I was watching a scene from Johnny Mnemonic, and I noticed the LowTek guys using crossbows. They were probably doing that just to be extra punk and low-tech, but crossbows do lack telltales like muzzle flash and a cordite scent trail, so they might be useful as a one-off option to avoid a firefight early in a run.

So, the idea is that you put some kind of disposable crossbow frame over your usual smartgun. After you fire your armor-piercing neurotoxin crossbow bolt, you throw away the whole harness. It's good for quietly dropping a guard, silencing a patrol dog, or otherwise taking down an opponent without giving away your position.

My other thought was an underbarrel taser. This is interesting if you restrict stick-n-shock ammo, which my game does.

Thoughts?

Shadowrun Crossbows have an internal Magazin and are Semi Automatic.
No need for throwaway-Crossbows

with a reusable dance
Medicineman

Okay, so are there any times when it would make sense to add an underbarrel semi-automatic crossbow to your primary weapon?

Cheers, -- N

No, only when you plan on going up against something with the weakness wood or if you want it as a style factor, else the crossbow is ALLWAYS sub par when it comes to weapons . .
Only as a better Dart Pistol with poisoned bolts would it be better than the alternative . . But that only if the enemy is only lightly armored, seeing how stun damage means no penetration and thus no applied poison.

With injection darts, all it takes is two net hits to penetrate any armor below milspec.

With capsule rounds and DMSO it only takes one net hit. This doesn't even need an extra skill.

I think chemical protection'd help against that, not that the rules for combat toxins make any kind of sense.

Why yes they do, meaning basically "you get hit, you're already dead". With all those disablers with effect durations in hours...

As far as I recall, underbarrel crossbows will be limited to two arrows in their internal magazine. Standard crossbows house up to 4 arrows, underbarrel weapons get their capacity halved.
Still, it's useful. Fully silenced, cheap (to modify, as well) and that bit of extra style... Special arrowheads also bring in more power and versatility. Light something up with that incendiary head. Stick'n'shock heads, as well. And nothing says "screw you" in a way a foot long arrow in the chest does
I'm planning of modifying a heavy crossbow under a drone-mounted sniper rifle, though that will limit the drone to one arrow per pass...

Crossbows are quite wide compared to normal firearms, I'd suggest some kind of tube which propels the arrow/bolt via spring or compressed air. Stat-wise you can still handle it as a crossbow, just that it's not so unwieldy.

That's a speargun. Yay!

True enough, but even the magic of DMSO can't get through impact armor on its own. Then there's also chemical protection, as has been astutely pointed out. Injection is the way to go if you want to make sure your payload takes effect (at least for living targets ). I think that makes the extra skill worth it.

Just arguing RAW here: Impact armor does squat against Contact Toxins delivered by a ranged attack. Only against melee attacks do you get the extra benefit on the toxin resistance test. For actually getting the toxin to a place where it needs to be resisted Impact armor does the same thing against both Vectors. A Chemical Seal is indeed effective against DMSO but this means at least 12/10 armor and the HTR team, so in that case I would probably take out the big guns anyway or won't fight at all.
YMMV