James Ohlen Shifts From Archetype Entertainment Head to Creative Consultant for Tabletop RPGs at Wizards

James Ohlen is "shifting his focus" to tabletop RPGs once more after choosing to step down from Archetype Entertainment ahead of the studio's release of its first game Exodus. This week, Wizards of the Coast announced the move, with Ohlen leaving his post as lead of Archetype Entertainment and Blizzard veteran Paul Della Bitta stepping in to lead Wizards' Digital Ventures arm. Ohlen joined Wizards of the Coast back in 2019 to lead up Archetype Entertainment, a new internal games studio tasked with designing AAA games based on new IPs. Their first product, Exodus, is due out for release in 2027. According to a statement provided to GamesIndustry.biz, Ohlen felt that his work on Exodus was complete and that the final polishing and tuning were in "great hands" with the remaining team.

What's interesting about Ohlen's departure is that he will remain employed at Wizards as a creative consultant and that he is "shifting his creative focus" to TTRPGs. Shortly after departing Bioware, Ohlen launched Arcanum Worlds, a tabletop RPG studio publishing third-party 5E material. Ohlen developed a 5E-version of Exodus for Wizards and also released several DMs Guild supplements while employed with Wizards. Whether this means that Ohlen will have a bigger role on Dungeons & Dragons material in the future or if he'll continue to release his own brand of 5E material with a soft connection to Wizards remains to be seen.

 

[briggart]

Sadly the novel is pretty bad.

I actually gave up on it, which is not normal for me and Hamilton. I think the poor guy got given an absolute metric buttload of worldbuilding info and told to integrate it all, and struggled a bit because it wasn't his creation (despite a brave effort).

The worldbuilding is interesting but it's extremely dense and proper-noun-tastic. Be interesting to see if the videogame makes it a lot more digestible.

Agreed. For me, peak Hamilton was Pandora's Star/Judas unchained, and nothing of his I've read since engaged me to those levels, but this felt like a particularly low point. I'll probably get the Helium Sea anyway, because I really hate leaving a story unfinished, but I'm definitely not counting time until release.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

For me, peak Hamilton was Pandora's Star/Judas unchained

MorningLightMountain remains one of the greatest antagonists in SF I swear. Also probably one of the most frequently-referenced fictional characters between my wife and I lol.