Exile Game Studio

dan2448 · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 47 votes: 5

I was wondering whether there might yet have been any official announcement about the publication date for "Revelations of Mars"?

Having checked the Exile Game Studio website periodically for over a year, I've noted that there hasn't been anything stated officially in the "News" section.

But there have been several different threads started over time in this forum about the upcoming book, I see. I've enjoyed all 3 HEX books published to date. But I am just a casual HEX fan and so have trouble discerning whom, if anyone, who posts in this forum speaks in an official (or semi-official) capacity.

I've noticed that a hypothetical release date for RoM around Gen Con this year has been referenced repeatedly in various posts here. I was wondering whether that's mere speculation among the fans (perhaps based on the publication date of "Mysteries" two years ago), or whether that is the official (or "semi-official") target date set by Exile Game Studio?

And if it is the latter, might anyone know whether the company is on track to meet that date? (I read a reference or two here to artwork for the book being finalized. But I really have no idea what that means, if anything, for the actual publication date.)

Lastly, have any of the contents of "Revelations" been previewed (or even 'teased') officially anywhere yet?

My apologies for asking so many questions in my first post. And I further apologize if these questions have already been answered elsewhere. (But if they have, I haven't seen those answers.)

dan2448 · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 47 votes: 5

....I suppose I should infer from the fact that after 10 days and over 75 views of this post with no replies whatsoever, the answer to each of my questions is probably "no," huh....

Nestor · Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 6:26 pm Post subject:

Don't take it the wrong way. Work on RoM is continuing, but understand this is a work of love by people who also have real jobs and lives.

I've never been disappointed by anything that Jeff and Sechin have put together and part of the reason why is that I know they will not release a product until they're absolutely sure it is as close to perfect as they can make it, so I'm totally happy to wait.

I personally am not an official voice, just a person who enjoys HEX and is glad to be a part of the community that supports it.

It helps that there are others who are willing to lend a hand in adding their creative energy and putting out material for the game for public consumption. Looking through the forums and Dan Potter's excellent site, Mythic Eras, I'm sure you'll find all sorts of useful and helpful resources for HEX.

Hang on, man. Trust me, it'll be worth it.
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demon_llama · Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 6:52 pm Post subject:

wow, i missed a thread by a new person. how did i do that? must be asleep again (Nestor keeps lulling me to sleep with stories of nazi's and gorillas and zeppelins and such. bad Nestor Cool

).

welcome to the site Dan224B (can i call you "224" for short? Laughing

)

many of us here sort of float with the waters of creativity, waiting for that unexpected tide to flood in. and while i'm not an old hand at HEX like Nestor is, i have been here for a year or so and have never been disappointed with anything produced by Exile. like he said, they're not a big corporation with "staff writers" and an infinite number of monkies on typewriters, they're common people like you (but not i) and have real lives and jobs that almost pay the bills. the impression i get is that Exile is something they do instead of other mundane activities (such as eating, sleep or a real vacation with their wives). to that end, they seem to take the time to make sure they produce a quality product, something they would want to pick up off a store shelf.

as for the 10 days and 75 views, yup. happens. don't let it burn your backside (looks like a lot of us missed the initial post). just poke around, enjoy the conversations and debates (we don't really debate here do we? not like on other forums anyway). Mythic Era's is a wonderful site for all kinds of fan fiction too.

do you have an active group to roll some HEX with or are you still out in the open? love to hear about your (and your groups) initial impressions of the game.

anyway 224, welcome to the site (and watch out for the guy selling the "genuine" brontosaurus burgers, it's really just ornithomimus).

oh oh oh, new guy ++rep!
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K.G. Carlson · Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:29 pm Post subject:

If I may share some info gleaned at the Origins booth, the Mars book requires a more self-contained set of material, since they are neither in the Hollow Earth nor on top of it...its out of this world!

The first two expansion books can reference the core book and each other, but the Mars book has to have all the pulpy goodness beyond the Van Allen Belt. Hence, its a bigger project than anticipated + HEX quality standards = more time needed.

I'll second, third whatever the previous posters on Mars being worth the wait because we'll get a high quality product.

not_the_doctor · Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 9:51 pm Post subject:

Oh, Dan2248...please forgive us for not seeing your post! I come on to the forums mainly looking for spam-bots. And now that the discussion for GenCon is ramping up, I'm on here for that, too.

I also don't play the game all that often--I just watch it being written--so, I don't normally check the Game Discussion part of the forum. Sorry! Sad

Thank you to Nestor, demon_llama, and K.G. for those kind, inspiring, and supportive words. I have seen the struggle to get RoM out last year...and again this year. It won't be ready. Those @#$%& real-life jobs have gotten in the way...and the book is not the way Jeff and Sechin (Prof. Scrumtumbler) want it--yet.

BTW: My name is Katie and welcome to the forums! We're glad you found us!!
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dan2448 · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 47 votes: 5

Thank you all for the very kind replies. My apologies if my follow-up post came off as in any way bitter. I don't feel that way at all. I was just interested in whether the publication date was imminent.

I'm afraid that my active role-playing days are well behind me. I haven't played much since the mid-1980s. But I do continue to buy game books from time-to-time, if only to read through them and to wish that books of this caliber were published when I did play 25 years ago.

I am actually amazed that pen-and-paper game books continue to be produced today, especially since the ones I buy now are, in my opinion, so much better than those published when I did play 'back in the day.' And my surprise is only heightened when they are of such extreme quality like these HEX books, since I can't imagine they sell more than a few thousand copies today, and so are not 'money makers.'

These days I almost exclusively purchase new editions of games I played as a teenager, like "Delta Green" (from Call of Cthulhu) or "Champions."

I'm not entirely sure how I first heard about HEX. (I suspect it was a referral from Amazon.) But I have been amazed by the quality. of the HEX books

My interest in HEX originated from my childhood love for Indiana Jones and The Rocketeer, as well as Mike Grell's "Warlord" comic books. But my interest in "Revelations of Mars" is all the more acute because of my childhood love of the Filmation "Flash Gordon" cartoon from 1979.

Thank you all again very much for your replies. I am genuinely interested in when RoM will be released. But it sounds like it's not imminent. I'll buy it whenever it's released, I'm sure.

Best regards,

Dan

John Aynge · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:57 am Post subject:

Did I have a brother that no one mentioned?

Delta Green, a love for Filmation Flash Gordon, Indy Jones, Rocketeer, AND Grell's Warlord?

You're the buddy I wanted to have back then.

Mike Grell fans, Legion of Super Hero fans, and Star Trek fans get ready to meet each other very soon.
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not_the_doctor · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 8:16 am Post subject:

I did not get "bitter" from you. I felt bad that "we" (anyone) didn't see and respond to your first email. Bad, HEXers! Bad! No cookie! Razz

Since it was your first post, I didn't want you to think we don't care about you and you decided to leave...Noooo! Come back!!!

Thank you for your understanding about RoM not being ready yet. But it will be that quality product everyone looks for with HEX.
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PhD in Guardian

demon_llama · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:42 am Post subject:

Ali Shadow · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:46 am Post subject:

dan2448 · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 47 votes: 5

For me personally, the concept of a "Hollow Earth" is synonymous with Mike Grell's "Warlord" comic book. Boy did I love that comic book 30 years ago. The first time I read the HEX game book, I was astounded by how spectacularly evocative it was of Mike Grell's Skartaris in "Warlord."

The description of every horizon shrouded by mist, so that you'd never know what was coming around the next corner; be that a charging dinosaur, an army of marauding savages, or a ruined ancient city resting atop entombed Atlantean super-technology, encapsulates perfectly my vision of "The Lost World of the Warlord."

Back in the very early 1980s, I attempted to set my junior high AD&D game in the world of the "Warlord. "But it was a specular failure. In addition to how well-produced and written the HEX game book was, it was an added bonus for me to think back as I read each page, and imagine what a phenomenal resource this would have been for me back then. If only I had been able to read that note about how to punctuate the story regularly, staccato-like, with cliffhangers. The "Warlord" comic book employed this storytelling technique as well. I was just too young back then to fully appreciate that.

Because Mike Grell's "Warlord" has sort of languished as one of DC's most obscure properties for most of the last 25 years, and because it wasn't specific to the period in which HEX is set, I had come to assume that the reason I thought the HEX game world described Skartaris so well, too, was because both HEX and "Warlord" had several other shared sources of inspiration. It's even more gratifying to learn that "Warlord" may have been a direct inspiration as well.

Moebius · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:44 pm Post subject:

I share your enthusiasm for the Hollow World setting. I have been slowly collecting the Warlord comics for the last five or six years and loving it. But my initial exposure to the interior earth was through Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar series. The idea of looking up and seeing rivers and lakes was fascinating to me. It was in the second book that I absolutely fell in love with this kind of setting when the protagonist is in a canoe being chased by an antagonist army in canoes, as he gains ground between himself and the pursuers he watched them get further and further up as they fall behind! I also love the loss of the perception of time whilst inside. Skartaris and Pellucidar are just simply the coolest sci-fi/fantasy/pulp settings that mankind has come up with. HEX can't lose.
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Nestor · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:40 am Post subject:

I have vague memories of the comic. Growing up in PR in the 70's, comic books were something you found once in a while in a drug store magazine shelf (the idea of a comic book store was as alien as a snowfall).

They're good memories, though. Wink

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dan2448 · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 47 votes: 5

When I first started buying the "Warlord" comic book in the early 1980s (while I was in junior high), I remember thinking of it as 'Conan with a gun,' because of the popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Conan" movie at the time.

It was a few years later before I first heard the term "Pulp" and learned that the Hollow Earth of the "Warlord" comic book was not actually an original concept. At that time, in the mid-1980s, I sort of looked around and realized that many of the movies and comic books I liked as a kid were all inspired by the pulps and those Republic serials, including Indiana Jones (and to a lesser extent Star Wars), the Rocketeer, the Warlord and even that 1979 Flash Gordon cartoon I'd liked more than any of my elementary school friends (who dismissed it then as looking "old fashioned.")

A couple of years ago DC published a 500 page omnibus edition collecting the first 25 or so issues of the Warlord in B&W. Even though I still have the original comics in a closet, I bought this TPB and thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend it. It's called "Showcase Presents: Warlord Vol. 1" I just checked and Amazon re-sellers have listed it for less than $11 (new).