I just played my first game of Ruse & Bruise with my wife and son, and we all enjoyed it quite a bit. Easy to teach, fast playing, light and fun.

However, I really felt that the English translation of a number of the card abilities could have been a lot more clear. First of all, I think all of the reveal abilities start with "When revealed", but I believe I would have explicitly marked each ability as "Reveal" or "Distribution". Second, it would have been easy to put some sort of reminder on the cards to indicate the order of resolution during distribution. After that, at least a couple abilities, notably the Assassin's and the Dragon's, just seemed to be completely wrong.

Here are my suggestions for more user-friendly wording on the cards:

3 Musketeers - (Distribution, 1st) Ignore all other distribution abilities in this column. (Doppelganger value = 0)

Alchemist - N/A

Assassin - (Reveal) Discard the card that caused the Assassin to be revealed.

Beggar - (Distribution, 5th) The player with the smallest influence sum wins in this column.

Cardinal - N/A

Doppelganger - (Distribution, 5th) Has the same value as the card immediately below it. Value = 0 if no card below it.

Dragon - (Distribution, 5th) -2 to the value of each card belonging to an opponent in this column.

Explorer - (Reveal) Replace the Explorer face down as if just played at the bottom of the next column to the right (wrapping around to the left if necessary).

Fencing Master - N/A

Hermit - (Distribution, 5th) -1 to the Hermit's value for each other card in this column.

Invisibility Cloak - (Reveal) Place a card from your hand face down under the Invisibility Cloak. Count this extra card normally at distribution.

Juliet - N/A

King - N/A

Lord of the Manor - N/A

Minnesinger - N/A

Prince - (Distribution, 4th) Wins in this column if combined with the matching Squire.

Queen - N/A

Romeo - (Distribution, 5th) +10 to Romeo's value if combined with the matching Juliet.

Small Giant - (Distribution, 5th) +3 to Small Giant's value for each other card in this column.

Squire - (Distribution, 4th) Wins in this column if combined with the matching Prince.

Storm - (Reveal) This column is considered complete and no further cards may be played in it.

Trader - N/A

Traitor - (Reveal) Controlling player may swap goal card from this column with goal card in any other column.

Witch - (Distribution, 3rd) Discard each card in this column with value 9 or lower. Witches neutralize each other.

Wizard - (Distribution, 2nd) Discard each card in this column with value 10 or higher. Wizards neutralize each other.

You are absolutely right. We played this game for the first time last night, and ran into all of the problems that you're language changes try to fix.