I’ve begun reading over the 13th Age 2e playtest document. The new edition has improvements to the way encounters are built that address a number of long standing complaints, notably where party size impacts difficulty math: a long standing complaint with users of the app. From a user perspective, supporting things changes is a two-fold win, both staying current with the game, and in doing so addressing the biggest complaint about the tool.

The flip side is that while Manticore has seen improvements over the last few years, these have been to do with the data set and not the codebase. There are a lot antiquated dependancies in the project (notably at build time) that need to be remedied – never a fun proposition given the way the software supply chain tends to operate. Secondly, the project as it currently stands was my React trial balloon. While I don’t hate it, I don’t love it, and the version is woefully out of date. Something has to change here: either modernize the React code, or replace it with something else (probably just some vanilla JS). I don’t particularly want to spend my limited free time on any of this stuff.

As a result, I’m not yet sure whether Manticore will receive any further updates, but right now, I’m leaning toward not.