A video game division of Wizards of the Coast has announced plans to release a new tabletop RPG focused on the new IP Exodus instead of Dungeons and Dragons. Wizards of the Coast is best known as a tabletop game developer and leader in the collectible card game and tabletop RPG industries. Although it actively publishes and develops Magic: The Reunion and Dungeons and DragonsWizards also has several video game studios under its umbrella as a result of its parent company Hasbro’s desire to progress the industry, including a science fiction video game called Exodus.
Now, Exodus developer Archetype Entertainment announced that it will also publish a tabletop RPG called Exodus Traveler’s Handbookas detailed in the official document Exodus website. Details about the new tabletop RPG are currently scarce, but it was designed by BioWare veteran James Ohlen, the creative force behind the game. Exodus video game. The tabletop RPG will be released to the game’s early backers starting December 10th.
Why Exodus TTRPG is so important
Wizards currently focuses on Dungeons & Dragons, not other TTRPGs in its portfolio
Wizards of the Coast has published other non-Dungeons and Dragons TTRPGs in the past, but focused almost exclusively on Dungeons and Dragons in recent years. Wizards spent the year promoting D&D50th anniversary, with the release of a new rules revision for Fifth Edition. Additionally, Wizards has published several crossovers between D&D and Magic: The Reunion in recent years, with several campaign setting books focusing on various Magic: The Gathering worlds. Given the focus D&D, however, It’s still surprising to see a division of Wizards publish a non-D&D tabletop role-playing game.
However, Ohlen has a history of publishing TTRPG material separate from the D&D project team. After leaving BioWare, Ohlen founded Arcanum Worlds a tabletop RPG studio that created a new campaign setting for D&D. Arcanum World also published material on DM’s Guild, a site where third parties could publish D&D material using official D&D IP in exchange for Wizards receiving a portion of each sale. After Ohlen joined Archetype Entertainment, he continued to publish material on Masters Guildwith Asmodeus’s Chains published as an official publication of Wizards of the Coast.
Our opinion: Does Dungeons & Dragons have competition within its own home?
Wizards is very protective of the exodus
Wizards of the Coast clearly has high hopes for the sci-fi RPG Exodus. Not only is this the first IP developed by one of its video game studios, but it is also the focus of the next Secret level Amazon Studios show. Letting Ohlen develop his own TTRPG is another sign of the company’s confidence in the gameeven though the Exodus TTRPG is not being released at this time.
If Exodus becomes a huge success, we could see more Exodus TTRPG content on the way to help flesh out this world between video game releases. Ohlen’s other TTRPG releases were popular when they came out, and it’s very curious to see him bring some kind of internal competition to Dungeons and Dragons.
Source: Exodus, Masters Guild