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.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The 2024 books will go through the same additions, changes and add-ons.

Will they? I mean they might, but I think they might have a rather shorter road ahead of them.

 

[S'mon]

WotC is more or less the only TTRPG company where top management sees their games as just products for revenue, as far as I'm aware.

The are a couple of others which are kind of on the way there (not Paizo, notably, despite being fairly large), but I don't think there's some major change needed in the TTRPG industry as a whole here. It's really just WotC.

If you get into boardgames, wargames and videogames then there are a lot more examples, of course.

I've heard from people with WotC connections how the corporate culture regularly ruins products. It's amazing to me how they could take someone as talented as Rich Baker (Red Hand of Doom, Forge of Fury, Primeval Thule) and put out something as mediocre as Princes of the Apocalypse.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I've heard from people with WotC connections how the corporate culture regularly ruins products. It's amazing to me how they could take someone as talented as Rich Baker (Red Hand of Doom, Forge of Fury, Primeval Thule) and put out something as mediocre as Princes of the Apocalypse.

I feel like rushing to market was the main issue there - it also created a lot of 5E's issues (and 4E's before it), and yeah absolutely that was a corporate pressure in both cases.

 

[S'mon]

I feel like rushing to market was the main issue there - it also created a lot of 5E's issues (and 4E's before it), and yeah absolutely that was a corporate pressure in both cases.

That's true and there was something of an uptick later, with products like Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd being better regarded. XGTE was a high point. But then it seemed to get worse again with the very weak later stuff like Spelljammer and Dragonlance. And many 3rd party publishers did much better work consistently over years. WoTC have nothing to compare with Odyssey of the Dragon lords or Primeval Thule. And Kobold Press is consistently at a higher standard IMO. Paizo arguably also.

 

[Reynard]

"BG3 isn't D&D" is a very weird (and wrong) argument.

No one said that. What was said is that it's branding focused on it being Baldur's Gate, not it being D&D.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That's true and there was something of an uptick later, with products like Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd being better regarded. XGTE was a high point. But then it seemed to get worse again with the very weak later stuff like Spelljammer and Dragonlance. And many 3rd party publishers did much better work consistently over years. WoTC have nothing to compare with Odyssey of the Dragon lords or Primeval Thule. And Kobold Press is consistently at a higher standard IMO. Paizo arguably also.

I dunno if I agree re: KP necessarily but I think 3PPs as a whole are producing generally more considered, thoughtful, game-expanding and well-made product than WotC (also more modern and diverse), albeit their visual design and playtesting/math quality is often not as good (but I would say that's likely a function of size/budget).

 

[Micah Sweet]

I mean many fans want their favorite game to be the top with a bunch of the extras WOTC or TSR did.

Tons of settings. Tons of extra classes/races/feats. Tons of adventures . Tons of monsters. Official accessories. Large marketing campaigns. Etc

All of that costs money.

You can't get all of that if the company is putting zero effort in making money.

And fans who say. "Don't buy books" "RPGs should be mostly free" "Gimme free stuff" often forget that the company goes under if you don't buy anything or barely do

I'm not sure who's saying that here. Also not sure who's saying that companies should be putting zero effort into making money. These statements don't have any substance in this thread that I can see.

 

[Micah Sweet]

WotC is more or less the only TTRPG company where top management sees their games as just products for revenue, as far as I'm aware.

The are a couple of others which are kind of on the way there (not Paizo, notably, despite being fairly large), but I don't think there's some major change needed in the TTRPG industry as a whole here. It's really just WotC.

If you get into boardgames, wargames and videogames then there are a lot more examples, of course.

Then I suppose you know who I'm talking about.

 

[Minigiant]

I'm not sure who's saying that here. Also not sure who's saying that companies should be putting zero effort into making money. These statements don't have any substance in this thread that I can see.

"The rules are free online.", "I still have my old books", "Go download the old books" and "Well the wiki has all the main rules" are very common sayings on streams, podcasts, videos and social media.

The TTRPG industry has a lot of "freeloaders", misers, and cheapskates who demand a lot of content for very low prices or nothing at all holding the promise that they might buy future products.

And that kinda only works when WOTC is doing the major marketing via MTG and licensed IP money.

The Entire fantasy TTRPG industry is held up by Magic Cards.

I seriously fear if the TTRPG industry hits a major turndown and economic recession due to natural swings and recent economic shifts, it's gonna get bad. There is only 1 company with the money to weather real extreme hardship. Most publishers will have to seriously cut back, turn to greedier jerks than Hasbro, get purchased, or go under.

 

[mamba]

The Entire fantasy TTRPG industry is held up by Magic Cards.

is it, how? I am not seeing MtG as helping TTRPGs or being an entry into it. People say that about D&D and there I can at least see the connection, but Magic?

If anything Magic accelerated the downfall of TSR