Hello and thanks for taking some time to answer these questions. (In advance, I'm Canadian, we're pretty asumptive about the helpfulness levels of others )

1- Ship turning. Is it possible for ships to turn. That is instead of having the ship facing north and south, have it turn to face west and east. Is this possible? How is it accomplished? I ruled no, that ships stay in their origional orientation.

2- Island Level - Destruction of the Revenge - In some Island Maps, there are enemies with Cannons. What happens in this situation if they destroy the Revenge. I ruled that as the book states, when the revenge is destroyed, the party looses. The party can not revisit this map, it counts as a loss, all Heroes die, Overlord receives conquest tokens for all dead heroes. Was this correct? Another option we thought was the heroes on the ship die, those left need to activate a transport glyph for the others to come back. The revenge returns at the start of the next week. I was really not sure on this one. My players kept chanting that it made no sense. But barring clarification i stuck with the rules that I could find.

3- Current Islands - Are there ocean currents on the Island Maps? If not, does this mean that if the sails are unfurled, that the ship simply will not move?

4- Ships Suck - Do ships get drawn in to the whirlpool or is that only for Monster and Heroes?

5- In the Drink - The heroes decide to chase after a lieutenant and starting combat with them, for example the siren. We draw a location card, map it out, then the heroes lay down their ship, and the Siren and her minions can be placed anywhere? That is how I read it, (of course discovering the battle would be taking place on the ocean blue the heroes decided to do a little backtracking because they didn't want to drown horribly. Was this a correct rules call on Lieutenant placement?

That is all for now, expect more.

1- Ship turning. Is it possible for ships to turn. That is instead of having the ship facing north and south, have it turn to face west and east. Is this possible? How is it accomplished? I ruled no, that ships stay in their origional orientation.

Nope, they can't turn.

2- Island Level - Destruction of the Revenge - In some Island Maps, there are enemies with Cannons. What happens in this situation if they destroy the Revenge. I ruled that as the book states, when the revenge is destroyed, the party looses. The party can not revisit this map, it counts as a loss, all Heroes die, Overlord receives conquest tokens for all dead heroes. Was this correct? Another option we thought was the heroes on the ship die, those left need to activate a transport glyph for the others to come back. The revenge returns at the start of the next week. I was really not sure on this one. My players kept chanting that it made no sense. But barring clarification i stuck with the rules that I could find.

The rules specify that all heroes in the encounter are killed, and island levels are not encounters. However, it doesn't say what to do for islands. I'd vote for having it be a TPK if the ship's glyph is the only one on the map. If there's another on the map, then people killed can wait around in town for it to be activated, then jump in through it.

3- Current Islands - Are there ocean currents on the Island Maps? If not, does this mean that if the sails are unfurled, that the ship simply will not move?

Correct, there are no currents on the island.

4- Ships Suck - Do ships get drawn in to the whirlpool or is that only for Monster and Heroes?

Ships don't get pulled toward whirlpools, only figures do.

5- In the Drink - The heroes decide to chase after a lieutenant and starting combat with them, for example the siren. We draw a location card, map it out, then the heroes lay down their ship, and the Siren and her minions can be placed anywhere? That is how I read it, (of course discovering the battle would be taking place on the ocean blue the heroes decided to do a little backtracking because they didn't want to drown horribly. Was this a correct rules call on Lieutenant placement?

The lieutenant has to follow setup guidelines for monsters, so if they don't have swim or soar they need to be on a ship. Other than that, you're spot on.

Thank you very much. Barring any further input on Question 2 - I may have a 'do over' of this mornings short and ill-fated game for the Heroes.

That said, I do have another pair of ship related questions, these ones on the topic of upgrading the Revenge.

6 - Training the Riggin' - When a ship is upgraded, there is a number in a red circle in the corner of some of the upgrade cards. Is this an XP cost? If it is, I assume that the hero that enters the Shipyard on his turn is the one that pays the cost.

7- No one important, just a figure head - The figurehead upgrades for the Ship, if you buy one are you stuck with that choice for the rest of game? Can you buy multiple and choose from week to week if you want to change them? Can you sell upgrades that you no longer want, in exchange for a new one.

8 - Cannon Law - When the plot "A new Law" is played, doubling the prices of weapons, when a player sells a weapon do they still only get half the standard listed price? (I ruled yes, because the queen is a big meanie.)

6 - Training the Riggin' - When a ship is upgraded, there is a number in a red circle in the corner of some of the upgrade cards. Is this an XP cost? If it is, I assume that the hero that enters the Shipyard on his turn is the one that pays the cost.

Any XP cost to upgrade is paid by the entire party. So everyone has to put in the 5, or whatever, XP to pay for the upgrade.

7- No one important, just a figure head - The figurehead upgrades for the Ship, if you buy one are you stuck with that choice for the rest of game? Can you buy multiple and choose from week to week if you want to change them? Can you sell upgrades that you no longer want, in exchange for a new one.

It's not entirely clear on this one. For myself, I'd say that you can purchase another Figurehead, but you can only have one equipped at a time.

8 - Cannon Law - When the plot "A new Law" is played, doubling the prices of weapons, when a player sells a weapon do they still only get half the standard listed price? (I ruled yes, because the queen is a big meanie.)

Yes, it states that weapons cost more, not that they can be sold for more as well. It's supposed to hinder the players, not keep them on a relatively even keel.

Awesome! Thank you guys for the quick answers. Got everything I need for tomorrow mornings session. (we're evening-overnight workers, so 7-8am is when our games start )

Just need to brush up on ship starting placement and ambushes. Oh, that is right!

9 - Surprise! No, not really. - Do lieutenants have a chance to Ambush the party? Not that I think the group will be going after the Siren any time soon, but always good to know.

Thanks again!

A lieutenant's card is the ncounter card, so they would only have a chance to ambush if there was a die in an ambush section on the card. I don't believe any of them have that.

From the RtL rules:

First, rather than drawing an Incident card, the overlord uses the lieutenant’s card as the encounter’s Incident card. There is no ambush check for encounters involving lieutenants; such encounters are always set up in non-ambush circumstances.

Ah Ha. Thanks guys.

I am starting to think that maybe when I get a handle on 'what I think I know' with SoB, I had better take a gander at the RtL rules. May find some answers there. I'll assume if RtL and SoB contradict each other, use SoB

Rules between RtL and SoB are pretty similar. The only difference are the additional cards that are removed in SoB.

The SoB rules also state to use the lieutenant's card as the incident card, but leave off the part about "ambushes can never happen." Presumably there's either a lieutenant with the ability to ambush the party, so saying "no ambushes" would be a bad rule, or there isn't, so it would be unnecessary.

Ok! Thanks again for the swift answers. Each game we are able to get more and more done, mostly because of a precived increase of rules comprehension. I don't think the Heroes will be attacking the Siren any time soon, I think they all suffer from severe hydrophobia. Four new questions popped up, only one being directly related to SoB, but I'll post the others here, for ease.

10 - Unloved After Use - I've been tossing any dungeon cards that have been used in to the Graveyard, while I couldn't find that specifically in the rules, (and trust me, there is a chance I missed it.), I felt that was the proper course of action. Am I correct? Or will discarding of Dungeon cards cause problems later on, maybe 'lack of new dungeon' related problems?

11 - I can hear you! - The Orc, Kirga(?), has the ability that prevents creatures from spawning within five spaces of him. I do not have the card in front of me right now, but the wording was funny as it said something to the effect of not considering LoS. While I know this ignores doors, would this mean the keen eared scout fellow's power is five spaces in every direction from him? Ignoring the blanks between dungeon tiles (Dungeon walls?) or do you simply count five spaces from his base, rounding corners and what not. Really, I wasn't sure about this, currently I am counting from his base, otherwise, he could just sit in the middle of most maps, and I'd never spawn anything. However the mewlings of the Heroes have insisted on further study.

12 - Minotaur Whiplash - Steelhorns, while I saw a thread on him, I wasn't really able to find anything that answered this. When he charges, and ends his movement, can he only attack things in his 'front arc' or can he make an attack in any space adjacent to him, even those "Behind" him. (Behind being a really wonky term in these kinds of games where everyone is assumed to have 360 vision.) Also, a part B, Straight line means "Straight line" and not diagonals? Understanding this is not an RPG but a Tactical Board game with Fantasy Elements, I've been ruling that Steelhorns is able to "Back attack" during a charge, however, I've not been allowing Diagonal charges.

13 - Just a Scratch - Bleed, Web, and other "Before applying armour" affects have us scratching our heads. In plain terms: I am a ferrox! I attack the stupid hero. I hit and deal 4 wounds, however the stupid hero has 4 armour! I wind up dealing no wounds, but my victim still gets a bleed token? That's what we've been doing, but it's always been "Annnnnd he gets a bleed token... I... think..."

Thanks again guys.

10) By the rules, you reshuffle them. However, an exceptionally common houserule is to just put them in the graveyard until the deck runs out, then reshuffle if need be. I do this myself to avoid repititiveness

11) AFAIK by the rules it is 5 spaces counted on the board, not a radius of 5 passing through walls and using parts of the board that don't exist.

12) Any adjacent space, and again to the best of my knowledge diagonals are not allowed but I very well could be wrong there.

13) First, when you roll the dice and count up the hearts on the faces, spend surges etc etc...you NEVER are dealing WOUNDS, you are dealing DAMAGE. There is a fundamental difference between the two that is important and people commonly make the mistake. Wounds come AFTER armor is applied to the rolled/calculated damage. So yes, they still get the bleed token (or whatever token or Knockback). In the case of Bleed, the bleeding is internal and therefore does not show up on the surface. However, 24-48 hours later your hero will have a rather nasty black and blue mark.

Brilliant! Thanks Big guy. Being able to explain the Wounds vs. Damage thing to the faceless masses will make my life a little easier. Well, I'd like to say that I'm done with questions, but honestly, we haven't even had our first Ship to Ship battle, expect a slew after that. (it's coming, I can feel it in me salty bones!... Salty.. Bones?...)

Mordaith said:

A diagonal is still a straight line. Think of Connect 4 (best analogy I got) You can go left, right, up, down, and diagonal. You just can't go 2 spaces up, diagonal 1 space then up 1 space.

You have made the player of Steelhorns happy. I however am shaking my fist at you.

Thanks.

Big Weekend, pretty much all the waking hours spent playing SoB and introducing some friends to the Descent rules. More than a few questions came up, but one that is lurking in my mind right now.

14 - Run Away! - Most lieutenants in SoB start out in combat at the maps edge. They have the ability to run away from battles just by moving off the map, correct? So there is nothing stopping them from simply saying "I run away." Is there any restrictions or downside to Lieutenant fleeing than the heroes getting more gold and the Siege possibly ends on a city? The Party o' Heroes have cited that when there are two lieutenants on the board it pretty much becomes the Heroes chasing them around trying to keep them from busting up cities, with absolutely no hope of killing them unless I decide to stay and fight it out.

They can hope to get one of the ranged weapons that webs the target. If there's anything in SoB that gives Grapple to a hero, that would help as well. There's also Knockback, though that requires getting a melee character into range, which probably means you'll need two knock back weapons (one to ***** slap the hero across the ocean with, and the other to bat the lieutenant away from the edge.

Other than that, yeah, two lieutenants means having to decide which city gets razed. However, because a fled lieutenant will need at least 4 weeks to have a shot at razing the weakest cities, the heroes can do a lot during that time. For instance, if they push a lieutenant away from Hardell Steel and make it their home port, they'll have 4 weeks to explore dungeons before they have to flee back and chase the lieutenant away. Once he's been chased away, they can use the next four weeks exploring and gathering the buried treasure they just earned the map for, then pop back and chase him off again.

Thanks much for the quick response. We sat down and looked over the first several turns of the copper age of the game, and came to the conclusion that the players had made some pretty drastic mistakes that come with being new. I think we have elected to start over.

A question was posed about Monsters and cannon uses. So with out further ado.

15 - It's an interesting rule, but is it Cannon? - When a baddie uses a cannon you calculate the dice they get based on their primary trait and what is needed to wield the weapon. A question I have, do monsters retain their abilities when using a Cannon. Skeletons for example, do they get the bonus range? Would a Sorcerer be able to use his Sorcerery ability?

As far as the rules are currently written, the general feeling that I've seen is that they do since the rules for the cannons don't tell you that skills/abilities/monster stats don't factor in.

However, that being said, there is some significant problems with this and I have very little doubt that if we ever get a FAQ update that this is going to get changed.

For example, would you give a cannon attack made by a Deep Elf give out Frost tokens? No reason it should, but the way the rules are written it leaves wiggle room.

Unless it turns out to be heavily unbalancing, I don't expect to see any errata. FFG tends to lean towards simplicity over reality when making their rules. So while it might not make sense that a deep elf's frost launches itself through a cannon, it'll probably stay that way.