Chance card

In The Sims and The Sims 2, chance cards will occasionally appear. These represent random events which could occur as Sims advance through their careers. In both The Sims and The Sims 2, chance cards appear to be tied to the lot a Sim lives on. Normally, a chance card will only appear once for any given Sim, but if a Sim who has received a chance card moves while still holding the same job, that Sim may get the same chance card a second time.

The Sims
At certain levels of a career, a pop-up would sometimes appear when a Sim returned home from work. It would state a situation that had happened during the Sim's workday, and its result. It would either be good, bad, or somewhere in between, but would never result in a demotion or a promotion. When a Sim reached the top of a career track, sooner or later, he or she would be switched over to a new career track.

The Sims 2
Any time a Sim is at work, a Sim can encounter a chance card. The game presents the player with a scenario in the form of a text box describing a predicament or situation, and a decision a Sim must make. The player can choose one of two options (or press ignore) to complete the scenario. Ignoring a chance card has no good or bad effects. In The Sims 2, chance cards appear during the Sim's workday. If a Sim is promoted, demoted, or fired due to a chance card outcome, he or she will come home immediately.

The "good outcome" answer is randomly chosen after the choice is made, weighted towards the moral choice. The exception is with FreeTime, in which the aspiration benefit Business Instinct can be chosen, which causes an 80% chance of success. Sometimes there is a chance of the rare double promotion, as is seen when an Executive in the Business career is promoted to Vice President, skipping the job level of Senior Manager. Also, in the Bon Voyage EP, if you take a tour, you may encounter a chance card relating to your tour.

A map of how a result is determined is as follows:

Given choices A and B:
 * User chooses A
 * Computer generates good value
 * Good Result A
 * Computer generates bad value
 * Bad Result A
 * User chooses B
 * Computer generates good value
 * Good Result B
 * Computer generates bad value
 * Bad Result B

The Sims 3
Chance Cards do not appear much in The Sims 3 as they were generally replaced by job opportunities. However, occasionally a chance card or two does pop up. Unlike in The Sims 2, the chance cards don't have that much to do with demotions and promotions and can only affect Sim's moodlets. They involve less detailed scenarios and it doesn't really matter what choice the Sim picks.

Chance Card Guides

 * Career Chance Card Guide by Megafierce
 * The Sims 2 - A Guide to The Sims 2