Renegade Announces It Will Publish Exodus Roleplaying Game in 2026

The Exodus Roleplaying Game, an RPG based on the upcoming Exodus video game developed by Wizards of the Coast's Archetype Entertainment, will be published by Renegade Game Studios this year. Renegade announced the plans today at GAMA Expo, with Renegade initially publishing the Exodus Traveler's Handbook and the Creature Catalog for the RPG in August. From the sounds of the press release, Renegade has plans to further the Exodus line of RPGs, similar to its Vampire: The Masquerade and World of Darkness lines. The Exodus RPG is a sci-fi game that uses 5E as its underlying engine.

Exodus was developed by James Ohlen, who was the lead of Archetype Entertainment until earlier this year. After leaving Bioware (where he was the lead designer for Baldur's Gate among other games), he founded Arcanum Worlds, an RPG studio that developed several 5E supplements. Ohlen also developed the Exodus Roleplaying Game, where it was released to a select group of Exodus early adopters.

What's notable about the announcement is that Wizards of the Coast is working with another company to produce and publish the Exodus game. The Exodus RPG's rollout has been a bit odd, with no fanfare outside of a few posts on Archetype Entertainment's social media and website. Exodus doesn't come out until 2027, so the timing is a bit odd, but at least Renegade's partnership with Wizards of the Coast guarantees a wider release for the game.

 

[sevenbastard]

Feels weird WOTC doesn't want to make this themselves and just wants to stick to one RPG.

As a kid in the 80s I was super likely to buy a TSR game due to brand recognition.

Even in the early 2000s I picked up D20 Modern and D20 CoC by WOTC even if I never played them.

 

[BovineofWar]

Definitely weird, but this is a continuing weird decision as opposed to a new one. I believe Renegade already publishes the Transformers and GI Joe TTRPGs for Hasbro as well?

Hoping this gets a bit more of a marketing push when the video game is almost released.

 

[Sketchpad]

Feels weird WOTC doesn't want to make this themselves and just wants to stick to one RPG.

As a kid in the 80s I was super likely to buy a TSR game due to brand recognition.

Even in the early 2000s I picked up D20 Modern and D20 CoC by WOTC even if I never played them.

Completely agree. It's disappointing that we've never truly saw a successor to Star Frontiers, and that Gamma World's products ended up as mediocre experiments.

 

[Reynard]

I continue to be surprised at just how deeply risk averse WotC seems to be with regards to RPGs and D&D -- especially since the big swings they are taking with MtG seem to be paying off. D&D is more popular than it has ever been with a huge cultural footprint and use base. You would think they would leverage that.

 

[Dire Bare]

It is a bit weird, how Hasbro is licensing a TON of properties to Renegade for all sorts of tabletop games (rpgs, cards, board, minis), but Renegade has been knocking it out of the park on everything so far (IMO), I'm excited for their take on Exodus!

At this point, the majority of Renegade's output is Hasbro licensed properties! (I think)

I've got the current Exodus books and while the game design is a bit rough around the edges, it's shaping up to be a fun tabletop and computer RPG. I'm excited for Renegade's take later this year, and I'm excited for the video game.

 

[Reynard]

It is a bit weird, how Hasbro is licensing a TON of properties to Renegade for all sorts of tabletop games (rpgs, cards, board, minis), but Renegade has been knocking it out of the park on everything so far (IMO), I'm excited for their take on Exodus!

At this point, the majority of Renegade's output is Hasbro licensed properties! (I think)

I've got the current Exodus books and while the game design is a bit rough around the edges, it's shaping up to be a fun tabletop and computer RPG. I'm excited for Renegade's take later this year, and I'm excited for the video game.

So is this a new edition of the game that went to backers?

 

[timbannock]

I continue to be surprised at just how deeply risk averse WotC seems to be with regards to RPGs and D&D -- especially since the big swings they are taking with MtG seem to be paying off. D&D is more popular than it has ever been with a huge cultural footprint and use base. You would think they would leverage that.

Their marketing has never made sense to me, since basically 3.5 days. They have some great people, but it's like they just don't know their audience or want to really talk to that audience much, despite years and years of market research, convention appearances, and all this other stuff that would make you think they'd have mastered that stuff decades ago.

 

[Reynard]

I have actually kind of dismissed the Renegade Hasbro games. Are they actually good?

 

[michaeljpastor]

IIRC, the statement of Ohlen's departure from the videogame development was that it was for him to concentrate of the development of the RPG.