Since (nearly) no player used to have and use a crossbow I decided that the crossbow needed some "Power-Up" and consequently did some revisions on the rules.
However, I didn't want to make this changes to be as close to reality as possible. This would result in the fact that no player would ever use a crossbow for any other reason than for show.
Why ?, well, the best example is the crossbows rate of firing, which lies at approx. one shot for every ten shots with a bow. Under these circumstances, who would use a crossbow, if the only thing you get is a big disadvantage ?

Here come the new rules :

1. The crossbow's damage step includes the characters strength step, under the assumption that the character purchases a crossbow, which "fits" his strength step. On the other hand when a character "acquires" a crossbow, this crossbow may be of a lower total damage step as the character would normally have with such a type of crossbow.
   Vice versa this means that some characters may not be able to use a found crossbow properly, because the string is too hard to cock for them.
2. Crossbows have a maximum strength rating as well as the standard minimum strength rating, because, no matter how high your strength is, the maximum damage step is always limited by the crossbow's size.
3. When a characters strength attribute and corresponding strength step increase the crossbows damage step stays the same.
4. Crossbows are slow to fire, taking this into account, there is a new statistic for crossbows: Shots per Round, quite easy, 1/1 means one shot per round, loading, cocking, aiming and firing are all during the same round, 1/2 = 1st round load & cock; 2nd round aim & fire, and so on... (As noted above this assumption is totally unrealistic !)
5. Fastshot is a new knack, allowing characters with crossbows to increase their rate of fire.