First: What is the fire rate of a crossbow?




So...what is the fire rate for crossbows?

Second: The Automatic Crossbow

Hmm. I guess nobody likes crossbows. I guess that bows can do better damage, and when I go for non-firearm chars I usually use them. But my latest build is an adept infiltration specialist loosely based off of the Prince of Persia videogame character. For thematic reasons the character is rather meak (2 Str). As I wanted him to have non-firearm ranged capacity I wet for crossbows as his Str makes them more effective.

However when checking the crossbow rules I found a conundrum. Since x-bows don't need to simple action reload, (see previous), I wonder if that means they can fire in a semi-automatic capacity similar to pistols.

The Automatic Crossbow I created was inspired by "Van Helsing" and I statted it up in case regular crossbows are not semi-auto. That and because it was cool.

So... can you fire a normsl crossbow in a semi-auto fashion similar to a SA firearm?

I'd say it's SS, so you got always time to spend one simple action for aiming

Based on SR4 rules where present, and previous editions where SR4 has gaps, the most RAW summary for bows follows (note that the RAW fire rate for both types is much faster than possible IRL):

• Firing a pull bow or a crossbow uses the Fire Weapon simple action.
• Modern crossbows are apparently SA weapons. Refilling the 4-shot internal magazine follows the normal rules for such a task.
• Reloading a pull bow uses a single Ready Weapon simple action (must meet the STR Min).
• Reloading other (non-modern) crossbows can only be done in one Ready Weapon action if the user has the STR Min for the crossbow. I would use half the crossbow's DV (round up) as its STR Min for this purpose. ("If a character does not have the Strength Minimum for using a particular crossbow, they must spend one additional Ready Weapon action reloading the crossbow for each point of Strength they are below the minimum.", SR3, p. 118)

QFT, You nailed it.

Thanks!