Crossbows

Crossbows

Heavy Crossbow with parts labelled

Introduction

This will expand the rules for cross bows for HackMaster, for Telene  and introduce some of the types of repeating crossbows which are quite common in "Elsewhere" but which are not unique to there by any means

Nomenclature 

Pistol crossbow - a less powerful version of the latch below which can at need  be fired one handed, it is drawn by hand slightly heavier versions are treated as Latches

Latches - very light crossbows which are hand drawn and include the classic drow type pistol cross bow as well as a range of weapons designed for hunting particularly foul and small game.

Typical Fowler's Latch

Light crossbows - standard in game light crossbows may be hand drawn but usually use a leaver commonly known as a goats foot on occasion this may be built in but its usually detachable

Light crossbow demonstrating
the use of a cocking leaver

Medium crossbow - either a slightly more powerful than the  in game light crossbows or Lighter version of the in game heavy crossbow favoured by mounted crossbowmen who don't have the leverage of their infantry counterparts and so find true heavies unwheildy.  May be hand drawn but usually use a leaver commonly known as a goats foot on occasion this may be built in but its usually detachable

Heavy Crossbows - standard in game heavy crossbows may be leaver drawn but are more usually cranked either with a detachable or built in winding mechanism, if drawn with a leaver the bow was normally fitted with a styrup as in the illustration at the top of the page

Heavy crossbow

Arbalests  - extra heavy crossbows not found on Telene as they use sprung steel spans for power and are as slow to load as heaves's if not slower using a similar sort of winding system. for the most part, they are designed to have the power to punch through the heaviest armour or beast hide and historically rivalled early fire arms in this regard.

Arbalest or Heavy crossbow
with
Detachable winding mechanism for drawing the bow

Double crossbows - can be of any of the above types and has two strings and spans, built into the same weapon which allows it to be fired twice in quick succession, slow and fiddly to reload  but capable of a massive rate of fire initially which may justify  this

Rather elaborate heavy double crossbow

Repeating crossbows - can be of any of the above types, but are most often light crossbows and whilst it only has one span and string it has a magazine of 3-6 bolts which allow it to be reloaded as it it drawn considerably speeding rates of fire this can be further speeded as the Gabissi (orcs) of Elsewhere do by using clock work to draw the span and some times magic as the wicked Gnomes of Elsewhere do, though fortunately most of the gnomish terror bows are effectively light crossbows, due to the small stature of the wielders. 

The box structure on top is the magazine
&
the built in leaver both draws the bow and drops the next bolt into place

Game stats

Standard Crossbows

Weapon Name	Strength Required	Skill Level	Damage	Shield Damage	Rate of fire	Weapon Size	Max range	Damage type
Pistol *	4	low	1d8p	1	5s	S	120	Punching
Latch	4	low	2d4p	1	10s	M	150	Punching
Light Crossbow	6**	low	2d6p	1	20s	M	180	Punching
Medium Crossbow	8**	low	2d8p	1	20s	M	220	Punching
Heavy Crossbow	10***	low	2d10p	1	60s	L	250	Punching 1
Arbalest	15***	low	2d12p	1	90s	L	250	Punching 2

* Can be fired one handed at an accuracy penalty of -2

** required strength -2 with a leaver but +5s to RoF or -4 required with a winder but +10s to RoF

*** required strength -3 with a winder but +20s to RoF

¹ DR of Heavy or natural armour of DR5+ is at penalty of -1

² DR of Heavy or natural armour of DR5+ is at penalty of -2

Note Medium or heavier crossbows will generally go straight though shields doing very little damage to the shield itself  but suffering a decrease of damage equal to twice the shields DR should they subsequently hit the bearer of the shield.

Double crossbows

Weapon Name	Strength Required	Skill Level	Damage	Shield Damage	Rate of fire *	Weapon Size	Max range	Damage type
Latch	5	low	2d4p	1	1s/30s	M	150	Punching
Light Crossbow	7**	low	2d6p	1	1s/50s	M	180	Punching
Medium Crossbow	9**	low	2d8p	1	1s/50s	M	220	Punching
Heavy Crossbow	12***	low	2d10p	1	1s/100s	L	250	Punching 1

* Rate of fire Loaded/unloaded, Loaded which is for two shots and the unloaded is to reload and draw both spans if you only want to reload & draw one for speed you naturally use the least fiddly to do which is the top one and the reload time to do that is the same as a single crossbow of the same power.

**  required strength -2 with a leaver but +5s to RoF or -4 required with a winder but +10s to RoF

*** required strength -3 with a winder but +20s to RoF

¹ DR of Heavy or natural armour of DR5+ is at penalty of -1 

 Repeating Crossbows

Weapon Name	Strength Required	Skill Level	Damage	Shield Damage	Rate of fire *	Magazine size	Weapon Size	Max range	Damage type
Latch	8	Low	2d4p	1	8s/50s	6	L	150	Punching
Light Crossbow	10**	Low	2d6p	1	10s/60s	5	L	180	Punching
Medium Crossbow	12**	Low	2d8p	1	15s/75s	4	L	220	Punching
Heavy Crossbow	14**	Low	2d10p	1	20s/80s	4	L	250	Punching 1

* The first figure in the RoF column is the rate firing from the magazine where you are just drawing & feeding a new bolt the second is to reload the magazine completely and draw the bow for the first shot. NB in the manner of bolt action rifles it’s quite possible to have “one up the spout” so adding one to the effective magazine capacity

** Assumes the use of a built in leaver system as the various winder systems are unsuitable to both draw the span and cycle the magazine to reload

Note 
whilst it is possible to make all of the standard crossbows as double crossbows or repeaters these are more in the realms of light artillery and are not man portable by a single man or equivalent

More exotic sorts to follow in a latter article.