Fighting in Drones is very rare and not usually encouraged. There's the occasional scuffle such as happens on Boat Race night when the traditional policeman's helmet is acquired or when Pingo Bottle was debagged and tied to the chandelier last Tuesday week.
Where combat is of the simple 'Do we succeed in overpowering the Policeman' variety a simple Opposed Vim & Vigour test can be employed using ten sided dice:
Pingo, his Uncle Archie and Buffy all leap on an unsuspecting Bobby and try to wrestle him to the ground. They total their Vim & Vigour ratings (1+1-1=1) and add the roll of a D10, getting a total of 7. The Bobby, unfortunately for our chums, is fit and healthy and his roll of 5 added to a Vim & Vigour of +3 gives him a total of 8 which is enough to narrowly defeat our trio of helmet-liberators.
If more detailed combat is required then the following method can be used. For each blow, opposed Vim & Vigour rolls are performed and the difference between multiplied by the factor appropriate for the weapons being used. This total is then subtracted from the both the losers Vim & Vigour and his Appearance.
Two taxi drivers, Bill and Fred, are having a punch up outside the Drones Club. Both are relatively sedentary chaps (Vim & Vigour 0) but Bill has a slight advantage as he used to box a little when he was younger.
Fred rolls a 7. Bill rolls a 5, adding +1 for his boxing experience for a total of 6. Fred has the higher total and has thus landed a blow. The difference between the rolls is 1 which multiplied by the factor for a fist (1/3) gives no damage at all.
Fred then rolls a 3 which Bill easily tops with an 8, his knowledge of boxing boosting that to 9. The difference of 6 means that the unfortunate Fred must lose 2 points from both his Vim & Vigour and his Appearance.
Fred is now angry and grabs a starting handle with which to attack Bill, his roll of 8 giving a total of 6 and reflecting his violence. Bill attempts discretion at this point but his roll of 4 (he is running away so his boxing is of little help) still leaves him within range of Fred's blow.
Fred's weapon has a multipiler of 1/1 so the unfortunate Bill must lose 2 points from both appearance and Vim.
| Handbag | 1/5 (one fifth) |
| Fist | 1/3 (one third) |
| Walking Stick | 1/3 (one third) |
| Wine Bottle | 1/2 (one half) |
| Truncheon | 1/2 (one half) |
| Umbrella | 1/2 (one half) |
| Rolling Pin | 1/2 (one half) |
| Cricket bat | 1/1 (one) |
| Crowbar | 1/1 (one) |
| Knife | 3/2 (one plus a half) |
| Sabre | 2/1 (two) |
| Shotgun | 5/1 (five) |
Recovering one point of Vim & Vigour takes a number of hours equal to the number of points the victim is down on his normal Vim. Thus if the unfortunate character's Vim & Vigour is down by 6 points then it will take 6 hours to recover that first point, 5 hours to recover the next etc. This is if the fight is a general scuffle, if either party is seriously injured then recovery may take a significant time.
The Drones front page | Character generation | Combat | Sample scenarios
Copyright Ian Crowther, Sheila Thomas, Victoria Uren 1995-1996