How the Fallout timeline game works

Here the cards are Fallout releases of every kind: the main RPGs, their add-ons, spin-offs, big online updates, tabletop games and the TV adaptation. Each card has a short description under the title, often naming the developer or the region it takes place in. They go in order of release year. You start with one card placed and its year showing, then put each new one in a gap. Get it right and the year comes up; get it wrong and the card moves to its real spot, taking one of three lives. Lose one and a run of ten correct placements brings it back.

There's a long quiet stretch between the original isometric games and the open-world revival, then the add-ons arrive in tight clusters right after each big game, often several in a row. Knowing which main game each add-on belongs to gets you most of the way; ordering add-ons for the same game is the hard part. The tabletop releases and the online game's updates are the wildcards, landing among the later games where the line is already busy.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in release years and dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 28 of the 35 cards you might be dealt, with 7 more in the deck. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game Black Isle's RPG set in a Southern California vault
Fallout 2 The Chosen One hunts for a GECK
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel Squad tactics in the Midwest, Micro Forte
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel Console action RPG for PS2 and Xbox
Operation: Anchorage Fallout 3 add-on: a simulated war in Alaska
The Pitt Fallout 3 add-on: Pittsburgh's raider steel mill
Broken Steel Fallout 3 add-on: the Enclave fights on
Point Lookout Fallout 3 add-on: Maryland swamps
Fallout: New Vegas Obsidian's Mojave Wasteland
Dead Money New Vegas add-on: the Sierra Madre casino
Honest Hearts New Vegas add-on: Zion Canyon
Old World Blues New Vegas add-on: the Big MT research crater
Fallout Shelter Free-to-play vault management game
Fallout 4 The Commonwealth around Boston
Automatron Fallout 4 add-on: the Mechanist's robots
Far Harbor Fallout 4 add-on: a foggy island off Maine
Fallout Pinball Zen Studios virtual pinball table
Fallout 4 VR Virtual reality edition for HTC Vive
Fallout: The Board Game Fantasy Flight Games tabletop adventure
Fallout: Wasteland Warfare Modiphius miniatures wargame
Fallout Shelter Online Gaea Mobile spin-off launched in China
Wastelanders Fallout 76 update: human NPCs come to Appalachia
Steel Dawn Fallout 76 update: the Brotherhood of Steel arrives
Fallout: The Roleplaying Game Modiphius tabletop RPG
Magic: The Gathering: Fallout Commander decks from Wizards of the Coast
Fallout Factions Modiphius skirmish wargame starting at Nuka-World
Skyline Valley Fallout 76 update: Shenandoah National Park
Burning Springs Fallout 76 update: Ohio, with the Ghoul