Jeremy Crawford On The Dark Side of Developing 5E

WotC's Jeremy Crawford spoke to The Escapist about the D&D 5th Edition development process and his role in the game's production. "There was a dark side where it was kind of crushing. The upside is it allowed us to have a throughline for the whole project. So I was the person who decided if what we had decided was important two years prior was still being executed two years later."


You can read the full interview here, but below are the key highlights.

• Mike Mearls started pondering about D&D 5th Edition while the 4E Essentials books were being worked on in 2010.
• There were "heated discussions" about the foundations of 5E.
• Crawford is the guy who "made the decision about precisely what was going to be in the game".
• Crawford considers D&D's settings as an important pillar.

For another recent interview, see Chris Perkins talking to Chris "Wacksteven" Iannitti.

 

[neobolts]

I'm not sure how to unpack this sentence. Is he implying a larger shift to an open multiverse (where we get Eberron, Ravenloft, Dragonlance, etc support) or is he implying a distilled version (akin to Nentir Vale, borrowing from everything) or that settings will be less unique in fluff (elves are elves) or crunch (not needing 27 wizard classes to cover sha'ir, defilers, artificers, etc). Or just maybe some of the really out there worlds (Athas, Ravenloft, Al-qadim) aren't getting any support to keep the game in line with the classic Pseudo-Tolkien settings.

I think we're seeing the next evolution of that, going back to the mega-setting model.

I'm throwing in on this theory. A "Stargate" approach to D&D, where all these different worlds with their own niches exist in one big connected universe. The Great Wheel is back as the foundation of this, because it has this devoted following thanks to quality of the Planescape setting. But even a setting like Eberron doesn't hurt anything, the planes etc just interact differently with that particular prime world. And this edition doesn't seem to me like an "evolution" of the multiverse concept, just a better way of presenting was has been established before. The multiverse isn't some add-on for the a world-based setting, the multiverse IS the setting and each world is a puzzle piece within it. I really, really hope I'm right because I like this approach.

 

[Shemeska]

I have no doubt that Jeremy Crawford is a talented guy who put in a lot of hard work on the 5th Edition ruleset. But the reality is that the largest D&D campaign in the world is the Organized Play campaign that Wizards of the Coast sponsors via their Adventurer's League program.

You think it's larger than Pathfinder Society?

 

[thalmin]

You think it's larger than Pathfinder Society?

He did say largest D&D campaign.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I'm throwing in on this theory. A "Stargate" approach to D&D, where all these different worlds with their own niches exist in one big connected universe. The Great Wheel is back as the foundation of this, because it has this devoted following thanks to quality of the Planescape setting.

I doubt the quality of the Planescape setting has as much to do with it as the simple fact that it's only slightly updated from the game's original cosomology, and 'Great Wheel' neatly summed it up. The infinite parallel Prime Materials planes, always suggested the idea that all D&D campaigns could be thought of as being separate, but linked by the cosmology of the ethereal and outer planes.

To make it more like 'Stargate' you'd want to feature planar portals with sigil sequences rather than cubic gates and plane shift spells.....

 

[Dire Bare]

There was a certain half-assedness to Essentials that, to me at least, seemed like an active case of throwing in the towel. It was inconsistent with the primary article of faith of post-TSR D&D: the PHB is the biggest seller so there was no Essentials PHB. It was inconsistent in terms of the physical size of the books. It was inconsistent in that the new Red Box basically used different rules to 4E proper which limited its utility as a true introductory product.

Those inconsistencies, to me, add up to "throwing in the towel" and ensuring the edition is dead... which makes sense when plan A is seen as someone else's fault and you have already worked up a plan B.

Wow, maybe it's a "glass half full" vs "glass half empty" difference of opinion, but I couldn't disagree more!

Essentials "half-assed"? Nah. Articles of Faith? Whut?

WotC's market research determined (from what they shared with us) that *core books* are the best sellers. The big three. Of course, the most *core* of the *core* is the PHB, and it has traditionally been the biggest seller.

Essentials wasn't an abandonment of the 4th edition, far from it. It was an attempt to not only redefine the edition itself, but the idea of what is a *core book*. It was an experiment. All of the following books were positioned as *core books*: Rules Compendium, Dungeon Master's Kit, Monster Vault, Heroes of the Fallen Lands, and Heroes of the Fallen Kingdoms.

The Rules Compendium wasn't exactly, but kinda was, a replacement for the PHB. Both "Heroes" books were the *new* players books. WotC was trying to see if they could get players to purchase two or three *core books* (RC + one/both "Heroes") instead of just one.

Some folks liked the new formats, or elements of the new formats, others didn't. Since 5E went back to the traditional structure, I'm assuming the experiment didn't play out positively.

I'm sure WotC saw 4E losing steam and felt that moving on to 5E wasn't right, not yet. So, they did two things with the Essentials line, 1) an attempt to rescue and prolong the 4th edition, and 2) an opportunity to try something different with the book release formula. The experiment wasn't half-assed at all, but was very well done. It just didn't sway enough folks to make the Essentials format stick around longer.

 

[Staffan]

To make it more like 'Stargate' you'd want to feature planar portals with sigil sequences rather than cubic gates and plane shift spells.....

One of the central ideas of the Planescape setting was planar portals which could pop up pretty much anywhere as long as it was a vaguely portal-like enclosed opening and you had the right portal key. Sometimes the key was an item, but it could also be a phrase, a thought, a mood, or maybe humming a melody.

Sigil had an excessive amount of these, which is why it was known as the City of Portals.

 

[Dire Bare]

You think it's larger than Pathfinder Society?

Who cares?

But probably, yeah.

 

[Tony Vargas]

One of the central ideas of the Planescape setting was planar portals which could pop up pretty much anywhere as long as it was a vaguely portal-like enclosed opening and you had the right portal key. Sometimes the key was an item, but it could also be a phrase, a thought, a mood, or maybe humming a melody.

Sigil had an excessive amount of these, which is why it was known as the City of Portals.

Which is notably different from Stargate, where portals are mostly large, fixed affairs. Though, in retrospect, that may not have been the point of the reference...

 

[Tony Vargas]

Say what you will about the old 4th Edition 'you must play this way' style of rules communication, but that was precisely what was needed to support the 4th Edition Organized Play campaign, ...
I understand the drive for inclusiveness and creative license -- I just wish that there was a bit more of the old 4th edition clarity in the new ruleset.

AL manages to fulfill the same function without much clarity, and with a great deal of DM-dependency, in the base rule set, through the medium of some official documents. 5e leaves some rules open, where that's an impediment to Organized Play, the organization just has to step up and make some official rulings. IIRC, that was the case in prior organized play programs, as well, all the way back to the RPGA.

 

[Rygar]

Interesting. I actually thought Mike had thrown in the towel much earlier than that on 4E.

Keep in mind that work on Essentialls would've started at a minimum 6 months before release, and possible as early as 12 months before release. So 4th edition was out about 12-18 months before Mearls started thinking about 5th edition, which reinforces that 4th edition was in trouble almost from the outset.