Drone Warfare in TTRPGs

I'm surprised with how relevant and devastating drone warfare is recently, that we haven't seen more tabletop RPGs doing models or even fantasy abstractions of it. The drone is an advancement beyond both soldiers and artillery that battlefields are still adapting to.

The Horror 

To even a casual viewer, the drone is horrifying on a battlefield. Soldiers often resort to staying stock-still - not because that is any escape, but probably because there is really nothing they can do. I am not sure how this compares to the awfulness of small arms combat or artillery, but it sure seems like a new and strange man-made horror and you have to question whether you want it in your games in the first place. It's a bit too real, too hopeless. What do you do if your players are decimated by exploding suicidal flying machines? What if your players just routinely barrage their foes with fleets of indefatigable airborne suicide bombers from afar? Where is the challenge either way?

 

Watch the video of many last moments at your discretion:

 

 

That said, there are games that already cater to this terrifying spectacle, and ways to adapt them to better portray this.

Sci-Fi RPG Instances 

• Shadowrun: Drones have been present ever since the first edition way back in the 80s, when the modern drones we see today were but a glimmer in the eye of defense contractors. This version called them "remotes" which had surveillance and combat functions, depending on the version. I played that version and practically no one ever took a drone. A later version of Shadowrun featured a rigger with drones as a quickstart character. I do not know if this was a particularly powerful loadout, someone more familiar with modern shadowrun would have to tell me.
• Eclipse Phase: In the games we played there were a lot of drones, but mercifully only as enemy surveillance. I do not know how we would have handled an onslaught of explosive drones. Like shadowrun, it certainly could happen in this setting, probably complicated - morally and effectively - by how sentient you make the drone.

Fantasy Metaphor

Imagine a magic-user who could summon drones of the modern age with a wave of their hand. Cue groans from the table and rolling of eyes. The gun-mage is a cute meme but grating to players who came for fantasy, moreso the drone mage. When we play fantasy we abstract the terrors of the modern world into lightly disguised magical contrivances. Look for things that are disposable, controllable, long-ranged, and lethal.

• Familiars: these can go as far as they like, and have a telepathic connection to their master. Magic-users often use their beloved airborne familiars for reconnaissance but not as suicide bombs, mercifully. Your gaming group may differ but as awful as some of mine have been they never did that.
• Summons: disappear after the spell ends and can travel long distances before it does, and can be quite lethal. They fit the bill for the most part but are not directly controllable once they are out of sight.

 An ideal fantasy drone would be disposable and lethal like a summon but directly linked to the owner's senses like a familiar. I am not sure if any such thing exists in the game, could be wrong.

 

Drone show of a witch or wizard, Durham festival

 

 

Providing a Modicum of Challenge

There must be some countermeasure. Aside from directly shooting at them, troops on either side resort to things like netting to tangle rotors, cages to distance equipment from the explosion, and electromagnetic devices to deactivate them. These are direct translations in sci-fi games but fantasy games are limited to dispels and jury-rigged nets and cages. One things a fantasy game with endemic drone enemies could do is create a class or school of magic that is dedicated to magical drone warfare, both offense and defense. Would it be interesting to play? Who knows.