Pistol Crossbow

[HewhoisMatt]

Okay I am thinking 1d6 RKA, 10 STR min, no range mod.

 

Does that sound about right? I don't normaly bother to write up weapons but this is for a game someone else is running and it is not in the book.

 

The weapon write ups in FH are a pet peeve of mine. I just do not agree with alot of the listed damages and modifiers.

[Curufea]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

No range mod?

 

I'd also make it reduced by range. No way could it be used over long distances.

[HewhoisMatt]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

Thats true, I might include Reduced by range.

 

The only reason I mentioned no range mod was because the full size ones get a +1.

[Outsider]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

By making it 1D6 Killing I would guess that one of your disagreements with the listed damages is that they are too low?

[HewhoisMatt]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

By making it 1D6 Killing I would guess that one of your disagreements with the listed damages is that they are too low?

 

 

Yes and no, I do disagree with the crossbow damage in the book but thats not the whole reason for the 1d6. What I have it mind is not the lil $30 thing you see in sporting good stores with the 8 inch bow. What I want is smaller than the average but still big enough to be usefull, it's not something I am going to holster on my belt.

[Outsider]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

OK.

 

A 10 STR Min for a 1D6 (3DC) crossbow built and used as are the other crossbows in FH are fits the progression of 6DC = 16, 5DC = 14, 4DC = 12.

 

The main issue that needs to be addressed isnt the strength min, but how attempting to use a crossbow one-handed presents problems.

 

1) Loading. I presume that this crossbow is merely fireable in one hand, but still requires two to load. If it is intended that it require one hand to load and fire, then I have to wonder how one draws the string without drawing the bow/stock along with it.

 

2) Triggering Mechanism. Medieval crossbows that I have seen generally were designed with a 'lever' style trigger that ran paralell to the stock. The more 'firearm' style trigger design was more a product of the 16th/17th centuries. A lever trigger crossbow would not be usable one handed, since it would be impossible to both suport/aim the weapon, and control its time of discharge with one hand. So I will assume that the slightly anachronistic firearm style trigger is in use, at which point only one finger of the used hand need be diverted to triggering, while the rest can support the weapon.

 

3) Weight and weight distribution. This is the bit that makes a 'usefully powerful' one hand crossbow difficult. A modern (or even old-style) pistol carries most of its mass more toward the grip end. This is because the barrel/firing chamber is thickest in the back, where the greatest pressure occurs durring firing. A crossbow, on the other hand, carries the better part of it mass torwards the front of the weapon. Most of this comes from the bow itself, carried at the very front, but a good portion also comes from the necessity of having the stock between the nut (that holds back the string until discharge) and the bow be strong enough to withstand the pressure exerted by the bow.

 

The upshot of this is that the crossbow, due to its forward center of mass, will be sitting at the end of a longer lever arm than an equal weight pistol, and be that much harder to hold up and steady for aiming. I would argue that it wouldnt just lose the +1 Rmod adjustment that other crossbows have, but that it would actually have a negative Rmod adjustment of at least 1.

 

Now, I suppose one way to counter this would be to not have the one handed crossbow laid out like a gunpowder pistol, ie with the grip and trigger at the rear. Instead, one could, I suppose, have the grip and trigger well forward on the bottom of the stock, with most of the length of the weapon laying on the fore arm. (picture a tonfa held like a pistol, with the long portion of the baton laid along the arm, and a crossbow mounted on top...) I might be OK with it having no Rmod penalty at that point.

 

But I'd still wonder what the point of the weapon was, since it will still take 2 hands, a full phase, and 1/2 DCV to load...

[Old Man]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

The weapon write ups in FH are a pet peeve of mine. I just do not agree with alot of the listed damages and modifiers.

 

That's because most of the 5th ed. weapon writeups are BS. They're neither realistic nor balanced. It's sad, but the best FH weapon writeups are in 1st ed. There, a light xbow does 1d6+1K at STR Min 10 (7 to fire), two-hand full-phase reload, full DCV when firing.

 

I've had this problem with Hero since the last edition. Ever since Hero Games decided to treat the system as "universal" it's resulted in a dramatic loss of quality for non-supers genres. In order to play FH today you need to buy five times as much dead tree and basic stuff (like whether you're 1/2 DCV firing a bow) is harder to find. It's silly. But I will end my off-topic rant here.

[HewhoisMatt]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

I was wanting to get it down to a 1/2 phase reload with no DCV penalty. Maybe the faster reload will make sense with a higher STR min.

 

The main reason for the weapon is for a Valdorian game and I just wanted something with a little flavor.

 

I am thinking of a bounty hunter, escaped slave chaser type. His weapons will be this pistol, a full size crossbow, and a stout club.

 

I am still working on the background story and motivation of this guy.

[Outsider]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

Pg. 172 of FH has an optional rule for the fast-loading of crossbows.

 

Basically, with 5 STR more than the minimum and a successful DEX or Fast Draw (Crossbows) roll, a normally 1 Phase loading crossbow can be loaded in a half phase without DCV penalty.

 

Going the Fastdraw (bought up) route will (usually) let you load your heavier crossbow faster as well.

[CraterMaker]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

Hmm.. Don't know how useful this will be, but if you are lookng for flavour-

 

One of the weapons used in Terry Pratchetts' DiscWorld series was a ten inch long metal tube, hollowed out and with a powerful spring inside. shot a small crossbow bolt, short ranged, but it was very easy to conceal. You'd only be able to reload it out of combat, of course... It was illegal in Ankh-Mopork, iirc.

 

I'd definately do reduced by range for the pistol crossbow.. You could even have it mounted on a piece of forearm armor!

 

-CraterMaker

[HewhoisMatt]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

Hmm.. Don't know how useful this will be, but if you are lookng for flavour-

 

One of the weapons used in Terry Pratchetts' DiscWorld series was a ten inch long metal tube, hollowed out and with a powerful spring inside. shot a small crossbow bolt, short ranged, but it was very easy to conceal. You'd only be able to reload it out of combat, of course... It was illegal in Ankh-Mopork, iirc.

 

I'd definately do reduced by range for the pistol crossbow.. You could even have it mounted on a piece of forearm armor!

 

-CraterMaker

 

 

I remember that one. I really dig the DiscWorld books. The man really has a style all his own.

[Old Man]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

I'd definately do reduced by range for the pistol crossbow.. You could even have it mounted on a piece of forearm armor!

 

And then we could all pull on leather chaps and cruise aimlessly around the Australian Outback in homemade cars, killing each other over the last remaining drops of gasoline!

 

[Outsider]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

I always love how they can build their own cars, but cant come up with blackpowder.

 

Its a genre thing, of course, but still...

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

I expect that in any modern population, there are more mechanics than powder makers. Then, too, once you've got the powder, you've got to have something decent to fire it with, or you blow yourself up.

 

I personally plan on starting my own line of blackpowder zip-guns once that tsunami comes and we're all struggling to survive in the primordial swamps that used to be the USA.

[HewhoisMatt]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

And then we could all pull on leather chaps and cruise aimlessly around the Australian Outback in homemade cars, killing each other over the last remaining drops of gasoline!

 

 

I always knew you had a kinky side.

[Old Man]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

I always love how they can build their own cars, but cant come up with blackpowder.

 

Its a genre thing, of course, but still...

 

I think, actually, that they weren't building cars so much as scavenging and jury-rigging them. And firearms reloading gear would be much harder to find in Australia than automotive tools. The question you should be asking is, why haven't they developed projectile weapons that use gasoline as the propellant?

[Old Man]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

I always knew you had a kinky side.

 

You have no idea.

[James Gillen]

Re: Pistol Crossbow

 

And then we could all pull on leather chaps and cruise aimlessly around the Australian Outback in homemade cars, killing each other over the last remaining drops of gasoline!

 

 

I believe this is for the character Matt is designing for our upcoming Valdorian Age game. Which is basically the same thing as Mad Max, in a way.

 

JG