Kristen has written some great articles and posts on the new Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game, and we had a chance to play when we were at WDW last week. So here's our post and a few pics to go along with all that!
When you enter the MK, there's a Sorcerer's Recruiting station in the Firehouse.
This is where you present your park ticket and get your key card:
...and Sorcerer playing cards. You also get a map that shows all the portal stations throughout the MK.
You can choose to all play individually, or you can play as a group/team. If you play individually, each person has to present their park ticket to get the cards, map & key. If you play as a team, just one person has to present his/her park ticket.
Once you get your key card, playing cards and map, the Cast Member will take you to one of the training portals right there in the station (seen in the very back of the picture below), and show you how to play the game " what the portal keyholes look like and how to use your spell cards. They also tell you where you adventure will start.
And with that, you are sent on your way!
Every time you get to your portal, you have to locate the keyhole box and activate it with your key card. To do this, you simply hold the key card to the keyhole for a few seconds (hold the side of the card with the keyhole against the keyhole box).
Within a few seconds, the portal should activate.
An animated scene will play, telling you what's going on in the tory line, and telling you what to do " usually cast a spell. When it tells you to cast a spell, you can pick one of your playing cards, and hold it up to the portal with the playing side of the card facing the portal.
(Sometimes, Merlin tells you to "Use the Sorcerer's Crest!", in which case you simply use the back of any playing card ).
There are 2 little cameras on each side of the portal window, which I believe are what is used to read your spell cards.
When your spell has been cast successfully, you should defeat the villain, and you will be told where your next portal location is.
Some of the portal location images are easy to figure out " the one for Sunshine Tree Terrace actually shows you an image of the place with the Sunshine Tree Terrace sign clearly showing " and some require you to look at the map to figure out where they are located. There's usually an image and a symbol (salamander, dragonfly, a wavy symbol representing water, etc.). The symbols correspond to symbols on the map for each portal location.
We only had a few problems with going to the wrong portal. The good news is that if you are at the wrong portal, it will tell you when you try to scan your key card.
We ended up playing the game over several days. They tell you when you start that it takes 4-5 hours. And they are right! The portals are throughout FantasyLand, FrontierLand, AdventureLand and Main Street USA. And you go back and forth through each, so it's not like you do the portals in FantasyLand and then you're done there. Nope!
I did manage to finish the game, and earn the title Master Sorcerer! Woo! I'm not entirely sure what that gets me, other than the admiration and respect of everyone. Right?
We didn't realize until our 4th day that you could get a new set of cards every day! Once we realized that, we went back every day and got a new set of cards. By the time we left, we had gotten 9 sets. Each set has 5 playing cards, so we wound up with 45 cards between Joe and I. We only had about 6-7 duplicates, so that put us at better than 50% of the total of 70 cards. Here's partial view of our cards:
If you want to play, expect to sacrifice some of your park time. Or a lot if you want to complete the whole thing. Some people seemed content to get their cards and play a few portals, and then get back to the rides. It all depends on what your priority is for the park.
When we finished, we went back to the Recruiting Station, where the CM told me that she was resetting the game for me since I finished, and now I could work on leveling up my spells. I'll admit, I have no idea just what that means now, so I will have to read up for our next visit.
Oh, and speaking of, the CM at the Recruiting Station said we can bring our key card back any time on any future visit, and it will still work and we can get new cards and pick up where we left off.
Feel free to post any questions and we'll try to answer! And if anyone who has played has any corrections or additions, let us know.
One tip: there's a second recruiting station located in FrontierLand right behind the Christmas Shoppe! If the line at the Fire Station is long, head over to the second location - chances are there will be little to no line there.
Have fun if you decide to play! I think they did a really nice job with it and the portals are quite animated!
