Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

Greetings, all!

What are the reasonable scaling guidelines for making bigger crossbows - solely for the purpose of increasing MinST, and thus also increasing the Maximum ST that can be set on the bow. Does doubling weight and cost fit for doubling MinST and decreasin Bulk by 2?

And how do I figure how much heavier can I make my ammunition without sacrificing too much range?

I'm trying to build a custom mini-ballista for one of the PCs in the Celestial Ocean.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

Maybe base it on Scorpion (very strong man could use it as crossbow)

Re: Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

Actually, it's the other way around:

I don't want a full-on Scorpion, because the PC can't afford one, so asked for a 500-coin-worth version of a crossbow.

Besides, we don't need to keep it mobile. It's intended to be used with Artillery, or Gunner at most.

Re: Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

Custom made stuff is always more expensive from "of the shelf".

Make it low quality Scorpion = cuts price down.
Or small version of Scorpion(they come in variety of sizes,not just as single example in book)...cut down stats...
With Crossbow stats and Scorpion stats it shouldnt be 2 hard to gauge new stats/performance.

Re: Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

I think it would have to be Gunner for your purposes. Artillery is for indirect fire.

Re: Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

It's most likely that it will be used to fire over city walls (it'll be set up near one).

Re: Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

A single big crossbow firing unobserved indirect fire? Interesting.

Re: Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

Not my idea.

Anyway, the ammo is gonna be incendiary. Which is still dubious, especially since it stands next to a battery of TL1+2 rockets . . .

Re: Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

The easiest solution would just be to give the weapon whatever ST you found appropriate (30, maybe?) and then calculated damage based on what a crossbow of that ST would do, and adjusted weight and cost to taste. Lowering Accuracy by a point or two might be a good idea, since bigger bows were probably built to looser tolerances.

It'd be a fair bet that the reload for a three- or four-person team would take around 20 seconds, doubling to 40 if they're missing a guy and tripling to 80 if there's only a single person to work the whole apparatus.

My hazy guess:

Big Honkin' Crossbow:
Damge: 4d imp, acc: 3 weight: lots Range: 600/750, shots: 1(20), cost: $600

Re: Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

I offer two options: I go dig out Guns, Guns, Guns and stat one up, or I dig out GURPS: Vehicles and stat one up for you. Lemme know which one you'd like. I can probably have it for you by sunday at the earliest.

Re: Making Custom - BIG but cheap - Crossbows . . .
 

This reminded me of a PBS program called Leonardo's Dream Machines, where a team of engineers tried to build a 70-foot crossbow and a giant glider designed by Da Vinci to see if they could actually work.

(I can't find much of anything on their website about the show other than that link to buy the DVD.)