fallen-london
I've noticed that I recently gained a few new Qualities, namely Savage!, Elusive!, and Baroque!:
It seems that these Qualities are part of the forbidden game of Knife-and-Candle, but I haven't put myself so in harm's way as to gain admittance to this dark sport.
I also have another picture to show how perplexing this situation is to me:
If I am not a player in the game of Knife-and-Candle, why am I seeing these Qualities?
It's not hugely helpful, but if you have 15 Admired you can laugh off Scandal instead of needing a friend to redirect it onto.
Edit from 2013: Admired has been renamed to Making Waves, and is now critical to making promoted professions available.
TL:DR Yellow (or Gold) Storylets are part of a larger story arc, so it might be more interesting to pursue them, if you can. If not, try some plain white (or cream) cards to build up your Qualities and Traits.
As far as I can tell, there are four different types of Storylets, each with their own colour (note that I present some out-of-context examples, which might be considered slightly spoilery):
Side Note: Some white Storylets act somewhat like gold Storylets, in that they are only playable once and progress along a larger story. A way to distinguish them from normal white Storylets is that these type of Storylets seem to require a very specific quality, and when completed they will advance that quality.
Here is an example of the Storylet I'm trying to describe:
Source: http://community.failbettergames.com/topic436-advice-for-new-players.aspx
Best Answer
A (very!) late response: I've found that, when you go on a zee-voyage, it clears a large number of progress qualities. This includes SAVAGE!, ELUSIVE!, and BAROQUE!.
If this problem happens again, and you have access to a zee-vessel, go on a cruise and it should clear things up.