Not many Casualties were killed in the play test. I can see how it's melee focused combat.
Crossbows allowed?
Yep! crossbow action features in the fourth playtest, which we recorded a couple weeks back. Pretty effective!
As far as casualty killing goes, those rules haven't changed from regular RM, so I haven't been focusing on casualties in playtesting. Plus since I'm leaning over toward more strict historical realism in my gameplay style, downplaying the casualty presence helps maintain that feel. Running RMBD without any zombies at all is going to be a valid option. Of course, the opposite is certainly true as well!