Disney Lorcana: Gateway
Disney Lorcana: Gateway Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Welcome to the Disney Lorcana trading card game (TCG)! This box is a fun and easy way for 2 Illumineers to start playing. For your first game, you'll each begin with a small deck of 30 cards. Once you've learned the basics, you'll follow the Guidebook to play your way through gates that mark your progress over the course of multiple games. As you play, work together to meet the goals to open the next gate. When you do, you'll unlock new cards and abilities to make your games even more exciting!
Important: Don't open any cards until instructed.
Learn to Play
Scan the code in the physical rulebook with your camera phone to watch a how-to-play video. Because Disney Lorcana TCG Gateway teaches you how to play in stages, it's recommended that you watch only the videos linked in the rulebook and Guidebook. Other how-to-play videos may include cards and concepts you haven't unlocked yet.
Before Your First Game
Each player chooses a deck—Stitch and Maleficent or Elsa and Mickey Mouse. It's recommended that you use the same deck every time you play so you can get comfortable with those cards and what they do. When you've chosen, unwrap your deck, but don't shuffle it or look at the cards yet! Also take the character mover and Deck Tips that match your deck. Insert the character mover into a base and set the Deck Tips aside for now.
Important: Don't shuffle your deck before your first game.
Setting Up the Game
- Sit opposite your opponent with the game board between you.
- Put your deck facedown on the indicated space in front of you.
- Put your character mover on the 0 space of the lore track. The mover represents you and your team of glimmers on your quest for 20 lore.
- Place all the damage counters next to the board in a supply.
- Decide who will go first by flipping a coin, rolling a die, or using another random method.
- Draw the top 7 cards of your deck. This is your starting hand.
Note: For your first game, make sure you have the 7 cards specified for your chosen deck: the Stitch and Maleficent deck's designated starting hand, or the Elsa and Mickey Mouse deck's designated starting hand, as shown in the physical rulebook.
Object of the Game
Your goal is to be the first player to claim a story star, which you do by gathering 20 or more lore points. The most common way to gain lore is by playing characters and sending them on quests.
The Cards
Your starting deck has 2 types of cards: characters and actions. Characters have numbers on the right side indicating their Strength and Willpower. Actions have the word "Action" in the bar below the card's name. You'll learn about other card types later.
Characters — You'll send character glimmers on quests for lore and into challenges. Some also have special abilities that will help you in the game.
Actions — Actions give you an immediate, one-time advantage and are then discarded.
Parts of a Card
As you read through the parts of a card, try finding each part on a different card in your hand. This will help you become more familiar with your cards.
- Cost: How much ink the card costs to play from your hand.
- Inkwell Icon: Cards with this swirl around the cost can be put into your inkwell to use as ink.
- Name: The card's name is in big print. Characters also have smaller print below listing what version of the character it is. For example, an Olaf card might have the version Trusting Companion.
- Ink Type: This symbol and the color of the band behind the card name indicate the card's ink type. When you unlock new cards, you'll get the cards that match your deck's ink types.
- Classifications: Categories sometimes referenced in card rules, such as Hero, Ally, and Princess.
- Abilities and Effects: The card's special rules. Common abilities use bolded keywords (like Support). Other abilities have story-based names that are just for fun, like Hoppity Hip! on Merlin — Rabbit and That's No Blizzard on Elsa — Ice Surfer.
- Strength: How much damage the character deals during a challenge.
- Willpower: How much damage it takes to banish the character.
- Lore Value: How much lore you gain when the character quests. The first player to gain 20 lore wins the game!
- Story Text: A quote or bit of story relating to the art on the card. It has no effect on the game.
Playing the Game
Starting with the first player, you'll take turns until a player reaches 20 lore and wins. On your turn, do these steps, in order:
-
READY – Ready your exerted cards by turning them upright.
-
SET – Note which characters you played last turn. This turn, they'll be able to act!
-
DRAW – Draw a card from the top of your deck. The first player skips this step on their first turn.
-
INK – You may add 1 card to your inkwell as long as it has the inkwell icon around its cost.
-
ACT – Do any of the things below, any number of times:
- Play a card from your hand by exerting cards in your inkwell.
- Exert a character that's been in play since the start of your turn to:
- Quest for lore
- Challenge one of your opponent's exerted characters
Note: Each character can quest or challenge. One character might quest and another might challenge on the same turn.
When you're done, pass the turn to the other player.
On each player's first turn, you won't have any cards in play, so you can both skip steps 1 & 2. The player who goes first doesn't draw a card on their first turn, but the player who goes second does!
What Are Ready and Exerted Cards?
When you put a card on the board, you'll usually place it upright, which shows that the card is "ready." To take actions during the game, such as paying a card's cost or questing for lore, you'll need to "exert" the card to show that you've used it this turn. To exert a card, turn it sideways. Once a card is exerted, you can't exert it again until it's been readied (turned upright) by a game rule or a card effect. To ready a card, simply turn it back upright. Remember, you ready all your exerted (sideways) cards at the start of your turn!
Your Inkwell
Your inkwell is where you put cards that you'll use as ink for the rest of the game. You'll exert your ink cards to play cards from your hand. You can put a card from your hand into your inkwell once each turn. You don't have to add a card every turn, but the more ink you have, the more cards you'll be able to play! There's no limit to the number of cards in your inkwell.
Cards in your inkwell are always facedown, and no one can look at them (even you) for the rest of the game. Nothing on the front matters, including its cost. It's simply ink. Every card in your inkwell represents 1 ink.
Adding a Card to Your Inkwell
To add a card to your inkwell, show it to your opponent and put it facedown in your inkwell in the ready (upright) position. The card must have the inkwell swirl around its cost in the upper left corner. If it doesn't, you can't put it into your inkwell.
Example: The Mickey Mouse — Detective card doesn't have the inkwell icon, so you can't add it to your inkwell. But the Rabbit — Reluctant Host card does. You show it to your opponent, then put it facedown into your inkwell.
Can't decide what card to put in your inkwell? For your first game, choose a card with a higher cost. To play a card from your hand later, you'll need as many cards in your inkwell as the card's cost. Because you can only add 1 ink per turn, you won't be able to play your most expensive cards for 4 or 5 turns. Early in the game, adding high-cost cards to your inkwell lets you keep your lower-cost cards to play right away. Once you have more cards in your inkwell, you can add lower-cost cards instead and play your more powerful, higher-cost cards.
Playing a Card
Playing a card means taking it from your hand and putting it in front of you. To play the card, pay the cost in the upper left corner by exerting (turning sideways) that many cards in your inkwell. If you don't have enough ink to pay the cost, you can't play the card yet. There's no limit to the number of cards you can play in a turn, as long as you have enough ready ink cards to pay for them.
Don't be shy about using all your ink on every turn! You'll ready those cards (turn them upright) at the start of your next turn, so you can use that ink again.
When you play a character, put them face up in your play area in the ready position. They are now considered "in play" and you may be able to use their ability right away. But they can't quest, challenge, or be exerted until your next turn. You need to wait for their ink to dry! To show that their ink isn't dry yet, slide them slightly toward your inkwell. On your next turn, during step 2. SET, slide them forward to show that their ink is dry and they can act this turn.
Example: To play Anna — Braving the Storm, you exert 2 ink cards and put Anna into your play area, slightly lower than the characters you played in previous turns.
When you play an action card, do what the card says, then put it into your discard pile face up. Cards in your discard pile are always put face up so everyone can see them.
Questing
To quest with a character, exert them and gain lore equal to the number of lore symbols on the right side of their card. Move your character mover to track how much lore you've gained. It doesn't cost ink to quest, and you can quest with multiple characters in one turn. But remember, you can't quest with a character the same turn you play them.
Example: To quest with Olaf — Trusting Companion, exert him and move your character mover 1 space up the lore track for the 1 lore value on his card.
Using Abilities
Card abilities allow you to do things that aren't normally a part of your turn. Unless the card says otherwise, abilities:
- Don't have an ink cost.
- Can only be used during your turn.
- Can only affect cards in play. (They can affect characters whose ink is drying but not cards in your deck, discard pile, hand, or inkwell.)
Some abilities are based on events in the game, and they happen whenever the card says. These usually start with "When" or "Whenever." You get the ability's benefit as soon as the event happens, even if you just played the character or it's not your turn.
Example: Merlin — Rabbit's ability Hoppity Hip! says that when you play him, you may draw a card. You get to do that even though his ink isn't dry yet. It also says that you may draw a card when he leaves play. If an opposing character challenges him and he's banished, you can draw a card, even though it's not your turn!
When an ability says "chosen character," you get to choose what character it affects. It can be one of your characters or one of your opponent's characters, unless the card specifies one or the other. If the card says "chosen exerted character," you must choose a character that's already exerted (sideways).
If a card's text ever contradicts the game rules, follow what the card says.
Your Deck Tips has more about the abilities in your starting deck. Take a look now to see what cards are featured, then go back to read the details when you're thinking about playing one of them.
Ready to jump in? Try playing a couple of turns right now! Focus on adding cards to your inkwell and playing a character. Then, once their ink is dry, try questing with that character. It's okay if you make a mistake or don't feel confident yet. The rules will become clearer the more you play!
Challenging
Questing is how you win the game, but sometimes you need to slow your opponent down. This is where challenging comes in! To begin a challenge, exert one of your characters and then choose one of your opponent's exerted (sideways) characters to challenge. You can't challenge a ready (upright) character!
Both characters in a challenge deal damage at the same time. Look at each character's Strength and put that many damage counters on the other character. All damage stays on the character until an ability removes it or they're banished.
A character is banished when they have damage on them that reaches or exceeds their Willpower. When a character is banished, return their damage counters to the supply. Then the player who played that card puts it face up into their discard pile.
Example: Elsa — Ice Surfer is challenging Mickey Mouse — True Friend. They both have 3 Strength. Elsa deals 3 damage to Mickey, and Mickey deals 3 damage to Elsa. Then, because Mickey's damage is equal to his 3 Willpower, he's banished. Elsa has 4 Willpower, so she stays in play. If she takes 1 more damage, she'll be banished too.
Challenging an opposing character may be a good move even if your character will be banished. If your opponent's character can gain lore quickly or has a powerful ability, getting rid of them may be well worth losing one of your characters!
Winning the Game
The first player to reach 20 lore or more claims a story star and wins! Often, your games will end before you've seen all the cards in your deck. Just play again!
That's everything you need to know to play! Once you've finished your first Disney Lorcana game, it's time to explore the realm—and unlock some mysteries. When you're ready to play again, set up a new game following the instructions below and open the Guidebook to continue your adventure!
After the Game
Collect all your cards from your play area, deck, discard pile, inkwell, and hand. Shuffle them together to form your deck again. Then set up a new game and open the Guidebook.
To make sure you have only the cards from your deck, look at the color behind the card names. The Stitch and Maleficent deck gets the yellow and purple cards. The Elsa and Mickey Mouse deck gets the red and blue cards.
Official Rules
Gateway uses some simplified rules to make it easier to learn how to play. Once you're comfortable with the game, you may want to use some of the notes below that are part of the official Disney Lorcana game rules.
Altering Your Starting Hand: Before the game begins, each player can alter their starting hand once, beginning with the first player. (Usually a player does this if they don't have very many cards with inkwell icons on them or if too many of their cards have a high cost.) To do this, put any number of cards from your hand on the bottom of your deck without revealing them. Then draw cards until your hand has 7 cards again. Finally, reshuffle your deck.
Ink & Act: Steps 4 & 5 of the turn are combined into what's called the "Main Phase." That means you don't have to add a card to your inkwell before doing anything else—you can add it later in your turn, such as after playing cards, questing, or challenging.
Running Out of Cards: If your deck runs out of cards, you lose the next time you would need to draw a card—and your opponent wins.
Index
- Abilities: Rules p. 9
- Actions: Rules p. 4, p. 8
- Banished: Rules p. 10
- Booster Packs: Guidebook p. 11
- Cards: Rules p. 4
- Challenging: Rules p. 10
- Challenger: Deck Tips
- Damage: Rules p. 10
- Decks: Guidebook p. 11
- Exerted: Rules p. 6
- Goals: Guidebook p. 2
- Inkwell & Ink: Rules p. 7
- Items: Guidebook p. 6
- Parts of a Card: Rules p. 5
- Playing a Card: Rules p. 8
- Questing: Rules p. 8
- Ready: Rules p. 6
- Rush: Deck Tips
- Setting Up: Rules p. 3
- Shift: Guidebook p. 8
- Songs: Guidebook p. 4
- Support: Deck Tips
- Turns: Rules p. 6
- Winning the Game: Rules p. 10
This box's Rules booklet also comes with a Guidebook (goals and gates that unlock new cards over successive games) and Deck Tips pamphlets (one per starting deck, explaining the abilities on its cards); see disney-lorcana-gateway-guidebook.md and disney-lorcana-gateway-deck-tips.md.