More thoughts on bows and crossbows.
So, there's a YouTube channel (isn't there always) for
an English fellow who makes crossbows. In one of his videos, he compared a modern crossbow and compound bow to a 95-lb longbow and 850-lb crossbow. The longbow produced only 39 joules of energy (which was noted as being low and possibly an indicator that the bow was tired from disuse), the modern bow 71 joules, the steel crossbow 101 joules and the modern crossbow 129 joules.
Under original WTH rules, the longbow would be Dam 0.4, the modern bow 0.6, the 850-lb crossbow 0.7, and the modern crossbow 0.8. With my revision to divide by 5 instead of 15, they're 1.2, 1.7, 2.0, and 2.3 respectively. Dam 2 for an 850-pound draw crossbow still feels a little light to me, but if I use the size of the crossbow (0.7 meters) and the tables from WTH rather than its calculated energy from actual shooting, it calculates to Dam 2.51 with a required STR of 11 and Rng 38.
Also note that a windlass isn't required until 500 joules of shaft energy, and another video of a ~1000 pound draw crossbow only generated 110 joules of shaft energy, so someone made a major error somewhere in their calculation; even just looking at the energy table in the book, you'd need a 3.3 meter long steel bow to require a windlass! For a minor revision, I would drop the windlass requirement by a factor of 10, to 50 joules. For a more major revision, base it on STR rather than energy. A character can span a bow with a STR requirement equal to or less than their STR with no mechanical advantage. With a cocking lever, they can span a bow up to double their STR, and a windlass lets them span any bow. Reload is 2/3/5 respectively based on the spanning equipment needed.
Likewise, the Penetration calculation is that a projectile of 600 joules or more has Pen 1-Nil and anything less is Pen Nil, which would require a 4 meter steel bow. I would drop that by the same factor of 10, to 60 joules.
(honestly, the more I look at the bow rules the more they're a hot mess, but they at least give a starting point to tweak into a reasonable facsimile of plausibility)