War of the Worlds: The Journey 2026

Fighting Fantasy meets poker in War of the Worlds: The Journey. A co-operative card game of survival, skill and some luck, as you travel across southern England during the Martian invasion of 1901.

Players: 1-4 Learning time: 15 minutes Playing time: 15 minutes (solo) – 60 minutes (co-op)

You will travel through a country crawling with Martian war machines and emptying of humanity. Your journey is a standard 52-card deck where each suit represents the locations, Martians, people and resources you encounter along the way.

Suit

Role

Description

♠Spades

Martians

The invaders: fight, flee, or hide

♥Hearts

Locations

Take refuge. Face cards are Companions who may travel with you.

♦Diamonds

Humanity

Weapons. Face cards are Survivors who defend you.

♣Clubs

Artefacts

Your resources. Face cards are Survivors who aid you.

Martian encounters are tense push-your-luck exchanges: try to slip past unseen, burn cards to flee and try your luck further down the road, or strike. But each battle reduces your options for the next threat, and the attack your weakened hand can't defend one turn may be the one that saves you the next. Stalking you throughout is the Fighting Machine, from which there is no escape. Your only hopes are the weapons you have gathered, and the terrestrial bacteria that weaken the Martians, but which may yet help you survive.

Missions and chronicle events add RPG elements and bring the story to life. Do you spare the Curate, or let the Martians take him? If you reach Primrose Hill to witness the defeat of the Martians, can you avoid the looters on the way back to Woking? Can you bring all the survivors safely back home? Or do you make one last desperate dash for the coast with your brother, where the paddle steamer awaits?

The game can be played with a standard deck of cards, the card mapping table plus the 2-sided quick reference guide included.

File downloads are here or at https://dterm.itch.io/war-of-the-worlds-journey

A playable online version for the solo and Overlord variants is at https://journeyengine.cards

Game design and rules: Phil Gooch and Dom Wright

Card art: Dom Wright.