Crossbow house rules?

[soundguy]

for a person that is a collector of guns.. a pistol to a shotgun to a rifle to a crossbow. there are significant differences.

the fact that an ammo card covers every type of 'gun item' in existance.. means there are some pretty rare and expensive, not to mention EXTENSIVE and large stashes of ammo hidden in the LNOE universe. not a far fetch to think there might be a bolt or arrow in there.

besides, give me a dowel rod and I can shoot a bow or crossbow. might take me a minute to improvise a lil with whittling a nock grove and a sharpend point. but it WILL shoot. ( yes. i've tested that theory ) Not only do i collect guns but am into archery too. have severall recurve and compound boys, several cross bows including compound and antique danish.

dowel rod fires just fine. ( short range.. but fires ) the old danish bow will fire a sharpened pencil!

contrast that to shotshell or metalic pistol / rifle ammo. With my relaoding press and tools i can take spent brass, deprime and resize it, trim it back to length, id/od ream the mouth, re-prime it, charge it, and then seat and crimp a projectile into it.

those steps take time and precision tools.

I'm WAY more likely to be able to improvise an arrow / bolt than work up some reloads on the run.

that's my take if you are looking for realism.

i shoot some rifles that likely DO NOT have a redy supply of ammo available int he consumer market.

i won't be finding any 'ammo cards' for those guns during the zed apoc.

i will be much more likely to find bolt/arrow ammo.

walmarts, lgs, cabelas, dicks sporting goods. most pawn shops..e tc. and the afore mentioned hardware or craft store for a shak n bake bolt.

PS.. I make all my own bolts for that danish bow. i affix my own fletching and make my own tips. I use either oak or cedar dowel rods. I use feather or palstic vane fletching. and yeah.. common feathers you can find in your yard work. I raise chicken and turkey.. and their feathers are fine. especially turkey.

tips are plentiful.. anything from sharpened wood, then dipped into epoxy, then filed down to make pratice tips, tot he glue on flat arrowheads made for wood arrows..e tc.

the more real you make a game.. the less playable it is.

look at the original 'dawn of the dead' game. lots of realisim rules. darn hard and 'less fun' to play.

(02-04-2014 07:51 PM)Achtung Panzer Wrote:  

(02-04-2014 06:47 PM)soundguy Wrote:  i'd leave ammo cards as ammo cards, and include bolts and arrows.

That's certainly the easiest solution, but it takes away a sense that the crossbow is a different weapon to a gun. I guess that's a personal call in terms of house rules.

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(02-04-2014 10:44 PM)ATOEtalGeek Wrote:  

(02-04-2014 07:51 PM)Achtung Panzer Wrote:  ...it takes away a sense that the crossbow is a different weapon to a gun.

. Unless the goal is to get around some kind of a noise mechanic.

that's deffinately a good way to look at it. It's a silent gun. perhaps in the pistol range category.