Earthdawn 4E: Rules Variant i - Crossbows

This is the immaginary Rules Variant, part of an ongoing series about Earthdawn Fourth Edition. Introduction and Index.

Everything contained here is the work of a fan and not associated with FASA Games.

Crossbows. I don't claim to understand why, but some people want them to be more complicated. Not necessarily realistic, just complicated. I won't go into why complicated doesn't mean realistic or how "realistic" in this context never offers verisimilitude to how crossbows function. This is like statements about the effective range of a longbow. Great, now how does that work in a tight corridor or when someone is moving and the arrow takes more than six seconds to reach the target?

Misundisirregardless, to help this out—no matter how misguided I may feel it is—I put together a formula to help with the process. Use your character's Strength Value for x, y is the base Damage Step for the crossbow size, and n for the number of actions it takes to reload the crossbow. This yields the final Damage Step for your character's crossbow.

trunc (DS,1) = (((x/3+2)) × (int(cos(z)/(e^(1/z)+1))dz|z=(-π/2) to z=π/2)) + (y × int(db/(d+√(b))|b=0 to ((√(e)-1)^2))) + n(e^iπ+1) × (int(√(ln(9-a))/(√(9-a) + (√(ln(a+3)))da)|a=2 to 4))

I wish everyone to have fun with this and good luck!