Hi there!

Another question regarding basic rules So far I managed to keep drones to a minimum. But we recently started to use them more often in combat and I think we are not playing it correctly. I didn't find rules in the core book and rigger book for close combat rules against drones.

1. As I understand if a rigger controls the drone directly he uses: Ability (or reaction TN +2 as substitute) + Combat Pool (1/2 combat pool if using reaction) to attack
2. To evade incoming attacks control pool can be used against handling + modifiers
3. Special rules for incoming attacks : 1/2 power and reduce damage level.

Do the same rules apply for close combat when attacking / defending? Can a drone defend or only evade?
Probably the drone needs to be fit for h2h combat (arms / close combat weapons mounted) in order to make a counter attack roll. Otherwise we supposed it's considered full defense and same rules as above?

Thank you in advance for all the help!

We have a team in the arcology at the moment, encountering lots of Deus' drones, so this is currently an "issue" for us at the moment too.

One thing I would say is that even if the drone does not have arms / weapons mounted - effectively it IS a weapon. Have a look at the vehicle ramming rules, especially the vehicle-pedestrian collision stuff on P148 SR3. If a rigger is in control of a drone, even a stationary drone can be accelerated to a reasonably high "speed" in a single turn with a big handful of control dice, and having a drone the size of a motorbike ram you at 30m/s can still ruin your day.

We have currently split down into two styles though:
If the drone has arms or weapons mounted, as you say, then we go with a standard melee attacks, using either the drone pilot rating+programs / task pool dice, or, the rigger using skill or reaction +control pool - and run that as a standard melee tests. The drone gets its' vehicle armour damage stagedown of course (assuming it's sufficiently big - we normally go with vehicle Body 3 or higher, maybe 2 at a pinch (thinking Robot Wars type armoured drones) - but 0 and 1 just don't have enough structural integrity / armour to be able to count as that resilient.

If the drone does not have arms or weapons mounted, then it can try to dodge attacks using dice + pool as above, but counts as a full defence on incoming attacks, and generally either breaks off, or makes a Ram manoeuvre when it is active.

also something i wanna game sooner or later, but its still a few in game years till the shutdown. So the runers have time to gather some unique equipment connections and stuff first

Iam excited what the others will state. However one thing in your post made me curious. I *think* that when attacking riggers jacked into a drone may use combat pool for attacking and control prool for dodging incoming ranged attacks or cqb atttacks.

Page 154 SR3
"All affiliated drones (see Subscriber Lists, below) operate under primary or secondary mode. A rigger may operate only one drone in his or her network in primary mode. This mode enables the rigger to control the drone as if he or she were directly jacked into it. The rigger may use Combat and Control Pool dice when making tests for the drone, and receives all rigger bonuses for those tests."

So yes, if the rigger is jumped into the drone and directly controlling it, then combat and control pool dice galore! Just beware the dumpshock if the enemy do hit you and damage you...