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Originally Posted by Gudiomen
One thing worth mentioning is that Bulk doesn't correspond to just, well, bulk.
If you think of the instances where the penalty applies, there might be other factors involved. Penalty to hide is in the "bulky" factor, but "ease of fire while mobile" doesn't just depend on weight or dimensions, the trigger mechanism greately helps to fire while running, and since Bulk is used to determine the penalty to shoot while running, the number should be modified by that.
Mass is a factor (which translates to HP/weight);
Distribution of mass (how easily you can move it around, balance);
Ease of use (including firing mechanism);
Volume (how easy is it to hide?);
etc...
Take a pistol, for instance, no matter how light it is (in fact it can have a theoretical mass of zero) it still will have a non-zero Bulk number (probably still -2) because it's still tricky to hide. Same goes for bows and firing while running, the coordination is tricky, regardless of weight, size, etc (it requires a certain alignment of several moving parts: body, arms, bow, bow-string, hand, arrow... and they're all moving).
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This is very true.
And somewhat problematic. For example, a well-designed trigger for and the addition of a pistol stock to a crossbow (instead of a period nut and rifle stock) might make it easier to shoot on the move, but if the rifle butt isn't shortened as well, it won't make it easier to hide.
I'm thinking that the best Bulk I can hope for with a usable crossbow is -3. That would be one with a pistol grip, no stock and a compact prod. It could be quite powerful (historical examples exist in 760lb versions) and require a cranequin or windlass of some sort to reload, but for a single shot assassination, it would be ideal.
I'm still not certain what the maximum Bulk would be for a handheld crossbow. The largest would have more than a 4' prod and a stock of similar size, perhaps a little longer. A stirrup was fitted in the front of the weapon to help draw it. The heaviest crossbows would weight around 20 lbs. Any thoughts?