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.

 

[Mournblade94]

WotC isn't a company who can or will do that, so that's pretty much just fantasy. It's fine to have that view, but it'd be totally unrealistic to expect that to actually happen with WotC in charge.


Sure, but it's a niche game that's basically appealing to a very small market and owned by a company who cares about it in large part as a game and a piece of art, not as a "PRODUCT" making "REVENUE". WotC has a lot of people at it who care about D&D a great deal, but it's a corporation which is part of a larger, even greedier and more heartless corporation (Hasbro), and to WotC's actual final decision-makers, D&D is just an IP and a PRODUCT which makes REVENUE, or fails to.

That doesn't necessarily mean D&D will change.

What it does mean is WotC will do whatever they think is going to make money. And Hasbro will probably want them to look at the shorter-term there.

That means, at some point in the next 3-6 years, we're almost certainly looking at a new edition, I'd suggest, because that's the only way WotC is going to make a big chunk of change, and there's a huge market out there of people who are willing to buy something which promises "New and improved" in a more serious way. And a "mostly the same" version like 2024 won't do that. So rather than 5E 2029 or something, we'll probably see a full on 6E (of course not called that, WotC are allergic lol).

You're more than likely correct. But I think it might actually be used as a license. Hasbro is known to sit on IP and let it rest. Then bring it back. I think D&D is going to become primarily a video game brand. The books just don't make the Magic Money (MtG).

And who knows what's going on with Tariffs but the D&D books were printed in China I think because of the volume. Now that is a completely unviable avenue. Maybe Hasbro CAN pull a chinese print run due to their clout, but I can imagine even now the E-Board is discussing what is going to be its print fate.

You are 100% correct on Mongoose and Cubicle 7.

 

[Hussar]

Whilst I am willing to believe this is true, it doesn't exactly look great for the VP if he didn't know a fairly major project that the previous president of WotC had implied was going to be huge, was actually not doing great.

Re: Crawford, I thought he was going to go, but again it seems I overestimated how long he'd stay. Interesting.

I can't imagine 5E makes it another 5 years if they get in a new set of people in charge - personally this makes me think 2024 is probably not something worth investing in unless I'm buying physical books (and WotC doesn't offer PDFs), because IMHO we're almost certainly going to see it replaced by something not even backwards-compatible.

I think I will bookmark this and bring it back up in 5 years. Because, from where I'm sitting, people have been making this prediction for the past ten years and it's never been true so far. So, well, the odds are in your favor by then I suppose.

 

[Staffan]

You're more than likely correct. But I think it might actually be used as a license. Hasbro is known to sit on IP and let it rest. Then bring it back. I think D&D is going to become primarily a video game brand. The books just don't make the Magic Money (MtG).

And who knows what's going on with Tariffs but the D&D books were printed in China I think because of the volume. Now that is a completely unviable avenue. Maybe Hasbro CAN pull a chinese print run due to their clout, but I can imagine even now the E-Board is discussing what is going to be its print fate.

I think it was established in one of the tariff threads that D&D books are mostly printed in the USA, but box sets and assorted accessories tend to be made in China because the US doesn't have the production facilities to make "mixed" products. That is, unless you want to get all the parts separately and assemble the box sets yourself.

 

[Mournblade94]

I think I will bookmark this and bring it back up in 5 years. Because, from where I'm sitting, people have been making this prediction for the past ten years and it's never been true so far. So, well, the odds are in your favor by then I suppose.

We're no longer in nearly the same environment as we were before Covid, and the variables have completely changed even from 3 months ago. Nothing was that much different with even development up to D&D 2024. Now we have more efficient AI being greatly encouraged among business leaders and a VERY different manufacturing landscape for Print right now. We are definitely not in the same environment of prediction. Lots of variables are converging on gaming.

 

[Hussar]

We're no longer in nearly the same environment as we were before Covid, and the variables have completely changed even from 3 months ago. Nothing was that much different with even development up to D&D 2024. Now we have more efficient AI being greatly encouraged among business leaders and a VERY different manufacturing landscape for Print right now. We are definitely not in the same environment of prediction.

Like I said. Poeple have been predicting this for ten years now, since the earliest days of 5e, and it's never come true yet. But, hey, a broken clock is right twice a day right?

 

[Mistwell]

Lets be honest though. It wasn't 5e that made D&D popular it was Critical Role.

It was a big hit before CR

 

[Zardnaar]

It was a big hit before CR

Yup at best CR was a bit of gasoline added to the fire. Same thing with stranger things. Iirc there is some effect on sales though when Stranger Things has new season so it's effects not 0.

CR no idea.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Also seriously what would suddenly change?

The new Corebooks are out nothing will change that, and we know they are doing well in sales. So what do you guys seriously think will happen?

 

[Parmandur]

Also seriously what would suddenly change?

The new Corebooks are out nothing will change that, and we know they are doing well in sales. So what do you guys seriously think will happen?

One does wonder what the Venn disgram overlap of the Doomsayers over this turn of events and huge fans of Crawford's Sage Advice happens to be...I'm guessing it is a low overlap.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I kind of hated overly complex alterations to rules from the base common to lots of 2e settings.

Like requiring a percentage roll every time the PCs did something morally dubious kind of just seemed like annoying busywork.

To each their own. I found all that stuff aided the feeling and genre conventions they were trying to invoke, especially as D&D by default doesn't really support Gothic horror on its own IMO.