Jeremy Crawford Also Leaving D&D Team Later This Month

Jeremy Crawford is leaving Wizards of the Coast later this month. Screen Rant (via me!) had the exclusive announcement. Crawford was the Game Director for Dungeons & Dragons and was one of the guiding forces for D&D over the past decade. In the past year, Crawford has focused on the core rulebooks and leading the team of rules designers. He has also been a face of Dungeons & Dragons for much of 5th Edition, appearing in many promotional videos and DMing Acquisitions Incorporated Actual Play series.

He joins Chris Perkins in leaving the D&D team in recent weeks. Perkins, who was the Creative Director for D&D, announced his retirement last week. Both Perkins and Crawford appear to have left Wizards on their terms, with Lanzillo very effusive with her praise of both men and their contribution in our interview.

On a personal note, I've enjoyed interviewing Jeremy over the years. He was always gracious with his time and answers and is one of the most eloquent people I've ever heard talk about D&D. I'll miss both him and Chris Perkins and look forward to their next steps, wherever that might be.

 

[Scribe]

But of course D&D can contain multitudes, so we can have products aimed at adults, but let's not keep the kids out. A lot of us keep going with the hobby for a lifetime.

It can, but does it? Where are the products aimed at anyone over 10?

 

[Mournblade94]

doesn’t he work at Chaosium now? I doubt they pay more than WotC did. No idea how much his patreon makes, maybe combined he does around the same or better

A few years ago a lead designer at Paizo said if you weren't the owner you were making what a mid year teacher was. Mearls confirmed. That means he was probably making about 75 k for the mid 2010s. I imagine with his name now he is making about $110k or so. More than a mid range teacher due to reputation.

 

[Reynard]

Back into meeting in a tavern instead of the coffee shop across from the hot topic.

And when has this occurred in a 5E product?

Lame art in the Monster manual

No accounting for taste. MM2024 has great art.

and treatment of the old creatures was a bridge to far though. Couldn't buy that.

What does your daughter, new to the game, care about that?

I mean I could just teach her 3rd edition or Thaco but this is her time now. Her friends know 5e (fortunately they have no interest in 5.5) I can influence her to make things better.

Or you could let he have the game that that generation is playing? Why do you feel the need to make her like the D&D you like?

Every time my wife and I "make" our daughter watch one of our GenX movies, we are reminded of a very important thing: everything we loved growing up is lame.

 

[Remathilis]

It can, but does it? Where are the products aimed at anyone over 10?

What sort of things are you looking for? Violence? Gore? Sex? Swearing? Genocide? Slavery? Taboo subjects? Body horror?

I don't want another Book of Vile Darkness. I don't want a PoL "everyone is out to kill you" setting. I'm kinda over Game of Thrones/Dark Souls style crapsack fantasy. All of that stuff is better done by smaller companies who don't get the same blowback WotC would get trying to put adult stuff in a D&D book.

 

[kayakingpoodle]

Here's what I don't get: if it has been literally nearly a decade since "D&D was good", why do you care? You aren't a customer.

Voicing your opinion in hopes they make it good again is a valid option.

 

[Remathilis]

Voicing your opinion in hopes they make it good again is a valid option.

I'm sure if you keep posting comments on her Facebook photos, she'll learn the error of her ways and take you back.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Interestingly, while it uses (a variant of) the 5E system, BG3 is NOT branded as a D&D game in its box art. Its brand is Baldur's Gate, not D&D.

Baldur's Gate is D&D IP.

 

[SteveC]

It can, but does it? Where are the products aimed at anyone over 10?

I would say it's most obvious in BG3. BG3 is rated "mature" and I would call it somewhere between PG13 and R. The rest of the material I'd call at a PG level. And I'm just saying that from a conservative world view. I have a lot of friends who are a little younger than me (in their 40s) who have kids. The consensus seems to put the game as a PG13 level. And that's coming from friends who were playing it from a very young age. I know I'm planning on starting my daughter on it in a couple of years (and she is 8 right now).

We're talking about entirely personal decisions now, of course, and I'm not trying to tell anyone what they can or should do. I do remember that in the 80s, TSR had some very strong "morality" restrictions at Gen Con events. I know I had to sign off that my events would be PG at the most to run them.

Edited to add: I 100% do not want to yuck anyone's yum here.

 

[Faolyn]

How much institutional knowledge has been lost?

Probably none. All the knowledge has been written down. All that's been lost is Perkins' and Crawford's style.

 

[Mournblade94]

According to the wiki, Schneider has been in the industry for over 20 years and was editor of Fizban's and Strixhaven.

He also made Golarion, like Greenwood made Forgotten Realms and he wrote and edited lots of Pathfinder products.