Your rules. Readable in two days.
Your prototype rulebook, rewritten in plain English in the order players need. Every rule kept. $79.
Before · the designer's draft
“On your turn you do 2 actions, same one twice is fine except Light which you can only do once. Actions are: Draw a moth card (from the deck or the top of the discard, but if you take from discard you have to show it), Plant a moth (play a card from your hand onto a garden tile that is face up, the tile has to match … max 3 moths per tile) … Actually one more thing about Plant …”
After · the same rules, in order
The turn
On your turn, take 2 actions. The same action twice is allowed, except Light, once per turn.
Draw. The top card of the deck, or of the discard pile; a discard is shown first.
Plant. A moth from your hand onto a face-up tile of its colour, or the grey tile. A tile holds at most 3.
Questions for the designer
“Next to” a face-up tile: orthogonal only, or diagonal too? The rewrite says orthogonal.
Sample rewrite · an invented game, from the 700-word draft below
Three steps.
Paste the draft
The whole prototype rulebook as it stands: notes to yourself, crossed-out rules, the questions your Thursday group asked. Up to about 4,000 words. Messy is fine; complete is what matters.
We put it in order
Overview, components, setup, the turn with one paragraph per action, end of round, end of game, scoring, edge cases, an index of terms. Plain sentences, numbered steps, one place for each rule. Every rule traced back to your draft.
Read the questions
A Word file, a text file and a PDF proof within two days, plus a change log of what moved and why, and your list of the places the draft could be read two ways. You decide those; we never do. One free round of changes.
What you send, what you get.
LANTERN MOTHS rules v4 (draft!!) So the idea is you are moth keepers and you are trying to get the most moths to your lanterns before the night ends. 2-4 players, maybe 5 works but we haven't tested it. Ages 8ish and up, takes 20-30 mins. Everyone gets a lantern board and 3 wick tokens and you shuffle the moth deck (the 48 cards, NOT the 6 dusk cards, those get shuffled in later, see below) and deal 5 to everyone. Put the garden tiles out in a 3x3 grid, actually put them face down first then flip the middle one. Oh and the start player is whoever last saw a moth, or youngest if nobody remembers. On your turn you do 2 actions, same one twice is fine except Light which you can only do once. Actions are: Draw a moth card (from the deck or the top of the discard, but if you take from discard you have to show it), Plant a moth (play a card from your hand onto a garden tile that is face up, the tile has to match the moth's colour OR be the grey tile which takes anything, max 3 moths per tile), Light (flip one of your wick tokens to the lit side and put it next to a tile — now moths on that tile come to your lantern at the end of the round, but ONLY if your lit wick is the only one on that tile, if there are two lit wicks on a tile the moths stay put, this is important), Flip (turn over a face-down garden tile next to a face-up one). Actually one more thing about Plant - if the tile is full you can't plant there obviously, and if you plant a Ghost Moth (the 4 white ones) it goes on top of any tile regardless of colour and nobody's wick works on that tile that round. We go back and forth on whether the ghost moth should also block the grey tile. For now yes. After everyone has taken their turn, that's a round, and you do the …
Lantern Moths · the rewrite
Setup, as numbered steps
“2. Set the 6 Dusk cards aside. They enter the game after round 2 (see The night ends). 4. Shuffle the 9 garden tiles and lay them face down in a 3 by 3 grid. Turn the middle tile face up.” every rule kept
End of round, in the prototype's own order
“1. For each tile with exactly one lit wick beside it, the owner of that wick takes every moth on the tile and places them face down beside their lantern. These moths are scored at the end of the game. You may l…”
Change log · questions for the designer
Ten lines saying what moved and why (the crossed-out Ghost Moth rule removed, the “things people asked” folded into the rules they belong to) and seven places the draft could be read two ways, each with the reading the rewrite took. We never decide a rule for you. nothing added
An invented game and a 700-word draft. Yours is rewritten from your own prototype, up to about 4,000 words.
Rulebook editors who play the game first charge by the word, commonly $0.10 a word, so a 4,000-word draft runs about $400 before the flat fee. This is the other job, done first: the words you already have, put in the order a new player needs, at one price, with every unclear rule handed back as a question instead of a guess.
- Rewritten in plain English, in the standard order
- Every rule kept; nothing added; no rule decided for you
- A change log of what moved and why
- A numbered list of the places the draft could be read two ways
- A Word file, a text file and a PDF proof, A4 or Letter
- One free round of changes within a week
Paste the draft.
Three questions.
What exactly do I get?
Your rulebook, rewritten in plain English, within two days after payment, in the order a new player needs it: overview, components, setup, the turn (one paragraph per action), end of round, end of game, scoring, edge cases and an index of terms. It comes as a Word file you can edit, a text file you can paste into your layout, and a PDF proof, A4 or Letter. With it: a change log that lists what moved or merged and why, and a numbered list of the places your prototype could be read two ways, each with the reading the rewrite took. One free round of changes within a week.
Will you change my rules, or fix my game?
No. Every rule you wrote is kept, and nothing you did not write is added. Where your draft contradicts itself or leaves a gap, we do not pick an answer for you: the rewrite takes the most literal reading, says so, and the question goes on your list. We do not playtest, suggest mechanics, change terms you use consistently, or comment on whether the game is good. If a rule is genuinely missing (nothing in the draft says what happens), the rewrite says that too, in one line, rather than inventing one.
Is this layout, or a finished rulebook?
Words only. No layout, no art, no diagrams, no icons, no page design and no print files: you or your graphic designer place the text. The Word file uses plain headings and numbered steps so it drops into any layout. Up to about 4,000 words at this price; a longer rulebook, a second language, or a separate quick-start sheet is a new order, and we will say so before you pay.
Get the sample rewrite first
The invented Lantern Moths rulebook before and after as a PDF, and our one-page list of the nine sections a rulebook needs and the order a new player reads them.