Ye Olde Inn

I've been bothered by the use of the crossbow in my games and I've read the threads on this forum for possible rule changes. There were several good ideas, but I really want to keep my HeroQuest games fairly simple, so any house rules have to fit the nature of the established game rules (i.e. no action points or other new attributes). Here are the problems I've encountered with the crossbow along with my solutions:

1) The hero using the crossbow switches to a sword for adjacent foes: Changing weapons counts as an action. I was thinking about allowing the crossbow to be used against an adjacent foe as this would will minimize the necessity of having switch weapons, but after reading other comments on this forum I think it make sense to leave this restriction in place for the crossbow.
2) Endless supply of crossbow bolts: I believe Daedalus proposed that a supply of 10 bolts should cost 100 gold coins. I think this is a great idea as the hero will need to be prudent about employing the crossbow (like casting spells) and tracking the bolts would be no more burdensome than tracking Body Points or treasure. I don't want to add rules about reusing bolts which I don't think is very feasible anyway. After the last bolt is spent, the hero will have to expend an action changing weapons...and hope this doesn't occur in a room full of monsters!
3) Picking off monsters at the other end of the corridor: The crossbow has an effective range of 10 spaces. This means it can be used at any monster in the same room but a monster in a corridor has to be within range.

I realize that many additional rules could be added to make crossbow usage even more realistic, but I think these will suffice in keeping a somewhat crude medieval weapon from becoming the equivalent of a blaster from Star Wars.

I always give ranged weapons a specific range, mostly for the far distance, not so much for the closeness (i.e. adjacent).
I have a problem with having to buy ammo for ranged weapons, because it is so cumbersome to keep track of. Even in
D&D you have to keep track of it, and man is it annoying. It would work, however, if we added in a set of cards that
the players could trade in a card when they use a bolt/arrow/stone/etc.

This, of course, would be even more cards to keep track of when being stored, but it would keep things simple and easy.

Having additonal cards for crossbow bolts sounds cumbersome to me. What's so hard about simply adding a tick mark to your character sheet for each bolt fired? Once you reach ten, the crossbow is out of commision for the remainder of the quest. It would make them think carefully instead of firing at everything within range. I enjoy it when the heroes have to plan their strategy before entering a room full of monsters. Hopefully Leeroy Jenkins isn't tagging along.

I use this houserule:
After each attack with any projectile weapon, roll one combat die:
Upon a black shield your munition supply is exhausted.
Afetr the quest you can buy munition for 50 gold and the fun goes on.
Of course, you may buy - and carry - up to three munition "portions".
After each black skull, one is gone in any case.

I love this simple rule, it's fun, that coincidence and luck factor.
And it keeps the heroes from shooting in every situation.

For the Crossbowman and certain Hero Classes (Assassin, Ranger) I assume they have enough munition for an entire quest to give them that extra edge they need.

No cards, no tick boxes needed, a lot of fun added.
The idea is not mine, however.

So if I roll a black shield on my first shot I'm done? It seems like luck shouldn't be a factor when dealing with a known quantity like how many arrow or bolts one is carrying.

I say it is cumbersome because, if the group is in a heated fight and having a lot of fun and laughing
and such, the player might now always remember to cross one off when he uses it, and the evil wizard
might not, either. And then, later, someone will think about it, and the big question comes up: Do we let
him use this one last shot, or did he use it already?

The same is true for casting spells in rules-systems that don't use cards. If you have a lot of spells, and your
in a big fight and having lots of fun, you might not think about crossing off a spell every so often.

And then, of course, you have those special little players that like to see what they can get away with, not
crossing off ammo or spells in order to use more than they should.

Okay, let's see some crossbow bolt cards. Whose got them?

You could give out a crossbow card and when it is fired you turn the card over and the weapon can not be loaded next round. At the end of the next round the card is turned back over.
As for ammo counting, create ammo counters they surender at each shot. Poker chips would work but a simple ammo card would be easy enough to design and print off a couple stacks. Issue say 12 arrows or bolts for every 50 gold. Allow for bolt recovery if they take an action to search corpses. Make them roll a combat dice and if it comes up a skull or black shield the arrow/bolt is toast and not functional any more. Chances are the arrow/bolt is ruined but it may have survived to be shot Another day. Once an enemy is shot place a spear trap marker under the mini. Once the arrow is searched for the arrow marker is removed in either case of it being usable or ruined. If not ruined the player gets an ammo counter if it is ruined it is removed from play.

The card or token idea sounds good, although honestly I don't think marking spent bolts on the character sheet is too much to expect. I don't care to add the reusable bolt idea. It's approaching a level of complexity I don't want to explore...and who wants to fish a crossbow bolt out of a dead orcs abdomen anyway?

I like the card. Exactly what I had in mind.