Trading Card Game · Core Rules

Disney LorcanaQuick Reference

You are an Illumineer, casting glimmers of Disney characters with magical ink to gather lore for the Great Illuminary. Play cards, quest, and challenge to out-collect your opponent.

20How to winBe the first to reach 20 lore.

Amber

Amethyst

Emerald

Ruby

Sapphire

Steel

Cards & Setup

Before you play

Reading a card

Cost top-left — ink to play Inkwell ring — may be inked

Strength — challenge damage Willpower — damage it survives Lore — gained per quest

Character stats sit on the right: Strength (spiked circle), Willpower (shield), Lore (diamonds). The ink color sits below the name. Cards show up to two ink colors across a deck.

Card types

CharacterYour glimmers. They quest and challenge.
ActionOne-shot effect, then discarded.
SongAn Action a character can "sing" instead of paying ink.
ItemStays in play; often an exert-to-use ability.
LocationStays in play sideways; earns lore each turn, can be moved to.

Build a deck & set up

DeckAt least 60 cards (no upper limit).
Ink colorsUp to two ink colors per deck.
CopiesMax 4 cards sharing the same full name.

StartChoose who goes first, then each draws 7.
MulliganBottom any number, redraw the same — once.
TrackA die or app counts lore; tokens mark damage.

The Turn

Ready · Set · Draw, then act

Beginning phase

ReadyUn-exert all your cards: characters, items, and ink.
SetResolve start-of-turn triggers; gain lore from your Locations.
DrawDraw 1 card. (The player going first skips this on turn one.)

There is no end-of-turn phase — your turn simply ends when you choose to stop. "This turn" effects then wear off.

Main phase — any order

Ink (1×)Put one inkwell-ring card face-down into your inkwell.
PlayPay a card's cost by exerting that much ink.
QuestExert a dry character to gain its lore.
ChallengeExert a dry character to attack an exerted enemy or a Location.
Move / AbilityMove a character to a Location (move cost); use exert abilities.

Ink & the inkwell

Ink is your only resource. Once per turn you may reveal an inkwell-ring card and place it face-down in your inkwell; from then on it's just 1 ink — its text no longer matters. Exert ink to pay costs; any ink pays for any card. Ink readies each turn, so your ceiling climbs by one every turn you choose to ink.

No hand-size limit, no cap on inkwell size or characters in play. Cards can't normally be played on your opponent's turn.

Quest & Challenge

Scoring and combat

◆ Quest for lore

Exert a dry character and add its Lore to your total. It's how you win — but an exerted character can now be challenged.

⚔ Challenge

Exert a dry character and choose an exerted enemy character (or any Location). Both deal Strength damage at once.

Banish & damage: when damage on a card meets or exceeds its Willpower, it's banished to the discard. Damage stays across turns and is removed only when the card leaves play. You may only challenge exerted characters (unless a card says otherwise). Locations have Willpower but no Strength, so they never deal damage back.

Ink must dry: a character can't quest, challenge, or use exert (⟳) abilities the turn it's played — it must have been in play since the start of your turn. Rush is the exception (it may challenge immediately).

Locations, Songs & Shift

The moving parts

Locations

Play a Location sideways into your play area. At the start of each of your turns it earns lore equal to its Lore value. Characters can move to it by paying its move cost, sometimes unlocking bonuses. Locations have Willpower and can be challenged, but no Strength.

Songs & Shift

Songs are Actions you can play normally, or have a character "sing" by exerting a character whose cost is equal to or higher than the song's cost — paying no ink.

Shift N lets you play a character onto one that shares its name for the Shift cost. The new character keeps any damage already on the old one.

Keywords

The full glossary

Bodyguard — may enter exerted; while it's exerted, opponents must challenge it before your other characters.

Challenger +N — gets +N Strength while challenging (not while defending).

Evasive — only characters with Evasive can challenge it.

Reckless — can't quest; must challenge if it's able.

Resist +N — reduce all damage dealt to it by N (reduced to 0 = no damage).

Rush — can challenge the turn it's played.

Ward — opponents can't choose it for effects (they can still challenge it).

Vanish — when an opponent chooses it for an action, it's banished instead.

Support — when it quests, add its Strength to another chosen character this turn.

Singer N — exert it to sing a song costing N or less for free.

Sing Together N — several characters may exert together (total cost N+) to sing the song.

Shift N — play onto a same-named character for the Shift cost (keeps its damage).

A character can't hold two copies of the same keyword; number-based keywords like Resist and Challenger add their values together.

★

Golden Reminders

If a card's text contradicts a rule, the card wins.
You lose only when you must draw and your deck is empty.
Damage persists across turns; it vanishes when a card leaves play.
Only exerted characters (and Locations) can be challenged.
Ink first on early turns to build resources, then commit to the board.
Weigh questing for lore against challenging to slow your opponent.

Created by

Questions or corrections · steve@commonplay.io