HEXROLL 2E Roadmap - the path ahead

Greetings Brave Adventurers,

It has been over a year since I started working on 2E and today I feel privileged to be a part of our amazing community. You play the game using a variety of systems and in different and interesting ways. This places me in a unique position to learn from everyone, get energized by everyone and continue developing and making HEXROLL better.

2E will likely stay in BETA until mid-June. I will use this time to incrementally introduce additional features, while trying to maintain a stable, reliable and bug-free service.

Thanks to your latest poll responses, I have a good idea about what you want to see added so I can prioritize my work better; but I do plan to make progress on all tracks.

The Roadmap

Note: the (+) (++) (+++) notation indicate the level complexity or effort needed

Sandbox Engine

----- 2E Work Started -----

• ☑ Re-implement SCROLL and PIXIEDUST (+++)
• ☑ Allow re-rolling entities (+++)
• ☑ Scroll-based realm generator (+++)
• ☑ Interactive maps & basic mapping tools (+++)
• ☑ Color Saturation Control / Labels visibility (+)

----- ALPHA stage -----

• ☑ Hexroll Backpack - offline viewing mode (+++)
• ☑ Map settlement locations (+)
• ☑ Cave Maps (++)
• ☑ Page content editing (as static text) (++)
• ☑ Checkmarkable hit points for encounters (+)
• ☑ Meaningful bookmarkable pages (+)
• ☑ Multi-user VTT maps projection with referee controlled FoW (++)

----- BETA stage -----

• ☐ Solo mode with hidden spoilers and default fog-of-war (++)
• ☐ Additional VTT tools, capabilities and supported maps?  (++)
• ☐ Sandbox customization - external generator modules to plug-in more content (++)
• ☐ Additional basic map editing tools and content manipulation (+)
• ☐ West Marches mode -  multiple parties in the same sandbox (+)
• ☐ Hex map user annotations / additional symbology (+)
• ☐ Export maps / player handouts (+)

----- Official Release -----

• ☐ Additional hex map theme/s (+)
• ☐ Export sandbox as PDF? or HTML (++)
• ☐ Add monster lairs, more dungeon map variations and generation controls (++)
• ☐ LLM (ChatGPT, Bard) and Dall-E support - generate prompts to create extended content (+)
• ☐ Creator-tier tools? - ability to clone and distribute copies of your sandbox (+)
• ☐ Publisher-tier tools? - get [your-system].hexroll.app (+)

Content

----- 2E Work Started -----

• ☑ Migrate HEXROLL 1E model to SCROLL (+++)
• ☑ Use a treasure multiplier throughout the sandbox (+)

----- ALPHA stage -----

• ☑ Add jungle, swamp, tundra and marine regions and content (+)
• ☑ Additional ruler details, factions and realm related content (+)
• ☑ Improved NPCs references (add first names, use the same last name, etc) (+)
• ☑ More inns & taverns content (+)
• ☑ Additional hex features: caravan camps, ancient artifacts, arenas and graveyards.
• ☑ Additional dungeon feature descriptions (+)
• ☑ Weather and environmental situations (blizzards, fires, etc) (+)

----- BETA stage -----

• ☐ Improved formatting and detectability (+)
• ☐ Sandbox Table of Contents & Breakglass (+)
• ☐ Additional VTT tokens (+)
• ☐ Content modules: Alchemy, Herbalism and Rituals (+)
• ☐ Sandbox calendar with moon phases, festivities, rituals or NPC-related events (+)
• ☐ More city content - guilds, shops, items, additional NPCs and related plot hooks (+)
• ☐ Additional dungeons and wilderness encounters with more details (+)

Systems

----- Work Started -----

• ☑ OSR!

----- BETA stage -----

• ☐ 5E? (++)
• ☐ Shadowdark? (++)
• ☐ Savage Worlds?

----- Official Release -----

• ☐ Cairn?
• ☐ Knave?
• ☐ Tunnels & Trolls?
• ☐ Dragonbane?
• ☐ EoF 2E?

Service

• ☐ Additional sandbox management tools for subscribers (+)

That's the plan, give or take. Do let me know if I left something big out. My actual backlog is longer and the roadmap reflects most of it, but not all of it. I note all feature requests or suggestions you make and I keep them on my list.

The dynamic nature of how I work means that this plan is not set in stone. There will be other features that will get my attention as well as technical preconditions that might dictate a slightly different progression.

The path is drawn and the plan is made! Happy 2024 and let's enjoy the crawl together.

- Ithai