WotC Chris Perkins announces Retirement from Dungeons and Dragons

Over on Twitter and Bluesky, Chris Perkins has announced his retirement from Dungeons and Dragons.

Chris Perkins started officially working for Wizards of the Coast in 1997 as an Editor for Dungeon Magazine. Since then, he has functioned as the Editor in Chief of D&D Periodicals, A Senior Producer, and eventually landing as the Senior Story Editor over D&D 5e and Game Architect on D&D 5e 2024.

He also is known for acting as one of the Dungeons Masters for Acquisitions, Incorporated.

Personally, I'll miss the guy's work.

https://bsky.app/profile/chrisperkinsdnd.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3llyvdjkphk2p

 

[Queer Venger]

wishing CP all the best, he's another creator I will miss and sad to see him go. I think with the failure that was 5.5 (2024 rulebooks) it's a good reason to leave on a semi-high note.
congratulations on retirement, Im right behind you!

 

[Queer Venger]

Best of luck going forward.

That’s weird. Didn’t he just get a promotion?

exactly. I think he's reading the room and knows when its time to "peace-out!"

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I suspect that a lot of what he did is being subsumed by the "Senior Narrative Worldbuilding Designer for Dungeons & Dragons" role that that they were hiring for a while back.

Senior Narrative Worldbuilding Designer - D&D Franchise

They are still looking to find someone to fill that role. I wonder if they will find it more pressing to find someone to fill that role now that Perkins is gone.

Seems pretty important going forward.

 

[mamba]

The idea is, if you are using company time and resources, then it belongs to the company.

which is exactly what I said was not used, I get that they own what I do for work

Some contract clauses go beyond that, as they don't want you competing with the company that employs you.

haven’t seen any where it goes beyond getting approval first, nothing about them owning things they had nothing to do with

 

[mamba]

I still don't really know what a creative director does or even a game Arctect does.

apparently they could not figure that out either

 

[DEFCON 1]

haven’t seen any where it goes beyond getting approval first, nothing about them owning things they had nothing to do with

Well, this is what Monte Cook I believe talked about when he stepped away from the early stages of 5E design.

My own guessimation is that because there is no way to really determine what an employee would come up with "off-hours" versus when they were on the clock... creative endeavor companies such as this put that clause in their contracts. I mean if you think about it... someone is at the office working on the design of 5E and thinks of a really cool subclass idea during the day-- and then purposefully does not bring it up in a creative meeting because they decide they could make a few extra bucks actually designing it at home with the intent of selling it themselves on the side. How does anyone conclude whether or not it was made during work hours or off-hours? The idea was while they were on the clock, but the pen to paper was at night. That's just asking for potential PITA litigation. Which I figure is probably why companies have those policies in their contracts that so long as you work for them... any design you make while under contract is theirs. That way there's no dispute.

Admittedly I could be misremembering the situation as it was over a decade ago... but that's just my impression.

 

[TiQuinn]

haven’t seen any where it goes beyond getting approval first, nothing about them owning things they had nothing to do with

Can attest that there are companies out there that will try to contest even work done on free time done on personal equipment. There are people that vindictive out there, and their goal is to use nuisance suits and legal threats to discourage people from working in the same industry shortly after leaving the company. This varies state to state of course, and I have no idea whether this applies in Washington or that WotC has ever done this or attempted to do so, but in the IT industry, it absolutely has happened.

 

[GrandMasterofFlowers]

Best of luck going forward.

That’s weird. Didn’t he just get a promotion?

that was probably a lie

 

[Dire Bare]

which is exactly what I said was not used, I get that they own what I do for work


haven’t seen any where it goes beyond getting approval first, nothing about them owning things they had nothing to do with

I don't know what else to tell you, this type of contract is common in creative industries.

 

[pukunui]

The thing about Iomandra is that Chris talked a lot about it in his DM blog posts on the old D&D website. I think WotC could argue they own it because of that.

If he’d only ever talked about it in a personal capacity through non-work channels, that would be different.

Same with Valoreign – he posted the details of that one through the offical D&D website as well.