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[[File:vhelsing.jpg|link=Van Helsing|frame|Because a regular bow really wouldn't be [[Rule of Cool|cool enough]].]]
'''Automatic Crossbows''' are crossbows that allow the user to shoot several times before having to reload, just like guns do. Many works of fiction are set in a time period when firearms are not available, and crossbows are the nearest equivalent. This is especially true in the fantasy genre, where [[Fantasy Gun Control]] is the default. However, crossbows tend to take a long time to reload, which can be frustrating for people used to the rapid action of modern gunfights. Sometimes in a work the urge to use some [[Guns and Gunplay Tropes]] is just too powerful. So the obvious solution to this dilemma is to give crossbows the ability to shoot an entire magazine of ammunition without having to reload. Not only they add [[Rule of Cool|instant awesome]], but they allow having [[More Dakka]].
There are several ways this might be accomplished. The most realistic options use mechanical means to produce repeating bows that are similar to [[Real Life]] [[wikipedia:Repeating crossbow|historical examples]]. Others might use [[Schizo-Tech]] or magic to accomplish this purposes. If it is the latter, the use of magically justified [[Bottomless Magazines]] might make the [[Automatic Crossbow]] even more powerful.
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** Automatic or multi-shot crossbows are alluded in at least ''[[Discworld/Men At Arms|Men At Arms]]'' and ''[[Discworld/The Last Continent|The Last Continent]]''. ''The Last Continent'' even used a crossbow to parody ''[[Army of Darkness]]''' famous [[This Is My Boomstick]] scene.
** Crossbows in ''[[Discworld/Night Watch|Night Watch]]'' carry a clip of several bolts, but the string still has to be pulled back.
** Lampshaded a bit in the end of ''[[Discworld/Guards! Guards!|Guards! Guards!]]''. The protagonists storm the palace to catch the villain, and when the gate is locked, Captain Vimes, drunk on authority and briefly forgetting he's only ''acting'' like Dirty Harry, orders Sergeant Colon to "[[Shoot Out the Lock|shoot it open!]]" Colon is not sure how he's supposed to accomplish that with a bow and arrow.
** In ''[[Discworld/Going Postal|Going Postal]]'', Moist, on several occasions, finds himself staring down the barrel of Miss Dearheart's... automatic crossbow, taking the place of the shotgun that a shopkeeper would normally have.
* [[David Gemmell]]'s anti-heroic assassin Waylander the Slayer used a weapon normally referred to as a "double crossbow" — effectively two small crossbows stuck one on top of the other, allowing two shots without reloading. The second shot often takes people by surprise, which is handy because he's a mediocre swordsman.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Dark Elves in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' use repeating crossbows as their standard ranged weapon. On top of that, both they and the High Elves have repeating Bolt Throwers (ballistas) as their primary war machines.
* ''[[Dungeons
** They do require a free hand to use the lever, though.
** They're closer to semi-automatic crossbows, really.
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== Video Games ==
* The Bowguns in the ''[[Monster Hunter]]'' series are functionally guns except that they have a self-drawing bow mechanism (the actual 'Bow' weapon type has to be drawn in a separate action before firing) and firing rate that is affected by ammo type.
* Edgar's Auto Crossbow tool in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''.
* Varric's crossbow [[I Call It Vera|Bianca]] in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' has a much, much faster rate of fire than any real crossbow, plus its double bow arms. However, it doesn't become truly automatic until Varric's attack speed is upgraded, though at that point Bianca is devastating.
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* ''[[Civilization]] IV'' has the Chinese Cho-Ku-Nu specialty unit. While not stronger then a normal crossbow, it has the added advantage of causing collateral damage to a stack of units.
** They return in ''V''. Here, the Cho-Ku-Nu is actually weaker than the normal crossbow, but can fire two times per turn.
* Similarly, in ''[[Age of Empires II]]'', the Chinese use Chu-Ko-Nus as their special unit. Despite having shorter range, it could fire several bolts at once.
** ''[[Age of Empires III]]'' has them too. Again, they're weaker than European crossbows, but they fire three times in rapid succession, they're cheap, and when you build them, you also get melee units to protect them. Even a small group of Chu-Ko-Nus is more than capable of [[More Dakka]], spraying the enemy with a constant hail of [[Annoying Arrows]].
* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' has miniature automatic crossbows that are loaded with box-shaped magazines of darts, and strapped to the back of the wrist.
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* The Sniper Crossbow in ''[[Will Rock]]'' can shot up to 6 [[Arrows on Fire]] in a row. The fire rate however is slightly slower than the usual Automatic Crossbow.
* Maybe with a little nod tuned [[Up to Eleven]] to the Chinese chu-ko-nu in the [[Real Life]] section below, ''[[Dynasty Warriors]] 7'' players have access to highly-accurate ballistas in some missions. Its [[Gatling Good|gatling goodness]] and [[Improbable Aiming Skills|never-miss accuracy]] make for some [[Curb Stomp Battle|easy army leveling]].
** Simliarly, the third ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' games introduces Motonari Mori, who uses one of these combined with ''[[Wolverine Claws]]''.
* A rapid-fire crossbow in one of [[Final Fantasy XII|Vaan's]] [[Multi Melee Master|(ma]][[Multi Ranged Master|ny)]] BRV attacks in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy|Duodecim 012]]''.
* ''[[Uncharted]] 2: Among Thieves''. They're not actually automatic, but DAMN are they good. Aside from the SAS-12, {{spoiler|they're basically the only weapon that can kill Guardians with less than eight million shots.}}
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* ''[[Minecraft]]'' takes this even further by having a fully-automatic ''longbow''. If you have enough arrows stored up, you can just point at a horde of enemies and mow them down like you're wielding a chaingun. And don't worry about wasting ammo; any arrows that missed their target can be gathered up and reused later.
** Except that this now doesn't work. Or, rather, it still works, if you want to do [[[[Scratch Damage]] Scratch Damage] to whatever's standing perhaps five feet away or so. However, still played semi-straight in that you can still load and shoot the Bow for much greater damage, farther, and more accurately in only one or two seconds. Much shorter than any [[[Real Life]] Real Life] longbow using similar technology would take to load.
* ''[[Dragon Saga]]'' implements this trope in an odd way. The crossbows of the Ranger classes fire ''slower'' than the huge bows used by their Hunter counterparts but deal more damage. They have the same firing rate in shared skills but discard the crossbow in their class-specific skills and switch to a ridiculous array of firearms and explosives.
* [[Diablo 3]] the Demon Hunter class can dual wield single shot hand crossbows like a pair of semi-auto pistols without ever apparently reloading, and the Rapid-fire skill is this trope
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* An artillery version was developed by the Roman Empire, while some Roman auxiliaries carried bullet-firing crossbows. However, the repeating variants were much weaker than the regular crossbows and it was necessary to tip the bolts with poison to make them more lethal.
** Those make a showing in [[David Drake]]'s ''Ranks of Bronze'', used by the defenders during a siege since they had the height advantage on their walls.
* The [[
** A large problem with the jamming turned out to be just how it was fired. With the right cranking technique it worked fairly well.
* This crossbow was one of the weapons improved upon on the Military Channel show ''Weapon Masters''. Chad made a pneumatic steel-framed crossbow that was deadly accurate and powerful at all ranges tested, and could quickly reload itself in seconds from a top-mounted magazine.
* When ''[[Scrapheap Challenge]]'' did an episode on repeater bows, they showed a full-size but down-powered model of an original Roman or Chinese (forget which) (Chinese, the design from the first entry dating back to 200 AD) design. It essentially had an ammo hopper on top which was gravity-fed, and a wheel on the side which pulled the string back once with each rotation. It could fire pretty much as fast as you could turn the wheel, getting through maybe 40 shots per minute.
** Historic repeating crossbows all had the same problem, they lacked the range and penetrating power of their slower firing brethren. Great for volume of fire, less then spectacular when it comes to precision marksmanship, long range target shooting, and armor penetration.
*** Which is why the bolts were often poisoned.
* The Polybolos described by Philo of Byzantium (but more often attributed originally to Dionysius of Alexandria) also counts.
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[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]
[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
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