Exile

Exile: Escape from the Pit is the 1995 turn-based fantasy role-playing game from Jeff and Shirley Vogel's Spiderweb Software, the first entry in the long-running Exile series. Players guide a six-character party of exiled outcasts through a vast subterranean world called Exile, hunting for escape, vengeance against the Empire, or simple survival in the dark.

Old-School Party RPG

Combat is strict turn-based, switching from outdoor and town overland modes into a tactical combat grid. Each character is fully customizable across mage and priest spell schools, melee, missile, and a deep skill list. Spiderweb's deliberately simple 2D tile graphics keep the focus on writing, hand-built dungeons, and emergent party tactics.

The Underworld of Exile

The setting is the defining hook: the Empire above banishes its undesirables to a sealed cavern network they call Exile. Down there, criminals, mages, and political prisoners have built towns, allied with non-human races, and started planning rebellion. Multiple endings reward escape, the assassination of the Empress, or the slaying of the demon Grah-Hoth.

Mac Shareware Hit

Exile launched as classic shareware on Macintosh and Windows: the first chapter was free, and a $25 registration unlocked the rest of the world. It became a small-studio success story, funding Exile II: Crystal Souls and Exile III: Ruined World. Spiderweb later released the original as freeware in 2013.

Legacy and the Avernum Remakes

The Exile trilogy was rebuilt as the Avernum series starting in 2000, replacing the tile graphics with isometric art while preserving the writing and world. Exile: Escape from the Pit remains the foundation of every Spiderweb game that followed.