The table speaks plainer, and keeps its whimsy

Wording throughout the app, the server's messages and the engine's
refusals trades its stacked dashes for sentences, while the maze still
trusts you to honor its curses, the gallery still listens, and the
clockwork still learns its best tricks from the humans at the table.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

packages/web/src/reference.ts

@@ -188,11 +188,11 @@ export interface HouseRuling {
 export const HOUSE_RULINGS: HouseRuling[] = [
   {
     id: "thumb-of-god", title: "The Thumb of God", cards: ["thumb-of-god"],
-    body: ["THE THUMB OF GOD is a divine meteor. Aim it at a square; the die drifts up to two squares in a random direction, then every token in and around the landing square — objects, treasures, creatures, even wizards — is flung to a random nearby square. Walls mean nothing to falling cardboard, and there is no counteraction."],
+    body: ["THE THUMB OF GOD is a divine meteor. Aim it at a square and the die drifts up to two squares in a random direction. Then every token in and around the landing square is flung to a random nearby square, whether object, treasure, creature or wizard. Walls mean nothing to falling cardboard, and there is no counteraction."],
   },
   {
     id: "illusion-wall", title: "Illusion walls", cards: ["illusion-wall"],
-    body: ["An ILLUSION WALL is real only to those who believe it. Its creator sees through it from the start; everyone else sees stone until they walk into it or see through it, and the maze remembers each wizard's verdict separately. An untested illusion shimmers faintly, and doubting it is free."],
+    body: ["An ILLUSION WALL is real only to those who believe it. Its creator sees through it from the start. Everyone else sees stone until they walk into it or see through it, and the maze remembers each wizard's verdict separately. An untested illusion shimmers faintly, and doubting it is free."],
   },
   {
     id: "ambush", title: "Ambushes", cards: ["opportunity-fire"],
@@ -201,24 +201,24 @@ export const HOUSE_RULINGS: HouseRuling[] = [
   {
     id: "butt-head", title: "The goat's ram", cards: ["butt-head", "mad-dash", "power-run"],
     body: [
-      "BUTT-HEAD's ram is movement. The charge is measured as the shortest walk through the corridors from where you cast it to your victim's square, on the legs you have this turn — three, plus any NUMBER played for movement — and it spends them. You cannot pad the blow by taking the long way round, and the goat lands on the victim's square. There is no ceiling on the damage.",
+      "BUTT-HEAD's ram is movement. The charge is measured as the shortest walk through the corridors from where you cast it to your victim's square, on the legs you have this turn (three, plus any NUMBER played for movement), and it spends them. You cannot pad the blow by taking the long way round, and the goat lands on the victim's square. There is no ceiling on the damage.",
       "MAD DASH doubles the whole allowance, NUMBER cards and POWER RUN points included, so a well-placed goat can ram for sixteen.",
     ],
   },
   {
     id: "slime", title: "Spells cast into slime", cards: ["fill-square-with-slime"],
-    body: ["Spells cast at a FILL SQUARE WITH SLIME lodge in the gel, and a slime may hold several. They go off one at a time, oldest first: each wizard who pushes in springs one spell, the next wizard the next. The card says only that each spell goes off once; the queue is this table's reading. A slime shows how many it holds, and a peek names them, since every cast into it was seen."],
+    body: ["Spells cast at a FILL SQUARE WITH SLIME lodge in the gel, and a slime may hold several. They go off one at a time, oldest first, so each wizard who pushes in springs one spell and the next wizard the next. The card says only that each spell goes off once, and the queue is this table's reading. A slime shows how many it holds, and a peek names them, since every cast into it was seen."],
   },
   {
     id: "doors-and-sight", title: "Doors and sight", cards: ["pick-lock", "master-key", "remove-lock"],
     body: [
-      "A wizard beside a door they can open — its lock removed, unlocked this turn, or PICK LOCK or MASTER KEY in hand — sees through the doorway. The hallway behind them still cannot.",
+      "A wizard beside a door they can open (its lock removed, unlocked this turn, or PICK LOCK or MASTER KEY in hand) sees through the doorway. The hallway behind them still cannot.",
       "\"The door will relock behind you\" means it: passing through an unlocked door shuts it at the walker's back unless a hand holds it open. A door unlocked and not passed relocks at the turn's end.",
     ],
   },
   {
     id: "visionstone", title: "Visionstone", cards: ["visionstone", "dust-cloud"],
-    body: ["VISIONSTONE pierces its one wall for every sight the game asks of its bearer — creations and utility spells included, not only direct attacks. It does not see through a DUST CLOUD."],
+    body: ["VISIONSTONE pierces its one wall for every sight the game asks of its bearer, for creations and utility spells as well as direct attacks. It does not see through a DUST CLOUD."],
   },
   {
     id: "dust-cloud", title: "Dust clouds", cards: ["dust-cloud"],
@@ -234,11 +234,11 @@ export const HOUSE_RULINGS: HouseRuling[] = [
   },
   {
     id: "disease", title: "Disease", cards: ["disease"],
-    body: ["DISEASE is a plague cast on yourself (\"You're the carrier!\"). The caster carries it; sharing a square bites in both directions; there is no counteraction."],
+    body: ["DISEASE is a plague cast on yourself (\"You're the carrier!\"). The caster carries it, sharing a square bites in both directions, and there is no counteraction."],
   },
   {
     id: "fire-imp", title: "The fire imp's scorch", cards: ["fire-imp"],
-    body: ["The fire imp's scorch is a spell, as the FAQ has it: magical, and counteractable."],
+    body: ["The fire imp's scorch is a spell, as the FAQ has it, so it is magical and can be counteracted."],
   },
   {
     id: "soulstone", title: "Soulstone", cards: ["soulstone"],
@@ -246,15 +246,15 @@ export const HOUSE_RULINGS: HouseRuling[] = [
   },
   {
     id: "ward", title: "The ward's bite", cards: ["ward"],
-    body: ["A WARD's bite is counteractable (\"COUNTERACTIONs ... otherwise work as written\"), though nothing a counter does — a reversal, a reflection — touches the ward's caster."],
+    body: ["A WARD's bite is counteractable (\"COUNTERACTIONs ... otherwise work as written\"), though nothing a counter does (a reversal, a reflection) touches the ward's caster."],
   },
   {
     id: "curses", title: "Reversing and reflecting a curse", cards: ["reverse", "full-reflection", "reflection", "slow-death", "walking-dead", "idiot"],
     body: [
-      "A REVERSE against SLOW DEATH or WALKING DEAD turns the whole curse, as the FAQ rules: a point gained per card drawn, half a point per space walked, permanently.",
-      "A FULL REFLECTION returns a permanent curse — SLOW DEATH, WALKING DEAD, IDIOT — onto its caster instead of letting it evaporate.",
+      "A REVERSE against SLOW DEATH or WALKING DEAD turns the whole curse, as the FAQ rules, into a point gained per card drawn and half a point per space walked, permanently.",
+      "A FULL REFLECTION returns a permanent curse (SLOW DEATH, WALKING DEAD, IDIOT) onto its caster instead of letting it evaporate.",
       "REFLECTION's returning half is an attack on the caster in its own right, with the caster's own counteraction window: an ABSORB or a BLUNT meets it as it would any blow.",
-      "A REFLECTION against a permanent curse afflicts both wizards. WALKING DEAD and IDIOT say so on the card; SLOW DEATH follows REFLECTION's own rule that a spell works for both parties.",
+      "A REFLECTION against a permanent curse afflicts both wizards. WALKING DEAD and IDIOT say so on the card, and SLOW DEATH follows REFLECTION's own rule that a spell works for both parties.",
     ],
   },
   {
@@ -267,25 +267,25 @@ export const HOUSE_RULINGS: HouseRuling[] = [
   },
   {
     id: "teleport", title: "Teleporting across the maze's edge", cards: ["teleport"],
-    body: ["TELEPORT ignores the maze's outer edge as it ignores any wall. A teleporter leaving the maze at any square's edge re-enters at the opposite edge on the same line, one space on — the lettered openings are not needed. Four spaces straight up from two squares below the top edge lands two squares up from the bottom."],
+    body: ["TELEPORT ignores the maze's outer edge as it ignores any wall. A teleporter leaving the maze at any square's edge re-enters at the opposite edge on the same line, one space on, with no need for the lettered openings. Four spaces straight up from the second row lands in the third row from the bottom."],
   },
   {
     id: "power-drain", title: "Power Drain", cards: ["power-drain", "blunt", "absorb"],
-    body: ["POWER DRAIN drains the number played. The caster gains it whether the blow is BLUNTed or ABSORBed — the FAQ has the counter blunting the damage done, not the drain — and a wall drained for its points gives them up as a wizard would. A FULL SHIELD stops the drain with the spell."],
+    body: ["POWER DRAIN drains the number played. The caster gains it whether the blow is BLUNTed or ABSORBed (the FAQ has the counter blunting the damage done and leaving the drain whole), and a wall drained for its points gives them up as a wizard would. A FULL SHIELD stops the drain with the spell."],
   },
   {
     id: "troll", title: "The troll's fist", cards: ["troll"],
-    body: ["A commanded TROLL punches a wall line beside it as it punches a wizard: a D4 of damage toward the wall's fall, once a turn."],
+    body: ["A commanded TROLL punches a wall line beside it as it punches a wizard, for a D4 of damage toward the wall's fall, once a turn."],
   },
   {
     id: "pits", title: "Crossing a pit", cards: ["create-pit"],
     body: [
-      "Crossing a pit on a 2, 3, or 4 means edging around its rim. The walker lands on an open square beside the pit — the only one if there is one, otherwise the one they name by clicking it. A warp mouth on the rim is a way off like any square, and is taken when no square offers. A pit with no way off cannot be entered.",
+      "Crossing a pit on a 2, 3, or 4 means edging around its rim. The walker lands on an open square beside the pit. If there is more than one, they name it by clicking it. A warp mouth on the rim is a way off like any square, and is taken when no square offers. A pit with no way off cannot be entered.",
     ],
   },
   {
     id: "big-man", title: "The giant's shove at a fork", cards: ["big-man"],
-    body: ["BIG MAN at a fork: a pushed wizard leaves by any open side but the way the giant came — the only one if there is one, otherwise the side they choose, the giant's stride hanging until they do. The FAQ gives the choice to the other player; so does this table."],
+    body: ["When BIG MAN pushes a wizard to a fork, they leave by any open side but the way the giant came. If more than one is open they choose, and the giant's stride hangs until they do. The FAQ gives the choice to the wizard being pushed, and so does this table."],
   },
   {
     id: "waterwall", title: "The waterwall's wave", cards: ["waterwall"],
@@ -293,7 +293,7 @@ export const HOUSE_RULINGS: HouseRuling[] = [
   },
   {
     id: "force-field", title: "Force Field", cards: ["force-field"],
-    body: ["FORCE FIELD, after stopping the spell, stands until the end of the opponent's turn: they may not enter its caster's square, nor cast on or past them, on every side — where the card says one side, this table gives all four."],
+    body: ["FORCE FIELD, after stopping the spell, stands until the end of the opponent's turn. Until then they may not enter its caster's square, or cast on or past them, from any side. The card says one side, and this table gives all four."],
   },
 ];