As a teen I built a crossbow. Not a powerful, armor piercing, man killing crossbow, just a simple bow mounted on a handle that was spanned by me pulling the string back to the simple latch and securing the bolt atop its track. It worked. I could hit a target. It mostly hang on the wall, a testament to my interest in medieval warfare. Then I went to college and found the White Box.
As a staple missile weapon of the European middle ages, the crossbow makes its appearance in most fantasy role-playing games. The crossbow has the advantage of being easy to learn to use, especially to aim, fire and hit a target. As every student of medieval military history knows, the disadvantage of the crossbow, when compared to the self bow or composite re-curve bow, is its slow reload time. This slower rate of fire is reflected in many of the more detailed FRPG systems which give the crossbow a longer reload time than other bows, or even slings. The more powerful (heavy) crossbow, which often requires mechanical assistance in order to draw the bowstring, is even slower to reload. All this is true, unless you take a feat. Some systems (I'm looking at you Pathfinder) offer feats that defy common sense. Feats that in effect rewrite the rules for certain characters who possess them, effectively rewriting the laws of physics.
It's always a bit awkward talking about physics and reality when discussing a "fantasy" topic such as role-playing game rules. It's a game based on magic and imagination. But having said that, I like to be immersed in the shared fiction of the game - to momentarily suspend disbelief and experience the game "in the moment" as if it were real. Suspension of disbelief is what author's of film and fiction try to accomplish in order for the audience to enjoy the "story". Most of us in the hobby get this concept and appreciate its fragility.
The character abilities imparted by such feats frequently break the imagined reality of what is possible, what is believable. I am fully aware that for many this isn't an issue as feat abilities are no more unbelievable than magic spells and super hero powers like flight. Call it a limit to my imagination, but the in-game fact that it takes one character two turns to reload a crossbow while another character with the appropriate feats can reload the same mechanical device almost instantaneously - and shoot through hard cover (such as a wall) as if it didn't exist, breaks the verisimilitude for me and therefore lessens my enjoyment of the game.
The point of this post? I am on record as a fan of the old school of role-playing game design. Some folks might wonder why? With so many fine new games available today, why would anyone prefer an older system with older mechanics? My answer is that for some of us the older game is more fun, more believable and more relevant to our interpretation of how things might work.
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