Why crossbow over bow?

[Dimirag]

A lot of GMs have their own rules or roleplaying rules for crossbows, but, to me, that doesn't make them "balanced BTB".
One can give tons of motives as to why a character would use a crossbow, but, BTB, there are little to none.

[Hywaywolf]

I bet there are less than 10% of B/X and BFRPG gaming groups that play strictly by the book.

[dymondy2k]

A lot of GMs have their own rules or roleplaying rules for crossbows, but, to me, that doesn't make them "balanced BTB".
One can give tons of motives as to why a character would use a crossbow, but, BTB, there are little to none.

Exactly.. the loss of the round to reload isn't worth the extra damage. So Crossbow... Cool for flavor and the occasional 'shooting prone' but otherwise gets a resounding MEH in my book.

[Dimirag]

Actually, You just loose the round, the damage is the same, unless the GM rule that.

So, new question: How would you mechanically "fix/upgrade" a crossbow to make it "even or better" than bows?

[Woe]

Actually, You just loose the round, the damage is the same, unless the GM rule that."

I think he means over sustained combat (multiple rounds), the damage potential is half.

Not sure how to fix. We are talking about a decision over forty years old. Boost damage, boost ROF, drop cost, make available to non-martial classes were discussed above. Personally, I think boosting ROF works because you are then paying extra for extra range. That's a decent tradeoff.

[Dimirag]

Quick idea: Characters can move and attack or move and shoot, with crossbows the characters can:
1-Move and Shoot a loaded crossbow.
2-Move and Load an unloaded crossbow.
3-Load and Shoot.

This still gives an advantage to the bow, so don't know how much of an improvement it is...

[seandon4]

Not sure how to fix. We are talking about a decision over forty years old. Boost damage, boost ROF, drop cost, make available to non-martial classes were discussed above. Personally, I think boosting ROF works because you are then paying extra for extra range. That's a decent tradeoff.

I was going to suggest it before, but seeing now that the crossbow is a part of the dwarf's background, could argue that the dwarf has a certain proficiency (bonus) with the weapon.

EDIT: For what it's worth, crossbow pros/cons and ROF has also been discussed on dragonsfoot. Some flavors of B/X imply 1/2 ROF and others imply (or even say) 1x rate.
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewt ... w=previous
http://osrgaming.org/forums/viewtopic.p ... 741a48fd34

[dymondy2k]

Why not allow it to shoot every round provided the user doesn't move?

[Joe the Rat]

Only if you don't actually say "Reload as a Move Action" ...

So for a heavy, would you use that, or still require two "actions" to reload (so if you aren't moving, you can spend a full round reloading, then shoot in the next).

[black1blade]

I think heavy crossbows should be 1d10.