Archetype Entertainment, part of Wizards of the Coast—the folks behind Dungeons & Dragons—just revealed that they’re venturing into the tabletop RPG world with a game based on their own sci-fi epic, Exodus. With Hasbro’s CEO, Chris Cocks, indicating plans to drop one to two games each year, it seems like Exodus is gearing up for its grand entrance.
This ambitious project is led by a bunch of former BioWare veterans—those masterminds who brought us classics like Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect. Exodus was teased to the world with a cinematic bang, introduced by none other than Matthew McConaughey at The Game Awards 2023. Promising a fresh twist on the sci-fi RPG genre, the game is said to explore the intriguing effects of time dilation during cosmic travel, clearly drawing inspiration from Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (which explains the McConaughey tie-in!). Despite the initial buzz, there hasn’t been much info released about the game itself. Fans, hungry for details, have mostly had to make do with bits of world-building content and backstory insights on the official Exodus site, not to mention an in-universe novel penned by Peter F. Hamilton that came out earlier this year.
The tabletop RPG comes with a unique offer: event registrants who sign up as “founders” by December 10 get a shot at purchasing an early edition of the rulebook—though it’s all still quite under wraps. What we do know is that game veteran James Ohlen, known for his work on Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, is spearheading the development. Beyond a flashy cover and some broad-stroke ideas—like navigating the Exodus universe as “the Traveler” and facing time dilation—details about gameplay remain scarce.
It’s not uncommon nowadays for big-name titles to spin off into the tabletop arena as a way to stir up excitement, much like the Neopets RPG, which amassed a significant amount of funding pre-launch on Kickstarter, despite being relatively vague about the actual mechanics.
Whether or not this ambitious venture will hit the mark is anyone’s guess at this point. Exodus represents WoTC’s first foray into non-D&D tabletop RPGs since Gamma World, leaving fans with more questions than answers for now.
We’re expecting Exodus to land on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, though there’s no firm release date on the horizon just yet.
