Cards

From Fallen London Wiki

Cards are one of the two ways in which the player character can interact with Fallen London, the other being Storylets. Cards are found either at the top of the content area (desktop) or in the cards tab (mobile).

Mechanics[edit]

Discardable/Non-Discardable[edit]

Most cards can be discarded if for whatever reason you don't want to play them at the moment. Some have no discard option; such cards disappear only when you play an option on the card or no longer fulfill the requirements for the card.

Location/Universal[edit]

Most Cards are universally available and can be drawn anywhere in London. Most locations will also have some location-specific cards which usually have to do with the specific area the player character is in.

Location based decks[edit]

All areas in the main London setting share a deck, which means that the same cards will be drawn (with the exception of the aforementioned location-specific ones) and your hand will be preserved while traveling between them.

A few sublocations such as Heists, however, have their own deck of cards, which contains only cards unique to that location and tend to also have their own hand. Usually when you travel between such a location and the main setting, your main hand of cards will be preserved, but the location-specific hand will be discarded.

Conflict cards[edit]

Raising Favours to 5+ with certain pairs of Factions simultaneously will add a conflict card where you must make a decision in favour of one of the two Factions. This will reduce the Favours with the other Faction by 2.

Favours: 5+ of each faction unlocks
Faction 1 Faction 2 Card Notable Effect siding with
The Church Bohemians
Church.png
The kaleidoscopic church
The Church The Great Game
Spypaper.png
A contact in the Great Game has a tale for you
: one of each Second Chance
The Church Hell
Church.png
Brimstone or frankincense?
: -3 CP Scandal

+ 500 x Foxfire Candle Stub

+ 5 x Scrap of Incendiary Gossip

Urchins Hell
Rookery.png
The Devil and the Child
: +3 CP Wounds
Urchins The Docks
Urchin.png
Youthful high spirits

: -5-7 CP Wounds

Constables Criminals
Fist.png
Crime or punishment?
: -5-7 CP Suspicion : +3 CP Suspicion
Constables Rubbery Men
Rubberyman.png
They all look the same to me
: -3 CP Suspicion
Revolutionaries Rubbery Men
Well.png
Amber in the well
: +3 CP Scandal
Tomb-Colonies Rubbery Men
Flames.png
A misfortune at the Carnival

: 10 x Carnival Ticket

: 1 x Magnificent Diamond + 10 x Carnival Ticket

Tomb-Colonies Society
Envelope.png
Going gentle
: 2 x Ostentatious Diamond + 20 x Morelways

Two more Conflict Cards involve Connected: The Widow, which has not yet been converted to the Favours/Renown system.

Connected: The Widow 30+ and Favours: other faction 5+ unlocks
Faction 1 Faction 2 Card Notable Effect siding with
The Widow The Docks
Ship.png
The Acacia and the Butterfly

: 1 x Strong-Backed Labour + 1 x Puzzling Map

: 1 x Favour in High Places

The Widow Urchins
Urchingirl.png
A familiar face by the school railings

: -8 CP Nightmares

: -3 CP Nightmares + 2 x Storm-Threnody

A compact way to visualize this is the following table:

Conflict Cards Overview
vs.
- X
- X X
X -
- X X
- X
X X - X
- X
X X - X
- X X
X -
X - X
X X -
X X X -

Autofire cards[edit]

Some cards will autofire when drawn, meaning that they will immediately be played and you'll be unable to exit them without making a choice.

Force-drawing Cards[edit]

Sometimes you can force a certain card to be drawn, rather than wait for it to show up in your Opportunities Deck. There are two ways of doing this:

Slowcake's Amanuensis
If you are A Person of Some Importance -, have at least Notability 1, and the appropriate Making Waves, you can use your influence to force-draw A visit from Slowcake's Amanuensis by choosing to Attend to Matters of Society! in your Social Engagements.

Favourable Circumstances
Once per week, Time, the Healer will you give you a Favourable Circumstance. You can use this by either selecting it in your Inventory, or choosing to Send a Message to a Contact in your Social Engagements. From here, you can draw a variety of cards:

Note that if you force-draw a card while also holding that same card in your hand, that card will be discarded from your hand as well.

Lodgings[edit]

Lodgings have some influence on which cards can you can draw and how many you can hold in your hand at any given time.

  • The tier of your Lodgings controls how many cards you can hold in your hand at any one time and varies between 2, the starting lodgings, and 5, the three tier-5 lodgings.
  • There are a few special remote lodgings which allow you to hold 3 cards in your hand and prevent you from drawing any of the City Vices cards.
  • All Lodgings except some remote lodgings have their own unique Card, although the player character can loan out every lodging (except the one they're currently living in) to remove that lodgings card from their deck.

Border colours[edit]

Opportunity Card Classes
Card-Unspecialised.png Card-Ongoing.png Cardsilver.png Card-Premium.png Card-Autofire.png Card-Fancy.png Card-Sinister.png Card-LivingWorld.png Card-Green.png Card-SinisterZee.png Card-SinisterAlternate.png Card-Blue.png Card-Onboarding.png Card-Snow.png
Regular Bronze Silver Gold Red Purple Black Living Green ?Green? Dark Green Bloodied Green Blue Also Blue Snowy

Besides the regular cards there are cards with a coloured border or background, which tells us:

  • Bronze: something a little special - perhaps part of a continuing story.
  • Silver: something quite special, like an Ambition or Seasonal content.
  • Gold: something exceptional, often a once-only story. Pay attention!
  • Red: the card's action takes effect immediately when clicked. The action will autofire even if your action count is at zero (in which case playing the card doesn't cost an action).
  • Purple: are rare cards which provide a positive effect.
  • Black: are practically always bad for you, usually Seeking Mr Eaten's Name cards.
  • Living Green: are linked to certain World Qualities, representing worldwide events and happenings.
  • Plain Green: are dependent on one's Campaign Focus in A Trade in Reputations, apparently?
  • Dark Green: signal dangers while Zailing, and also other undesirable eventualities.
  • Bloodied Green: signal undesirable eventualities unrelated to Seeking the Name (and also Sinewy Warp in Irem).
  • Blue: are Zee dreams.
  • Deeper Blue: are Onboarding cards, meant to guide new players.
  • Snowy: pertain to Christmas. 'Tis the season. (Though so far, only one such card exists, in A Trade in Reputations.)


Further reading[edit]

  • Beginner's Guide an quick introduction to Fallen London
  • Stories (Guide) about the way stories work in Fallen London.
  • Storylets, the other major way of interacting with the game
  • Guides which contains guides on a variety of subjects.

See also[edit]

  • Category:Cards which contains all 1,136 non FATE-locked cards in the game.