Levers aren't built into light crossbows

Just something I found rather interesting and thought I'd share for those like me who didn't know about it. Light crossbows in real life could vary from hand cocked through belt cocked to a lever cocking. However the lever was with a few exceeptions not built into the crossbow itself but a seperate item you used. On the other hand the windlass styles could get up to 2000 lb draw or about 10 times an english longhow. However the bolts were shorter than arrows which caused a greater loss of accuracy at long range.

I highly recommend the Youtube channel Tod's Workshop for info about crossbows, including accurate replicas of historical ones and how to cock and shoot them.

The difference between bows and crossbows is exaggerated in most versions of the D&D game. Like for the katana, the longbow has a mystic quality for players that has little to do with reality.

I highly recommend the Youtube channel Tod's Workshop for info about crossbows, including accurate replicas of historical ones and how to cock and shoot them.

That was what I was watching when I found this out.

The difference between bows and crossbows is exaggerated in most versions of the D&D game. Like for the katana, the longbow has a mystic quality for players that has little to do with reality.

Oh there's a lot I don't agree with e.g. falchions are generally regarded as 1 handed while longswords are 2 historically but in the game that's flipped.

Nothing in the 'D&D family of games' bears more than a casual association with real historical items of the same name (Bucklers and Longswords being the classic examples, or hand crossbows even existing): Once a 'mistake' is made (often in a pre-internet era Wisconsin town), later editions tend to stick with the 'mistake' because players are likely to only be familiar with the game version and 'fixing' the item would just cause confusion...

Also note that some 'mistakes' are completely intentional in order to improve gameplay (such as the reload speed on muzzle-loading firearms being so quick, or not requiring crossbow users to have separate loading tools) or just fill a gap in itemization rather than doubling down on an already filled slot (the Kukri and Scimitar already fill the 'reduced damage but extra crit martial slashing weapon' slots for light and one-handed weapons in the core rules, so the fantasy falchion tends to be two-handed)...