Seat: the Salon Seat. Board: Most Respectable.

Bess Bunbury, the Can-Can Queen of Lambeth, hands on hips in a frilled red-and-white costume on a music-hall stage.

The Police Gazette

The Low Road

Work the gutter and your Notoriety climbs. The money comes faster: back-alley Assignations, black-market novelties, palms greased for a few Coin. The posh doors shut behind you. On your portrait, the blush deepens.

Seat: the Gutter Throne. Boards: Most Notorious, and Richest.

Both roads lead to the Hall of Legendary Whores. One of them goes in by the back door.

Change roads whenever you like. It takes a few nights’ work, not a menu.

In the Next Edition

Set in type. Going to press very soon.

A gas lamp in thick fog over wet cobbles; a white glove, a red rose and two top hats lie by a doorway beneath a lit window.

Notice

A Killer Walks the Fog. Learn His Tells.

One of this season’s clients is not what he seems. He works all three eras and he chooses carefully. Like any gentleman, he gives himself away if you watch. Trust your Intuition and turn him away at the door.

Not every girl will see the season out.

The Widow Pettigrew in black lace under a black parasol, smiling thinly.

Widow’s Locket Has Room for a Fourth

Plots come to the District. Bribe a maid, lace a rival’s champagne, or hire a man with no surname to empty the seat you couldn’t win in a Duel. Your rivals can do the same to you, so taste before you toast.

“Do sit down. You look like a man with a policy.” The Widow Pettigrew, Thrice Bereaved

Dee Scretion in a trench coat and huge sunglasses, talking into a phone.

Woman in Sunglasses Has Read Your Rota

Put a spy at a rival’s keyhole. Learn where she works tonight before she gets there, buy her secrets and sell yours dearer.

“No comment.” Dee Scretion, the Woman in the Sunglasses

Lady Lavinia hides her smile behind a black lace fan.

The Arena Opens

Accounts first, then real rivals at your Curtain: one shared District, played in seasons, with every seat held by a player who can be challenged for it.

What the papers say

Clipped from three eras

  • The Illustrated Police Gazette & Tittle-Tattle London, 1895

    A disgrace to the printing press. Second edition at noon.

  • The Lower Bottoms Bugle Dakota Territory, 1876

    The Temperance League condemns it in triplicate and has asked for a copy of the rules.

  • The Strip Tease Daily Las Vegas

    Showgirl tops the Richest board. Three casinos ask to check her sleeves.

Quotes from the game’s own newspapers. The reporters are fictional.

The Colour Supplement

Three Cities, One Street

In the Eternal District, the red-light quarters of three eras share one street. Run a courtesan in each. They never compete with one another, and each era keeps its own clock, its own rivals and its own gentlemen.

A candlelit Victorian music hall: gentlemen at little tables, a brass band, red velvet and gilt. Dolly Mopp in her parlourmaid’s cap, smiling shyly.

London, 1895

From Mayfair to Wapping

“I couldn’t possibly say it, sir. But I could write it down.”

Dolly Mopp, the Parlourmaid Poetess

Gaslight, gilt and gin of uncertain parentage. Work Mrs Featherstonehaugh’s Salon (pronounced Fanshaw), the Tuppenny Palace of Varieties or the Drowned Rat. Entertain an MP, a Pearly King in six thousand buttons and a cracksman who counts the spoons on arrival and on departure.

The Last Chance Saloon at sunset: a piano, swing doors and a cowboy bent over the keys. Fanny Faro at her card table, one eyebrow raised.

Lower Bottoms, 1876

Dakota Territory

“I never cheat, sugar. I just know where the cards have been.”

Fanny Faro, the Deadpan Dealer

Swing doors, rotgut and a piano player paid to keep his back to the room. Deal at the Velvet Spur, the Last Chance Saloon or Hog Ranch Row, out by the fort. The railroad baron has never been told no, and would rather like to be. The gunslinger hasn’t bathed since the Gold Rush. The horse thief wears his bandana to eat soup.

A neon pool party: inflatable pink flamingos, palm trees and a DJ in a loud shirt. Jackie Potts yawning on a neon street.

Las Vegas

The Strip and Off-Strip, tonight

“Yeah, I know that one. And the other one.”

Jackie Potts, the Jaded Jackpot

Neon, bottle service and a lifeguard who has saved the same man four times this week. Work the Velvet Rope Penthouse, the Neon Flamingo Day Club or Motel Paradiso (weekly rates). The crypto whale asks what things cost, then pays double. The stag do from Leeds sings ‘Suspicious Minds’ to the fruit machines. ‘Slots’ McGee is banned from fourteen casinos and wears his visor indoors, at night.

Small Advertisements

All of them in the game, or going to press.

Situations vacant

LEGENDARY SEATS, two per era. MYTHIC CROWNS, one per era. Current holders may be challenged. Apply in person, with a deck.

Seats, Duels and the Crown

For sale

A cane laid across a leather-bound book by candlelight.

The Headmistress’s Cane. Never used, merely brandished, and the brandishing is booked a fortnight ahead. Enquire at the Salon.

Novelties: the right one sets off his Kink, +3 Sway

Personal

Cornelius Vanderbucks, a railroad baron in a top hat, beaming beside a model locomotive.

Railroad baron seeks companion to discuss his track. Its length. Its gauge. Write to Box 1876, the Velvet Spur.

Gentlemen drop clues in their Tells

Mail order

A tin box tied with ribbon on a lace doily.

The Lambskin Sheath, with Ribbon. ‘Reusable,’ says the catalogue. The catalogue is a liar.

Protection against the Itch

Patent remedies

“A NIGHT WITH VENUS, A LIFETIME WITH MERCURY.” Dr Quackenbush’s Mercury Pills, for the Cheapside Wobbles. Three Coin.

Afflictions and quack cures: push your luck

Curios

Two red dice on a green baize pedestal under neon.

Loaded Dice. Roll a seven at the casino and you’re thrown out. Roll it elsewhere and you’re thrown a party. Black market only.

The black market opens on the Low Road

Wanted

A tiny white wedding chapel with a neon heart, a pink convertible parked outside.

Saucy postcards, nine to collect: the Bathing Machine at Margate, Wanted: For Being Too Handsome, Greetings from the Chapel. Found behind the District’s back doors.

Rummage for coin, gossip and collectibles

Telegram

GASLIGHT LIT STOP GENTLEMEN RESTLESS STOP COME AT ONCE STOP BRING GLOVES

After your first night, a second era sends for you

Costumier

A white rhinestone jumpsuit with a cape on a hanger.

“Thank you. Thank you very much.” The Rhinestone Elvis Jumpsuit: sequins, flares and a cape. Sideburns sold separately.

Each era keeps its own stalls

The Curtain Goes Up Tonight

Dolly, Fanny and Jackie are dressed and waiting. Lady Lavinia has been ready since four.

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Letters to the Editor

Bugs, bouquets and brickbats, all welcome. Each letter opens one of GitHub’s public issue forms (you’ll need a GitHub sign-in), so leave out passwords and anything private.

Report a bug Dear Madam Editor, something in your paper has come unstuck, and I can tell you exactly where. Write it on GitHub Send feedback Madam, I have read your paper cover to cover and I have notes. Several are in the margin. Write it on GitHub Rate it To the Editor: out of five gas lamps, I award your game the following number. Write it on GitHub

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