What it does
A table for playing and a bench for building, in one free native Client; a perpetual Host License unlocks the server.
Game night
The bench is the table.
Real-time or turn-based
A classic initiative order, or real time with a round clock you can pause.
Grid or free-form
The grid is a snap-lens, not a cage. Drop tokens anywhere, snap to the grid when you want it, ignore it when you don't.
Dynamic lighting
Lighting, fog of war, and line-of-sight. Stays smooth on a big map full of tokens.
Between sessions
The bench is the workshop. What you build here is what you play there.
Build your own world
Build in 3D: terrain, walls, lighting, dungeons, props. Make it from scratch or drop in what you've got. It's yours.
Build at every scale
Hand-place every wall, or generate a dungeon in seconds. And the middle: build a corner your way, and the generator carries your style across the map. Sit down closer to ready.
Yours to mod
MIT plugin SDK in Rust, plus a sandboxed scripting engine for rules, macros, and triggers. Build systems, modules, themes, sell them or share them, I don't take a cut. Your work is yours.
And all the table stakes
Everything you'd expect: hex or square grids, tokens, drawing tools, fog of war, initiative, conditions, HP, dice, and UVTT import.
And you control the table
License hosting once
One perpetual license runs one active server. Alpha, beta, and retail licenses all keep their hosting rights; players join free.
Self-hosted, under your control
Runs on your own machine. Your maps and characters live on your hardware, not a cloud that can change its mind. Ordinary game traffic stays with your host.
Native, in Rust
One closed-source native client serves players, builders, and GMs. The licensed host package runs the server on a normal laptop or VPS.
Coming
What I'm building now: a full character creator, live character sheets that fit whatever system you're running, and faithful Pathfinder 2e combat with the full action economy. Then more official systems, D&D 5e (SRD), Black Flag, Cairn 2e, Ironsworn, and a generic system for homebrew.
LAN multiplayer already works. Play across the internet comes next, along with session replay and export built on the deterministic core.
One bench. Every table.
HexBench is in active development. Leave your email and I'll tell you when it opens.