Disney Board Games: trading card game
Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game: How to Play
Published by Ravensburger from 2023, the Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game lets you build a deck of Disney and Pixar characters and race a rival to 20 lore. Deck building and collecting are part of the fun, and starter decks work straight out of the box.
- 2023
- 2+ players
- trading card game
- Ravensburger
Designers: David Iezzi, Ryan Miller, Tim Schilder and Steve Warner
Ink your cards, send heroes questing and race to 20 lore.
Lorcana is a race to collect lore, and nearly every move helps you get there. Follow a turn from readying your cards to sending characters questing. Still picking a licensed game? The Disney board games page compares the options.
You may add only one card to your inkwell each turn.
Quick explainer: one Disney Lorcana turn
Each turn has a beginning phase and a main phase. During the main phase, take actions in any order and as often as your cards allow. Adding a card to your inkwell is the exception: you can do it once.
Characters can’t quest or challenge on the turn they’re played.
- Step 1:
Ready: turn your exerted cards upright so you can use them again this turn.
- Step 2:
Set: resolve any card effects that trigger at the start of your turn.
- Step 3:
Draw: take the top card of your deck. The first player skips this on their first turn.
- Step 4:
Ink: once per turn, put a card with the inkwell icon around its cost face down into your inkwell. Each card there is worth 1 ink.
- Step 5:
Play a card: exert enough inkwell cards to pay its ink cost, then put it into play. Actions take effect and go to the discard pile.
- Step 6:
Quest: exert a character that has been in play since the start of your turn to gain lore equal to its lore value.
- 7Step 7:
Challenge: exert a character to attack an opponent's exerted character. Both deal damage equal to their strength. A character is banished when its damage reaches its willpower.
- 8Step 8:
Use abilities: items work right away. Characters can use abilities that require exerting only if they were in play at the start of the turn.
- 9Step 9:
Pass the turn. The first player to reach 20 lore wins.
A turn summary leaves out setup, how songs work and the three rules for building your own deck. The next section covers all three. They matter: you can't play an illegal deck. For another card game with a Villain theme, see Disney Villains: The Card Game.
How to play Disney Lorcana, step by step
Setup
Each player needs a deck of their own. A ready-to-play starter deck does the job.
Shuffle your deck and set your lore tracker to 0.
Draw 7 cards for your starting hand.
You can alter your starting hand once: put any number of cards unseen on the bottom of your deck, draw back up to 7, then reshuffle. Skip this in your first game.
Use a coin flip, a die or something similar to decide who goes first.
Turn by turn
Beginning phase
Ready your exerted cards and resolve start-of-turn effects, then draw a card. The first player skips the draw on their first turn.
Inkwell
Once per turn, you may put a card with the inkwell icon around its cost face down in your inkwell. It stays there for the rest of the game and counts as 1 ink.
Playing cards
To pay a card’s cost, exert that many cards in your inkwell. Characters and items stay in play; actions resolve, then go to the discard pile. Characters enter play ready, but can’t quest or challenge until your next turn.
Questing
Exert a character that’s been in play since your turn began to gain lore equal to its lore value. Lore is the only way to win.
Challenging
Exert a character and choose an opponent’s exerted character. They each deal damage equal to their strength. If damage on a character equals or exceeds its willpower, it’s banished to its owner’s discard pile.
Songs
Songs are actions. Pay their ink cost, or exert a character whose cost matches or exceeds the song’s listed cost to sing it for free. That character can’t have been played this turn.
End of the game and scoring
The first player to reach 20 lore or more wins. If your deck runs out, you lose the next time you would draw a card. In games of three or more players, the player to the left takes the next turn.
Key rules
Ink types
A deck can contain cards from only 1 or 2 inks. The six inks are amber, emerald, sapphire, amethyst, ruby and steel.
Deck rules
Your deck needs at least 60 cards, with no more than 4 copies of any single card. Different versions of the same character count as different cards.
Damage stays
Damage counters stay on a character until an effect removes them or the character is banished. That means repeated small challenges can add up.
Card text wins
If a card contradicts the game rules, follow the card. You can use abilities only on your own turn, and most effects don’t affect cards outside play.
Tips for your first game
- Ink a card each turn early in the game. A bigger inkwell lets you play expensive cards later.
- Check the inkwell icon. A card without one can’t become ink, so think about which cards you’ll save to play.
- You can challenge only exerted characters, so one that quested last turn is an easy target.
- Use your starter deck as is for your first game, and skip changing your hand.
- Check each character’s strength and willpower before challenging. Both deal damage at the same time, and either one can be banished.
You can challenge only exerted characters.
The rules explain how to play, but not what gives Lorcana its Disney flavor. The next section looks at who makes the game, how it uses film characters without retelling a film, and how its sets have rolled out since 2023. It also introduces the made-up world where the characters live.
The card game and its Disney characters
A deck needs 60 cards and can use no more than 2 inks.
The game
Design and release
Ravensburger publishes Disney Lorcana. Its first set, The First Chapter, arrived at local game stores on August 18, 2023, followed by a general release on September 1. Ravensburger lists the Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game Companion app, which has an interactive tutorial.
Sets and starters
New sets have come out every few months. Ravensburger’s quick start rules say you can play a ready-to-play deck, change a few cards in one, or build your own. Official tournament rules set no maximum deck size, as long as you can shuffle it without help.
The film or series it covers
Disney and Pixar characters from films across the invented world of Lorcana.
Players take the role of Illumineers, using ink to summon glimmers, versions of Disney characters and items, as they search for scattered pieces of lore. Cards show a character’s name and version name, so the same character can appear in many forms.
Scenes and story beats in the game
- 1
The rulebook’s challenge example has Captain Hook of the Jolly Roger facing Donald Duck.
- 2
The rulebook uses Beast’s Mirror to show how an item ability works.
- 3
Songs are actions that characters can sing for free instead of paying ink.
- 4
Elsa appears as Snow Queen and Queen Regent. The rules use these versions to explain that each counts as a different card.
What comes in a Disney Lorcana starter deck
- A preconstructed 60-card deck, with two foil cards showing the characters on the package
- 11 game tokens
- One rulebook
- One 12-card booster pack
- Booster packs sold separately, each containing 12 random cards
Disney Lorcana sets and releases
The First Chapter 2023
The first set, released to game stores on August 18, 2023, and generally on September 1.
Rise of the Floodborn 2023
The second set, released to game stores on November 17, 2023.
Into the Inklands 2024
Released to game stores on February 23, 2024.
Ursula's Return 2024
The fourth set, from 2024.
Shimmering Skies 2024
Released to game stores on August 9, 2024.
Azurite Sea 2024
Released to game stores on November 15, 2024.
Archazia's Island 2025
Released to game stores on March 7, 2025.
Reign of Jafar 2025
Released to game stores on May 30, 2025.
Fabled 2025
Released to game stores on August 29, 2025, and generally on September 5.
Whispers in the Well 2025
Released to game stores on November 7, 2025.
Disney Lorcana questions
How do you play Disney Lorcana?
On your turn, ready your cards, draw, add one card to your inkwell, and pay ink to play cards. Then quest or challenge with characters. The first player to reach 20 lore wins.
How many cards go in a Disney Lorcana deck?
A deck needs at least 60 cards, with no more than 4 copies of any card and cards from only 1 or 2 inks. There’s no maximum, as long as you can shuffle it without help.
What comes in a Disney Lorcana starter deck?
It has a 60-card deck with two foil cards, 11 game tokens, a rulebook, and a 12-card booster pack. You can play right away without any other cards.
What’s the inkwell in Disney Lorcana?
The inkwell is a face-down pile of cards used to pay costs. You can add one card with the inkwell icon each turn, and every card there counts as 1 ink for the rest of the game.
How do questing and challenging differ in Lorcana?
Questing earns lore, which wins the game. Challenging lets a character damage an opponent’s exerted character and slow them down.
Can more than two people play Disney Lorcana?
Yes. The quick start rules allow games with three or more players, with the player on the left taking the next turn.
How do songs work in Disney Lorcana?
Songs are actions you can play by paying ink. A character whose cost equals or exceeds the song’s listed cost can exert to sing it for free.
You may add only one card to your inkwell each turn.
Characters can’t quest or challenge on the turn they’re played.
Sources
- Ravensburger: Disney Lorcana quick start rules (PDF) cdn.ravensburger.com
- Ravensburger: Disney Lorcana ravensburger.us
- Disney Lorcana: Next Chapter disneylorcana.com
- Wikipedia: Disney Lorcana en.wikipedia.org