Board Thread:Suggestions/@comment-24458157-20151220211531/@comment-24108228-20151221125234

Explosive powered crossbows never existed, the shape of a musket or cannon is just much more ideal for containing explosions. If you were to use enough gunpowder to fire a bolt any reasonable distance, you'd end up blowing up the frame. The Arbalest was just a large crossbow with steel limbs.

Nonetheless, I am very fond of using gunpowder as part of ammunition in a weapon, namely because so many more islands could host tribes if you allowed them to use their gunpowder as defence. I think this could work if you replaced this with say, an arquebus, which is the earliest gun I could find that wasn't just a hand cannon, but then you reach issues with balance and all that.

What's to make this different from the other ranged weapons? This is just an upgraded crossbow, sure it's more expensive to upkeep, but it doesn't cost any of the end-game metals, and it's presumably got the same amount of power. We've essentially just made another mithril alternative, which is another step down the road of power creep.

I'd like to support this, but I can't see any way of implementing it properly.