WotC Ray Winninger Is Head of D&D RPG Team; Mike Mearls No Longer Works on RPG

People have been wondering where Mike Mearls has gone for quite some time. It seems that he has not been working on the D&D tabletop RPG since some time last year, and the new head of the team and Executive Producer is Ray Winninger.

Winninger is an RPG industry veteran. Amongst other things, he was co-designer of DC Heroes and Torg, and wrote the Dungeoncraft column for Dragon Magazine. He has worked at a number of RPG companies including TSR, Mayfair Games, West End Games, and more.

Winninger is Chris Perkins' and Jeremy Crawford's boss. And in further comments, Chris Perkins says that Mike Mearls has not been part of the tabletop RPG team since some time last year.


That explains why Mearls' Twitch shows, like Happy Fun Hour, have disappeared. Although he's made a couple of retweets since, his last tweet on Twitter was February 13th, 2019. He still works at WotC on the D&D brand in some capacity, but not the tabletop RPG itself (he did an interview about Baldur's Gate 3 on Polygon last year).

Ray Winninger introduces himself in the latest issue of Dragon+, WotC's online magazine. "My name is Ray Winninger and I’m the new Executive Producer in charge of the Dungeons & Dragons studio at Wizards of the Coast. In just a few months on the job, I’ve already been impressed by the skills and the passion of the designers, artists, editors, and production staff who bring you our terrific D&D products. They are a uniquely talented group, and it is an honor to work alongside them."

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Oh wow, I just checked and Ray wrote the level of Castle Greyhawk that had Mordenkainen making movies and sitting in a hot tub. Gotta love it.

 

[gyor]

Yes, the story made it outside of the various forums, especially after WotC had to put out their own press release about the incident and the involvement of Zak with their products, and the subsequent severing of ties with him, I think including removing his name from all products he worked on. Their statement does not mention Mike at all, but it is still available to read on their website.

I thinking that is wrong, no matter what he did or didn't do, that is dishonest on their part and I don't care for easure thing. If he worked on stuff, then he did, you don't just get to take way the credit for work someone else does.

 

[Mistwell]

I thinking that is wrong, no matter what he did or didn't do, that is dishonest on their part and I don't care for easure thing. If he worked on stuff, then he did, you don't just get to take way the credit for work someone else does.

If it were a movie the union would be filing an unfair labor practice.

 

[Parmandur]

I thinking that is wrong, no matter what he did or didn't do, that is dishonest on their part and I don't care for easure thing. If he worked on stuff, then he did, you don't just get to take way the credit for work someone else does.

The only thing Zak S had done was some consulting and playtesting: they simply removed all the consultant credits in future printings.

 

[buzzardoftheages]

I hope someone who is still currently on the D&D design team can continue with the spirit of what the Happy Fun Hour was doing on Twitch in a new series. While I do enjoy listening to Jeremy Crawford discuss how the decisions were made during the design process of the Unearthed Arcana articles after the fact, I really enjoyed watching Mearls work on and discuss initial design, along with the philosophy involved from the 5e perspective, as he interacted with the stream throughout the process.

 

[gyor]

The only thing Zak S had done was some consulting and playtesting: they simply removed all the consultant credits in future printings.

Consulting is still work.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

I thinking that is wrong, no matter what he did or didn't do, that is dishonest on their part and I don't care for easure thing. If he worked on stuff, then he did, you don't just get to take way the credit for work someone else does.

So someone shouldn't suffer consequences for the actions that they have taken, am I getting that right?

 

[darjr]

I hope someone who is still currently on the D&D design team can continue with the spirit of what the Happy Fun Hour was doing on Twitch in a new series. While I do enjoy listening to Jeremy Crawford discuss how the decisions were made during the design process of the Unearthed Arcana articles after the fact, I really enjoyed watching Mearls work on and discuss initial design, along with the philosophy involved from the 5e perspective, as he interacted with the stream throughout the process.

gosh yes! And also campaigns and adventure design as well, in the same spirit. Very much like a “here’s how I’d do it” and a “here is some info about why we did what we did and/or how we did it”.

 

[gyor]

I listedned to an interview of folks who contributed to Castle Greyhawk and they were doing it absolutely think

gosh yes! And also campaigns and adventure design as well, in the same spirit. Very much like a “here’s how I’d do it” and a “here is some info about why we did what we did and/or how we did it”.

I just want them to finish the Psion class he was doing, it was awesome.

 

[Schmoe]

So someone shouldn't suffer consequences for the actions that they have taken, am I getting that right?

I think you're taking it to the extreme. The point wasn't that there shouldn't be consequences, the point was that it is dishonest to publish something that someone contributed to and not acknowledge their contributions.