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.

 

[Faolyn]

Ah, the old canard about how only small companies that are passionate about their work are any good. Being passionate about something doesn't guarantee a good product, working for a big company does not mean people are not passionate about what they do. I've worked on teams with close to a hundred other developers and for companies where I was the sole techie. You'll find people who are dedicated and passionate or people that are just in it for the paycheck in almost all companies.

As a wise alien once said, size matters not.

I didn't actually say that though.

WotC is a major company owned by another, bigger company. Even if the writers and artists are super-passionate and always give it 110%, they're not always going to get the go-ahead to make exactly what they want and they may have to work on products they're not ginormous fans of. Because you cannot tell me that the executives at Hasbro are super-passionate about the contents of a book of monsters.

 

[Mournblade94]

Ah, the old canard about how only small companies that are passionate about their work are any good. Being passionate about something doesn't guarantee a good product, working for a big company does not mean people are not passionate about what they do. I've worked on teams with close to a hundred other developers and for companies where I was the sole techie. You'll find people who are dedicated and passionate or people that are just in it for the paycheck in almost all companies.

As a wise alien once said, size matters not.

In this case with WOTC the OP point stands. The designers are limited by corporate.

 

[AlViking]

I didn't actually say that though.

WotC is a major company owned by another, bigger company. Even if the writers and artists are super-passionate and always give it 110%, they're not always going to get the go-ahead to make exactly what they want and they may have to work on products they're not ginormous fans of. Because you cannot tell me that the executives at Hasbro are super-passionate about the contents of a book of monsters.

People in small companies rarely get the go ahead to do whatever they want if they want to stay in business either. Everyone has restrictions of some sort.

 

[AlViking]

In this case with WOTC the OP point stands. The designers are limited by corporate.

Small companies are limited by funding, budget and, if there is more than one person, frequently have disagreements on approach as well. All companies have issues and restrictions, size just changes the nature of those challenges a bit.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ah, the old canard about how only small companies that are passionate about their work are any good. Being passionate about something doesn't guarantee a good product, working for a big company does not mean people are not passionate about what they do. I've worked on teams with close to a hundred other developers and for companies where I was the sole techie. You'll find people who are dedicated and passionate or people that are just in it for the paycheck in almost all companies.

As a wise alien once said, size matters not.

I believe many or most of the WotC design team are or were quite passionate about the game. But they don't make the big decisions about design thrust and what to publish. In many smaller companies the dynamic is different.

 

[Micah Sweet]

People in small companies rarely get the go ahead to do whatever they want if they want to stay in business either. Everyone has restrictions of some sort.

I really think it's different once you expand past a certain point, particularly if you make a public offering and get shareholders.

 

[Hussar]

I didn't actually say that though.

WotC is a major company owned by another, bigger company. Even if the writers and artists are super-passionate and always give it 110%, they're not always going to get the go-ahead to make exactly what they want and they may have to work on products they're not ginormous fans of. Because you cannot tell me that the executives at Hasbro are super-passionate about the contents of a book of monsters.

Y'know what else I can't tell you? How much input does that Hasbro executive have in the day to day running of WotC. I don't know and neither do you.

 

[Hussar]

Small companies are limited by funding, budget and, if there is more than one person, frequently have disagreements on approach as well. All companies have issues and restrictions, size just changes the nature of those challenges a bit.

I mean, in the D&D sphere it's pretty easy to see. WotC is the innovator most of the time and all the other companies take that and expand on what WotC has done. How many 5e clones are there now? I missed when these other, smaller, apparently more creative companies started banging out their own systems.

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, in the D&D sphere it's pretty easy to see. WotC is the innovator most of the time and all the other companies take that and expand on what WotC has done. How many 5e clones are there now? I missed when these other, smaller, apparently more creative companies started banging out their own systems.

Well, while I do agree wirh your point, there is definite immolation on the Indie scene: the whole Powered by the Apocalypse engine arose from small time publishers to start with, and that is onw of the major streams of modern TTRPGs.

 

[mamba]

I mean, in the D&D sphere it's pretty easy to see. WotC is the innovator most of the time and all the other companies take that and expand on what WotC has done.

that is what makes it the D&D sphere...