Just started playing SoB today (it rules!), and had a couple of rules questions.

1. Cannoneer Laurel- when she makes a ranged attack with a cannon, can she use her ability to convert range into damage? Technically it seems like she can, since "The figure targets a space within the cannon’s firing arc (as described below), then rolls an attack using the cannon as his weapon," but with some cannons having +7 range, this seems like it can let her kill ships far too quickly. With 10 move from a run and a fatigue potion, she could fire the whole broadside in 1 round and annihilate the enemy ship.

2. For the island map, what tiles are land and what are shallows? Many squares have both land and sea in them. We are ruling that if the square is over half water, it counts as water.

3. Can you activate stations on the enemies ship? Seems like there is nothing to disallow it, but that leads to:

4. On an island, can the overlord spawn monsters on the Revenge (perhaps using gust of wind after the heroes are all on the island). If so, the skeleton patrol could weigh anchor, raise the sails, and steer the Revenge onto land, destroying it.

5. If the Revenge is destroyed on an island, can the heroes keep exploring? The Revenge lost = everyone dies rule only applies to encounters. So it seems like the heroes would lose the starting glyph, and be unable to respawn until activating a different glyph, but would otherwise be uneffected. What happens with the Revenge after this? Does it just get instantly healed to full at the start of the next week, similar to if it is destroyed in an encounter? If so, deliberately crashing the revenge on island maps would be an easy way to repair it without having to spend time and money at a shipyard.

edit: 6: Related to #1, do monster special abilities apply when the monster shoots a cannon? So do beastmen get +damage, skeletons get +range, and so on? Also, would the +3 range skill, born to the cannon(bow) and other such skills apply to cannon fire?

1. That depends on the cannon. Hawkeye and Runeblast Cannons make ranged attacks (-> her ability works); Coldsteel and Dragonfire Cannons make magic attacks (-> her ability does not apply). However, firing a cannon is an attack, not manning a station, so firing a full broadside requires four attacks. You could do that with either Quick Casting or one of the new Mark of... skills, but only with the magic cannons.

2. I'm pretty sure that if there is land on a square, it is land and if it on a cardboard tile, the entire piece counts as... whatever it is meant to represent.

3. Nothing says that you can only man the stations of your own ship, thus 4. is possible. Another reason not to travel at sea without some serious upgrades.

5. Good question. I believe it is intended that the loss of the Revenge is always a TPK, but there is no hard rule to back this up.

6. That depends on the ability in question. The ability must work with the cannon's attack type. Thus, the +3 range skill (IIRC it's Marksman) only works with ranged attack cannons (Inner Fire, on the other hand, affects both ranged and magic attacks and thus works with all cannons) and Born to the Bow does not work at all since cannons are not two-handed weapons. The beastmen's + to damage is not bound to a specific type of attack and thus applies to cannons as well.

I hope that helps;
Darastin