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.

 

[Kilimanjaro]

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

I regularly play Heroscape. It's fun and pretty well balanced with the old figures.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

This makes since to me. TSR and Wizard's have tried multiple times to produce non-D&D RPGs that would justify the opportunity cost of diverting resources away from D&D, and it never works out in the long run. They've just stopped running toward the football, just for the market to pull it away.

 

[Mark Craddock]

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.

It goes beyond WotC too, numerous other toy companies are making lines with Hasbro IP.

 

[Reynard]

I regularly play Heroscape. It's fun and pretty well balanced with the old figures.

Sorry, I was not specific: I was talking about the TTRPGs.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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.

Mediocre only in sales! The 4e era Gamma World is frippin awesome!

 

[vecna00]

Whelp, I was correct about more Exodus TTRPG stuff releasing this year, just wrong about who was releasing it!

 

[Von Ether]

Yeah, this sort of reminds me of how Edge Studios is the ttrpg arm of anything Asmodee, especially from former Fantasy Flight IPs. By outsourcing all the non-D&D ttrpgs, they don't get judged by the same expectations and numbers as they do with D&D.

I cynically assume this is because full time Hasbro D&D employees get paid top tier* (for the ttrpg space) and probably live in Seattle while most of the Renegade team gets paid much less.

*I understand that some of the D&D team gets paid six-figures and high five figures, but have no idea how deep that goes down the chain of command. And I don't how much Hasbro justifies that for living in Seattle. This purely speculation and contains no hills I am willing to die on.

 

[Von Ether]

Mediocre only in sales! The 4e era Gamma World is frippin awesome!

Was that the funky one with the collectable cards? I thought it was fun and great for one-shots, which it seemed engineered to do. I use the cardboard tokens for sci-fi games to this day.

 

[sevenbastard]

Mediocre only in sales! The 4e era Gamma World is frippin awesome!

Ive heard that. I feel like by the time it came out i was already done with 4e as a system and my confidence in WOTC was at a all time low.

 

[Sketchpad]

Mediocre only in sales! The 4e era Gamma World is frippin awesome!

It was okay. I have the box set and one of the expansions. Ran a few sessions, but I think it missed some of the fun of older Gamma World sets and modules. Too gimmicky at points. I really wanted a good d20-based Gamma World, but the results were pretty mid and mixed.