https://barryleewentz.itch.io/mettle-2d6-delvers-core-rules-reference-characters
Mettle 2d6™ Delvers Core Rules & Characters Released
The Mettle 2d6™ Delvers — Core Rules & Characters packet is now available.
This is the player-facing rules set for grim, printer-friendly folk-horror adventures using only two six-sided dice.
Inside the packet you’ll find:
- the core Delvers rules
- skill checks
- melee combat
- hit location and severity
- Mettle, Marks, and Burn Mettle
- conditions
- foe types
- boss weakness rules
- four ready-to-play Delver archetypes:
- Wyrd
- Bord
- Queller
- Troth
The goal was to make a rules packet that is fast to learn, easy to print, and immediately playable with adventures like The Hollow Below.
What Makes Delvers Different?
Mettle is not just health.
Mettle is endurance, grit, determination, pain tolerance, and fighting spirit. You spend it to activate powers, survive terrible situations, and push past your limits.
When you spend Mettle, you gain Marks. Marks let your Delver grow stronger by gaining skills, powers, and traits.
But when your Mettle falls to zero, you Burn Mettle.
You survive, but you are changed forever.
A scar. A fear. A lasting weakness. A strange mark from the deep.
Your Maximum Mettle is reduced by 1.
That means Delvers can become more capable over time, but also more worn down by what they survive.
Built for The Hollow Below
This rules packet was built alongside The Hollow Below, a complete folk-horror mine adventure for 1–4 players, with or without a Game Manager.
The Hollow Below sends Delvers into Blackstone Hill, where miners vanished, livestock disappeared, and a child named Ezra has gone missing beneath the old mine.
The rules and adventure are designed to work together:
- light rules
- meaningful tactical choices
- dangerous foes
- fast combat
- printable black-and-white pages
- grim consequences
- no wasted table time
Printer-Friendly Design
Every page is designed for home printing in black and white.
The visual goal is simple:
Useful. Old. Fearful. Playable.
The rules should stay on the table. The character sheets should carry the marks of play. The adventure pages should guide discovery without requiring constant page flipping.
Thank You
This release represents a lot of design, testing, rebuilding, and refinement.
The system is small, but it has teeth.
Stand firm. Strike hard. Endure. Survive together. Delve deeper.