01-09-2019, 11:29 PM | #11 | |||
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: The plutonium rich regions of Washington State
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Re: A case for crossbows for the Urban Fantasy Vigilante
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My understanding is that this is fairly typical of most of the United States - although the rules for open carry can vary quite a bit from state to state. Now if you are setting your game in another country, things could be quite a bit different. (Note that Washington State is not the same place as the other Washington, the city in the District of Columbia (D.C.) where the federal government has its capital.) * Except for fully automatic firearms and certain other guns like short-barreled shotguns, rifles of more than .50 caliber, and a few other weapons restricted by the federal government. Quote:
In Washington, crossbows only became legal to use for hunting within the last couple of years. In other states, they may not be legal for hunting. Bows have always been legal for hunting in Washington and, I suspect, everywhere else as well. In general, it is illegal for hunters in the U.S. to sell the meat of the animals they kill. They can give it away as gifts if they want, but selling for money is right out. Quote:
A quick look at a jewelry catalogue showed that I could order silver beads with nearly the same diameter as 00 buckshot (if you don't mind them being pierced by a small hole intended for a necklace string). With a shotgun shell loading kit, I could make a batch of silver buckshot for fighting off werewolves and such. It wouldn't have quite as much penetration as lead buckshot - silver is only about 2/3 as dense - but you would still likely have enough oomph to reach the innards of a werewolf (#2 buck is often recommended for home defense). Wooden bullets would be more difficult. With wood for your bullet, you really won't have the sectional density to get much penetration - I'd guess you would have difficulty getting the bullet to penetrate to the heart, and if it did, you would have issues with over-penetration. The best idea I came up with is a shell with the powder and wad, and then ram a dowel down the barrel from the muzzle that fits into the shell. It would require some good engineering to get it to fly straight, but if you can do that you should be able to impale your vampires. Luke |
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01-10-2019, 01:02 AM | #12 |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: A case for crossbows for the Urban Fantasy Vigilante
I can see characters using crossbows in the place of guns.
Maybe they live somewhere that's not the US and obtaining a crossbow is easier than obtaining firearms. Maybe the character is a reformed felon or his belief in the supernatural has resulted in him being treated as mentally ill. In that case, he might be legally barred from obtaining firearms, but crossbows may not be subject to the same controls where he lives. Yes, vigilantes are already breaking the law and so should be willing to carry whatever weapons they can obtain, but just because someone knows about the supernatural, it doesn't necessarily make them streetwise or knowledgable about how to acquire firearms illegally. Aside from better suppression, crossbows are in every way inferior weapons to the right firearm for the job. But you can be a monster hunting vigilante without always having the best tool for the job.
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01-10-2019, 06:02 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: A case for crossbows for the Urban Fantasy Vigilante
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There are other rules and restrictions, but that's enough to give you the flavor. (There's a requirement for passing a training class just to give you a chance to keep up with all the other requirements.) You can't assume that crossbows are "no LC" or LC 4 just because they're not guns. If you're going for realism, then look up the laws for your locale. (Iif Supernatural with the roaming Winchester brothers is your model, then you're going to need to look up a lot of laws, as they change from place to place, and there's no Federal "interstate commerce" exception to protect you from violating some ordinance in some random town you drive through on the way to your mission). If the setting is fictional, then of course you get to make up the laws as you see fit. But it's quite possible that if weapons are regulated, crossbows get almost as much attention as guns. It's probably simpler to ignore the inconvenient legal details (unless it's a Law and Order: Urban Fantasy Unit game) but then you can't really use that as a basis for preferring crossbows. If it's Rule of Cool, then that suffices. Uneven attention to pesky realistic detail (lots of interfere from gun laws, while crossbow laws are overlooked) will push non-cooperative players in the desired direction -- but then, you shouldn't have any non-cooperative players, because everyone already agreed to the setting assumptions in Session Zero. Rifling marks aren't unique to guns and bullets. Tool marks from and on objects of all sorts are commonly used as evidence, without a need for them to be anywhere near as unique as a fingerprint. If being fired from a crossbow can scratch paint or fiberglass, or dent wood or aluminum in the bolt, they can be matched to some degree. The relative rarity of crossbows likely means that standards for false positives will actually be lower. (If crossbows are unusual, then the fact that the murder weapon matches yours even weakly is more significant. After all, the prosecutor only has to convince a jury...) |
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01-10-2019, 06:25 AM | #14 |
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Re: A case for crossbows for the Urban Fantasy Vigilante
Yeah, I imagine quite a bit of hassle from cops. Open-carry crossbow for self-defense isn’t a thing (socially, even if it’s legal, just like open-carry rifle in Texas), and unless it’s crossbow season, “hunting deer” isn’t an excuse in rural settings. There are a lot of places where open or concealed carry pistols aren’t given a second glance, but a crossbow (especially nocked) would attract as many 911 calls as a rifle, just because it’s unusual.
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01-10-2019, 08:44 AM | #15 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: A case for crossbows for the Urban Fantasy Vigilante
A "wrist rocket" will give hand guns a run for their money. Can use almost anything for ammo too.
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01-10-2019, 01:24 PM | #16 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Denver, CO
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Re: A case for crossbows for the Urban Fantasy Vigilante
I imagine that, in the US, the amount of hassle one would get from the police would be highly variable.
I expect most officers would know laws about guns, knives, swords, and probably brass knuckles, slingshots, and nun-chucks off the top of their heads. But bows and crossbows? I expect a non-trivial portion would have to call in to find out. Though, if there is a rash of unsolved crossbow-related crime, they will get up to speed quickly. Regardless, individual officers would have some latitude. If the PC can come off as reasonable and have a decent cover story, they may well get off with a warning repeatedly. Each cop may think they have reminded an otherwise reasonable person that they can't walk around with a crossbow. It may be quite some time before they even compare notes enough to realize this person has had several run-ins. A lot of this will depend upon attitude and situation. Is the cop bigoted? What time of day is it? Has a crime happened nearby? Is the force on edge for some reason? etc. |
01-10-2019, 01:27 PM | #17 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: A case for crossbows for the Urban Fantasy Vigilante
I would really not expect them to actually know, as opposed to being pretty sure they can make something stick and won't get in trouble if they're wrong about that.
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01-10-2019, 02:18 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
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Re: A case for crossbows for the Urban Fantasy Vigilante
High tech changes a lot of the limitations of the crossbow and it remains a very good weapon. Compound bows or High Tech crossbows do a nice amount of damage. In a high TL game I had a crossbow archer that had an electric motor that cocked his bow with enough strength to cut the reloading time down to a second. It wasn't quiet but it was terrifying.
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01-10-2019, 05:44 PM | #19 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: A case for crossbows for the Urban Fantasy Vigilante
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As for the OP's question, it depends on where the game is set. Just having a lower legal class for crossbows, even lower than real life if you like makes them far more common. They are also quiet enough not to cause hearing loss or alert law enforcement which is a plus. The US however will be awash in guns and ammo which are far more effective and unless its an alternate world where gun laws were made more draconian many decades ago which would make it a rather unrecognizable |
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01-10-2019, 07:09 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: A case for crossbows for the Urban Fantasy Vigilante
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