METTLE Core is a set of powerful and adaptable rules to help you run your own modern action-adventure-themed Role-Playing Game (RPG). This is a social game where you and a group of friends pretend your way through a collaborative story. One person gets to play as the Guide, who comes up with fun scenarios, settles arguments, and plays Non-Player Characters (NPCs). The rest get to be Players, who explore the setting as their Characters like actors playing a role. The dice and rules serve to add risk, settle arguments, and inspire new events.
You can find METTLE Core at DriveThruRPG and Itch.io and now RPGTrader.
This Core game favors street-level tales of bravery, mystery, and intrigue. It is ideal for detective stories, crime dramas, B-movie mayhem, daring rescues, tense exploration, gritty post-apocalyptic survival, wild-west gunfights, Nazi-clobbering, low fantasy, and grounded science fiction. This focus on so-called “mundane” heroics caters to an often-overlooked style of play and lays down a solid framework for the underlying game system.
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Dice
METTLE Core relies on a handful of ordinary six-sided dice, their special use detailed in the Engine chapter. However, tables and such still use a regular read of the die faces. For example, “1d6”, “2d6”, etc. means roll that many six-sided dice (d6) and add them up.
Some tables use a D66 roll. To do this, roll 1d6 and then another 1d6, keeping them in the order rolled. For example, if the roll is a 3 and a 2, the result is 32.
Features
- Action and Adventure: embark on exhilarating adventures as bold heroes immersed in a world of fast-paced danger and captivating mysteries. Race against the clock, travel the globe, clash with formidable henchmen, unravel cunning traps, thwart the villain’s nefarious plot, outwit your scheming rival, and uncover priceless treasure – or die trying! Inspired by Indiana Jones, Treasure Island, James Bond, Tales of the Gold Monkey, Tin-Tin, Porco Rosso, and King Solomon’s Mines, to name but a few.
- Mortal Peril: Adventurers are exceptional souls – larger than life, but not superheroes. Their tale may end in wealth and glory or as a tattered corpse in the ruins. While they outmatch ordinary foes, the greater challenges they face demand their wits as well as might. Crutches like super-science and magic are suspicious tools of the enemy, if they exist at all.
- Hybrid Dice Pool: a novel dice pool keeps the number of dice low, allows for direct contests between abilities, and supports collaborative Twists and other fun stunts. Best of all, the intentional hackability of this ruleset leaves plenty of space for your own creative additions.
- Engaging Combat: Move? Attack? Talk trash? Rally back into action? You have a wealth of options. The unique Initiative system ensures everyone gets their time in the spotlight. Stay alert, because your chance to shine can come at any moment!
- Exciting Twists: players get a chance to weasel their way out of failure by asking the rest of the table for a dramatic Twist. These devil’s bargains come into play only when called for and after the attempt. This tool empowers players to add drama and shape events without becoming intrusive.
- Vivid Characters: Characters start with history, goals, and personalities. No need to ask, “But what’s my motivation” – it’s built right in to their stat line. Characters grow and transform as players recount their favorite highlights from past adventures.
- A Guiding Hand: brimming with advice and tools for the aspiring guide: thematic ideas for adventures, strategies to foster a sense of fun and excitement, and methods to avoid common pitfalls. Also includes a helpful sheet to keep track of the intricate dynamics between your party’s backer, villain, and rival.