Repeating Crossbow

About the Repeating Crossbow

Blaster technology never reached every corner of the galaxy, and where it hasn't, weapons like the repeating crossbow fill the gap with mechanical ingenuity. A magazine of bolts feeds automatically as the wielder works the action, letting a shooter loose several piercing quarrels in the time a single-shot bow would manage one. It is quiet, it needs no power cell, and its ammunition can be scavenged, whittled, or forged by a village smith, which makes it the arm of choice for isolated worlds and resource-starved insurgencies. The light frame keeps it quick to bring on target, though the modest draw means each bolt bites more than it batters. Against unarmored foes and in the hands of a patient shooter it is deadly enough, and its silence keeps its user hidden long after a blaster would have drawn the whole garrison down.