Crossbow

About the Crossbow

The crossbow persists on a thousand backworlds where powerpacks are scarce and a bolt can be carved from whatever the forest offers. Cocked and loaded, it delivers a punch out of all proportion to its primitive looks, driving a heavy quarrel through hide, plate, or an unwary sentry with a satisfying, silent thump. Hunters, poachers, and low-tech militias favor it for exactly that quiet: no muzzle flash, no energy signature, nothing for a scanner to catch. The reload is its penalty, slow enough that a crossbowman lives or dies by the placement of the first shot, but its range rivals many blasters and its ammunition costs almost nothing. Trandoshan trackers and frontier survivalists keep one for the same reasons their ancestors did. Against modern armies it is a curiosity; against a lone target in the dark, it remains as effective as it ever was.