I didn't see Operating listed among the skills used in RoT and I am wondering if this is an oversight. Is Operating the correct skill for controlling sailing ships in RoT?

Also, what skill is used to fire the runecannons described in the fluff section. Is Gunnery needed, or would Ranged be appropriate?

Operating is indeed the skill for large ships (heck, even the 3-masted frigate on CRB231 lists it as the operating skill). And Gunnery is the mounted-weapon skill. I remember a similar issue arising before about the lack of nautical support and it was concluded by the community that since Terrinoth is a massive continent and there is little support for water adventures in the various other games that it was omitted by accident. Heck, the assumption is that everyone is on land; hence the addition of mount rules.

Yeah, I think they probably didn't include Operating and Gunnery under the assumption that they would be too niche in what is essentially a dungeon-crawl setting. So I'd assume those skills exist, but none of the featured Careers focus on them at all. For any games that decide to focus on the high seas, I'd suggest a Tier-2 Talent that grants Operating, Gunnery, and maybe Knowledge (Geography) as Career Skills.

Would Gunnery also cover catapults, trebuchets, ballistae, and other siege weapons? I believe ballistae were mentioned as a major defense against dragons during the Third Darkness.

Good question. The CRB description suggests yes: "Your character uses Gunnery, the third of the Ranged sub-skills, to fire … pretty much any other weapon large enough that you need a tripod or team of people to use it. Your character also uses it to fire weapons mounted on vehicles." But then it suggests the skill should only be used in steampunk, weird war, sci fi, modern, and space opera settings. However, since Operating makes no mention of ranged attacks from the vehicles it covers, I'd be hard pressed to think of of another skill to use for catapults, trebuchets, and shipboard weapons that require a crew.

7 hours ago, SavageBob said:

Good question. The CRB description suggests yes: "Your character uses Gunnery, the third of the Ranged sub-skills, to fire … pretty much any other weapon large enough that you need a tripod or team of people to use it. Your character also uses it to fire weapons mounted on vehicles." But then it suggests the skill should only be used in steampunk, weird war, sci fi, modern, and space opera settings. However, since Operating makes no mention of ranged attacks from the vehicles it covers, I'd be hard pressed to think of of another skill to use for catapults, trebuchets, and shipboard weapons that require a crew.

I guess it could just be plain old Ranged. That work make it cover everything from a thrown axe to a trebuchet, and some Talents applied to Ranged might come out a little weird.

Just a thought, but wouldn't cannons and siege type weapons be Operating or Mechanics? Gunnery is still an Agility based which I always took as used for the fine motor skills needed to aim. These weapons are more of an Int based art to hit.

3 hours ago, Flobio said:

Just a thought, but wouldn't cannons and siege type weapons be Operating or Mechanics? Gunnery is still an Agility based which I always took as used for the fine motor skills needed to aim. These weapons are more of an Int based art to hit.

Star Wars has the same issue. In it, guided missiles have their base accuracy linked to the Agility of the shooter even when the shooter never comes into bodily contact with the launcher. With indirect fire weaponry (e.g., catapults, mortars, etc.) Intellect--or possibly Cunning--would seem more appropriate.

For locking on guided missile I might see Agility as appropriate. Almost every computer game I played, I had to continue to 'aim' at the target for a certain amoount of time, before the target lock was established, and I could 'fire and forget' the missile. That usually meant twisting, moving, following the target. In a way this might actially be a reason to say one could use Piloting (also Agility based) to establish lock-on for guided weapons.

Considering Star Wars was conceived in the 70's, and computers were far from developed then, I can see why, true to the setting, guided weapons in Star Wars still do not have that "Point the mouse on the target on screen, click, and thus establish a 'permanent' lock" type of technology.