Let’s put your Sorcery community on the map.
What is the Explorer Series?
The Explorer Series is a community-driven, player-led circuit of in-person Sorcery TCG events that began in the Great Lakes region of the United States.
Since launching in early 2025, we’ve grown from 8 events to 16 events, running from March through October. Now, we’re extending an invitation to any Sorcery community in the United States to be a part of this player-led project.
What is an Explorer Series Event?
An Explorer Series event is a gathering that your Sorcery community can choose to host once per year. Every Explorer Series event is special for three reasons:
It’s a destination event that showcases your local community and encourages players from neighboring towns and states to gather and make memories together.
It offers collectible participation prizes, based on stunning hand made artwork that the Explorer Series has commissioned from the greater Sorcery community.
It’s part of an ongoing circuit, building towards an end-of-year event that includes an invitational championship tournament.
Why do players attend Explorer Series events?
The Explorer Series uses in-person, mid-size events to fill the gap between local events and large-scale tournaments. We focus on mid-sized gatherings because that’s where players can comfortably connect as people. Every player who’s given feedback on their Explorer Series experience to date has listed community building as their #1 reason for coming out, and we’re proud to help local communities build bonds together.
Each event can offer a different gameplay experience, because every participating community is encouraged to run a format that captures their local spirit. Explorer Series events have included 2-Headed Dragon, rainbow draft, and the pre-con shuffle — all valid ways to win prizes and qualify for our end-of-year championship.
Every time a player attends an event, they receive an exclusive, collectible door prize based on original artwork commissioned by the Series — for example, a Skeleton token, a Foot Soldier token, a Frog token, a Harbinger portal, or a “Flooded” marker.
Players can gain the chance to win additional, art-based prizes in a number of ways — for example, by simply attending 3 events, by attending the most events, or by doing the most for their local community.
Competitive players can also earn invites to our end-of-year championship, for the chance to win a hand-painted alter and a champion title.
Why do venue owners choose to host Explorer Series events?
To bring a destination-worthy event to their space.
To increase day-of revenue through prizing and direct sales to players.
To effectively showcase Sorcery TCG and its community to locals.
How do I host an Explorer Series event?
Whether you’re an event organizer or an LGS staff member, you can bring the Explorer Series event to your community by becoming a Navigator.
As a Navigator, you volunteer to organize one Explorer Series event in 2027. Your duties are:
Plan and run one event for 16-48 players, at a venue registered with SorceryTCG.com.
Use the Explorer Series prize kit, which we will ship to you based on your max capacity. The prize kit will include door prizes, top 8 prizes, a last-place prize, and raffle prizes.
Determine a ticket price in collaboration with your venue owner. $10 of each ticket sale must go to the Explorer Series to ensure we can pay artists fairly and remain financially sustainable.
When you become a Navigator, you’ll get:
Immediate access to the #Navigator channel on our Discord server, where we’ll start getting you onboard and begin working with you to set up your event
A Navigator’s guidebook to designing and running your event (this will include practical guidance on how to collaborate with LGS owners, set ticket prices, and plan logistics)
Images and guidelines to help you market your event
Word-of-mouth marketing via the Series community, which has 300+ members and counting, including content creators like Archives of the Realm, Golden Eagle, and Lord of Itza
Guidance from our Council members and Navigator community when you run into issues
To become a Navigator, you need to apply and be approved by our council.
Applications are due on Sunday, November 15. (extended from the original deadline of November 1).
Our Council hopes to announce all approved Navigators at once, on Tuesday, December 15 (extended from our original target of November 23).
After that, all approved Navigators will be invited onto our Navigators’ channel on Discord and provided on-boarding materials.
Once approved, Navigators have two major deadlines:
By January 15, confirm max capacity and a rough event date. Our Council will work directly with you on this, and we understand that not all dates can be pinned down months in advance.
10 weeks before your event date, confirm your event format, prizing, and ticket price — and open your event for registration.
Navigator’s F.A.Q.
Q: How many Explorer Series events can my community run?
Each community is only allowed to run 1 Explorer Series event per year.
Q: May I host an Explorer Series event at a non-LGS venue, like a brewery?
Our council will approve non-LGS venues on a case-by-case basis. If you think you can host a great event at an alternative venue, then feel free to apply and make this clear in your application.
Q: Does my venue have to be able to seat 48 players in order to host an event?
No. 48 players is the max capacity we’ve set for events, and it’s the maximum amount of players we can support with an Explorer Series prize kit.
We encourage any tournament organizer who can comfortably seat 16+ players to apply for the Navigator position.
Q: How does the $10 per player fee work, exactly? Can someone who wants to attend the event but not participate in the Explorer Series not pay the fee?
The $10 per-player is NOT a literal fee charged to the player. It is a fee, calculated per player, which you must pay to the Explorer Series in order to receive a prize kit and support in planning and running your event.
The final ticket price for your event is up to you, based on your needs and any additional prizing you wish to add. The Explorer Series does not get involved in ticketing; we only collect fees per player after the event is complete.
An Explorer Series event is for people who wish to participate in the Explorer Series. We do not allow our events to be split into different experiences.
Q: How exactly do I pay you the $10 per player fee? What measures are in place for accountability?
In 2027 we will accept payment directly from our web site, via Stripe. You will be able to use any number of digital payment motions to make the transfer.
Your per player fee is based entirely on the Sorcery Event network results, which are public and transparent. If your Sorcery Event page shows that 38 players participated, then we’ll expect $380 in fees.
Every Navigator, along with our council, will sign a simple agreement taking responsibility for both sides of this partnership.
Q: Why are you not accepting applications outside the U.S.?
We are an extremely small organization, and we’ve succeeded so far by being very intentional and responsible with the pace of our growth. In 2027 that means going national, not going worldwide.
We are still going to have proactive conversations with select TOs outside the U.S. so we can bring the Explorer Series experience beyond our borders in a small number of test runs for a more global operation.
Q: How and when do I get my prize kit? Who pays for that?
We are hoping to deliver all prize kits by the end of March 2027, or 10 weeks before your event starts (whichever comes first).
The Explorer Series will cover shipping to anywhere in the US.
Q: What is literally in the prize kit? How do you decide how much prizing we get?
Prize kit details will be announced publicly during Q1 of 2027. Approved Navigators will have opportunities to give feedback on prizing choices during Nov and Dec 2026.
You will receive prizes to support whatever the max capacity of your Explorer Series event is (with a hard cap set at 48). Max capacity is a joint decision between you and our council.
Q: Are there rules for how to distribute prizes?
Yes, absolutely. We give concrete guidelines for door prizing, Top 8 prizing, Last Place prizing, and raffle prizing.
On top of these Explorer Series prizes, you can add whatever you prizes want as you see fit and decide how to distribute — for example, many Navigators add pack-per-win and additional boosters for the top 4.
We’ll share examples of what has worked well for our events in the past to create a memorable experience.
Q: Where can players view their standings?
2026 standings are viewable on the Sorcerers Summit and linked on exploresorcery.com.
2027 standings will be viewable on exploresorcery.com after the first event has concluded.
Q: How will prizing for Grand Explorer and Pathfinder work when some areas of the Explorer Series are more dense with participating stores than others?
We see this kind of issue coming, and we’ve decided that the season-long prizes will not work in the exact same way as they have for the past two years.
Our council is already working on ways to adjust our overall prizing approach, and we’ll be inviting all newly approved Navigators to provide feedback on the options that we come up with before finalizing an approach for 2027.
Q: What are the metrics for becoming a Navigator?
We look for a reliable history of event management, enthusiasm, and a reputation for positive community culture.
The size of attendance at your events is not nearly as important as the reliability of your efforts and the consistency of your local players.
Remember, part of the goal of this project is to help you grow your community and connect it to other players in your town, state, and region. You are not “joining the Midwest circuit” — you are taking a step towards building your own circuit with other Navigators in your state and region. So TOs who are building collaborative relationships with other TOs are fantastic candidates for the Navigator role.
(If you have a question that isn’t answered on this page, then please post it to the #questions channel on the Explorer Series Discord server. We’ll answer it there and here.)