https://barryleewentz.itch.io/the-road-to-blackstone-primer-to-hollow-below
On the Road to Blackstone — A Mettle 2d6™ Primer
Forty-six years ago, when I was eleven, I played my first game of D&D.
The Game Master was a friend of a friend — an older teenager who seemed much cooler than anyone I knew. After that first introduction, I never managed to make contact with him again.
So I spent the rest of that summer trying to make my own solo version of D&D.
I had graph paper. I had imagination. But the only dice I owned were borrowed from the family Monopoly box: a pair of six-sided dice.
That childhood desire — to build a tabletop roleplaying game that could run on two six-sided dice and be played by one person — eventually became Mettle 2d6™.
On the Road to Blackstone is a short primer for the Mettle 2d6 system and an introduction to the upcoming one-shot adventure, The Hollow Below.
It is designed to teach the core ideas quickly:
Use two different colored six-sided dice.
Designate one die for Location and one die for Severity.
When you roll, you immediately learn where the blow lands and how serious the result is. Combat is fast, dangerous, and narrative by design.
The primer is slightly streamlined, but still asks players to make meaningful choices. Mettle is both your endurance and your edge. Spend it to survive. Risk it to win.
Each player character begins with 8 Mettle. Each archetype has its own Mettle power and doubles ability. Foes have their own Mettle starting amounts and quirks, giving them simple but dangerous attack abilities.
The goal is fast play, minimal rolls, deadly combat, and strong story results built directly into the dice.
I’d love for you to try On the Road to Blackstone and let me know what you think.
The full one-shot adventure, The Hollow Below, along with all four archetypal characters, will be posted later next month.
Thanks for taking a look.
— Barry