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.

 

[SkidAce]

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

I can show you an entire shelf full.

 

[SkidAce]

That isn't the same thing, especially to people outside D&D fandom.

I understand your point, but I would like to re-iterate my "anecdote".

People play BG3.
They know I run/teach D&D to anybody that asks. (I wore colorful fantasy shirts in public and when I worked at B&N.)
They ask me to teach them to play.
Now they play D&D.

 

[Mistwell]

The CEO literally stated he is using AI. This isn't even speculation. He says it in public and most telling on investor calls. It is actually the plan forward.

He never said or implied they would write rules and adventures with AI. He said, and implied, AI tools in the hands of DMs and players. At the time I gave a bunch of examples of what he's likely talking about, and how we've been using those things for a while and they're super helpful, and basing it on a database of writings WOTC actually owns would be ethically preferable.

But here we are, with someone once again claiming "he talked about AI!" means "He's writing rule books and adventures with AI and soon there will be an AI DM!" stuff with zero evidence to support it.

 

[SkidAce]

I'm not one of the new fans, so I won't pretend to speak for them. But what I do know is the older fans apparently want Shadowdark with D&D branding and IP (some exclusions apply).

I do not.

5e is the best thing (simple and elegant) to come around since 2e. It is easy to mod, yet incorporates modern design principles and concepts. /puts on flameproof suit

/signed
"older fan"

 

[SkidAce]

The young audience wants a narrative heroic fantasy game.

The older audience wants a simulationist greedy grounded game.

People have been saying this for almost a year now but the older audience is convinced that since they liked a greedy game when they were young then the people who are 20, 30, 40 years younger than them would also like a greedy game and ignore the changes in media in the fantasy genre that they don't experience anymore due to the generation shift.

It's like when I a 40-year-old man insert anime characters as examples of D&D archetypes on conversations here or in other places, I often get responses of "who's that" or "I don't know what that is?". And I'm not even "young".

Or like back when I played hearthstone, blizzard had to actually hire designers who favored each of the classes because on their team they didn't have fans of every class in the card design team. So they would ended up keep designing cards that the fans of those classes didn't like until they hired people like those things.

Perkins and Crawford are both very good DMs and designers. But their styles don't match the majority of 5e fans anymore.

I respect what you have encountered.

But its the exact opposite of what I see boots on the ground. (granted there is a vocal older audience (hopefully minor))

 

[SkidAce]

You are sooooo going to run up against the broad brush here.

There is no one "older audience", and presuming to speak for all of them at once is going to generate pushback. Some of the older audience want that simulationist, greedy grounded game. A lot of older gamers played that way back in the day, but now embrace other styles.

And some even played a narrative heroic game, with a side of simulationist I'll grant.

 

[MNblockhead]

I could see an AI "Describe the room/monster" tool.

But a dungeon builder or adventure designer is likely never gonna happen.

I've used the GameTime GPT for ChatGPT to run WFRP 4e games for me. I had it create personas for two other players and had it run through character creation for my self and the two personas. Then I had it run some adventures for me and the two personas. I also test with D&D 5e. It was surprisingly enjoyable. The WFRP games really surprised me in how well it was able to adopt to and present the more grim-dark and dark humor of WFRP. The fact that it is all text based helps avoid the uncanny valley of using voice and I don't think we are at the point to have it render live video of made up people yet.

 

[Blue]

I'm not certain what it is, but clearly something is going on for so many high-level people to be leaving all at once.

Could that something just be that they were ready to retire/move on, and wanted a final swan song of issuing the new 2024 rules out the door?

 

[Stormonu]

Same here with 2 caveats I am in my 50's and I prefer 5e over 5.5.

Same boat. Took a look at Shadowdark and didn't see the appeal - in my 50's and preferring 5E. Though I have been looking for opportunities to resurrect using my 2E books or giving OSE a whirl.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

It saddens me to see the visionaries who created 5E (my favorite version of D&D) leave. Mearls, Perkins, and now Crawford. Being a creative lead in a large company like Hasbro isn't easy. I'm sure they've had their share of hard days. And most of them were at WotC for 15 years or longer. Even those who are leaving willingly are probably ready for a change. I wish Jeremy the best!