Hexagonal Tiles

Features, Bugs, and Questions
#1

Users have asked for hex tiles a few times (including just last night) so I figured I’d start a thread about it.

I don’t have any immediate plans to add hex tiles to Shmeppy, but maybe long term I may play around with trying to add it. I’m not sure Shmeppy’s drawing tools would translate over to a hex grid very well though… it seems like it might look kinda weird.

It would help if ya’ll could share with me what you want to use hex maps for: region maps, hex-based game systems like GURPS, …?

As well as what you’re doing now to fulfill those needs, given that Shmeppy can’t do this yet.

2 Likes
#2

I’m okay with the squares, TBH.

1 Like
#3

I would much rather have the option of filling in half-squares (diagonals), as I think it is used much more commonly for things like dungeon exploration. I see Shmeppy as a tool to use when the fidelity of map layout is important, which is undermined by the lack of diagonals. If I was going to work with approximations of rooms I would just describe them, not use some virtual tabletop.

Then again I use Shmeppy for a few old school megadungeon games, in which mapping and the like are more important than they are in modern games, which are probably the majority of Shmeppy’s users.

1 Like
#4

Makes sense @Wizard.

Though Diagonals in Shmeppy are probably never coming unfortunately :/. I still don’t have any good ideas for how to do it.

Background images are the closest “increase fidelity” feature that’s been accepted I think.

1 Like
#5

Personally, I’d use hexes as a region map/tracking the party in a hex crawl. At the my moment my plan is to just use an out of game map to mark things.

1 Like
#6

The Fantasy Trip has had a recent re-release and, in my experience, has a very hungry audience. It is a a hex based fantasy game (also from SJ games). Because Hex Maps are not used in D&D, there isn’t a ton of support for Hex maps anywhere, so I would welcome a solid, simple solution. Messing around with your tool today, I don’t think there would be much more need than having the same feature set you already have. I would suggest some way to indicate facing (even just having a line splitting your circle tokens), as that is a common reason hex having games use hexes and is definitely part of the Gurps and Fantasy Trip ruleset.

1 Like
#7

Ronin on Shmeppy’s Discord shared some thinking on this (link):

One of the reasons I like hex grids is cause it makes making circular rooms a lot easier. In terms of my TTRPG, it allows for a better understanding of where a player/enemy is looking. Making it easier to know where line of sight is and what not. I think it also allows for a better grasp of what side of a pillar/tree or other slim structure a player is leaning against. In terms of the drawing tools, Edges could be used to cut through the hex making a straight line. Perhaps having the Edge tool section off the hex would allow for using the Fill tool to make one side of the hex a solid color while the other side is left empty or filled with a different color entirely.

1 Like
#8

I like hex grids, and tactical RPGs (4e, Lancer, PF2e) tend to work better with them, so long as the ability to create rectangles isn’t lost… I consider Dungeon Scrawl the gold standard of hex-snapping, for reference.

#9

i feel like in general it would be in the spirit of the design features to include a hex map. my first system was GURPS and still play it from time to time and my first wet erase map had hex on one side and square on the other. as far as programming goes, good luck, but i’d argue that at some point in the future shmeppy should have a hex feature.