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.

 

[TiQuinn]

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.

WotC hasn’t been an innovator for a long time. They’re taking care of a brand now. Innovation is something that’s going to happen outside of Wizards. What’s the last new game that came out of WotC? Why did guys like Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Rob Heinsoo leave just to go start making games under their own banners? They hit the top end of what they were going to do at WotC. There could be the caretakers of the brand, but creating something new? Not gonna happen there.

 

[Hussar]

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.

Absolutely the best typo I've seen in a while. LOL.

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

Then you don't get to complain that WotC is doing what is best for D&D and is being run by corporate interests when every other publisher in the same circle is doing exactly the same thing.

WotC hasn’t been an innovator for a long time. They’re taking care of a brand now. Innovation is something that’s going to happen outside of Wizards. What’s the last new game that came out of WotC? Why did guys like Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Rob Heinsoo leave just to go start making games under their own banners? They hit the top end of what they were going to do at WotC. There could be the caretakers of the brand, but creating something new? Not gonna happen there.

Bollocks. That's just not true. Good grief, I've got 3 brand new core books sitting on my desk right now that are just chock a block with innovations and new ideas for D&D. Bastions, new monster rules, new mechanics, rewritten classes. An attempt at a full 3d VT suite. Numerous crossovers for settings. Video games. Tons of other stuff. How is that not innovation?

 

[TiQuinn]

Absolutely the best typo I've seen in a while. LOL.


Then you don't get to complain that WotC is doing what is best for D&D and is being run by corporate interests when every other publisher in the same circle is doing exactly the same thing.



Bollocks. That's just not true. Good grief, I've got 3 brand new core books sitting on my desk right now that are just chock a block with innovations and new ideas for D&D. Bastions, new monster rules, new mechanics, rewritten classes. An attempt at a full 3d VT suite. Numerous crossovers for settings. Video games. Tons of other stuff. How is that not innovation?

That’s an iteration of the existing game. That’s not innovation.

 

[mamba]

Bollocks. That's just not true. Good grief, I've got 3 brand new core books sitting on my desk right now that are just chock a block with innovations and new ideas for D&D. Bastions, new monster rules, new mechanics, rewritten classes. An attempt at a full 3d VT suite. Numerous crossovers for settings. Video games. Tons of other stuff. How is that not innovation?

new settings are not innovation, if they are there are plenty other companies innovating in the 5e field too. I do not consider a VTT innovation either, it being 3d is a minor incremental change.

Bastions may be new for 5e from WotC but they are neither new for 5e or D&D (and I do not like their implementation at all, but that is a separate issue)

If the slight tweaks to classes and a handful of new monsters pass as innovation for you then everyone in the D&D sphere is as innovative as WotC.

You cannot say 3pps aren’t and then proclaim how innovative 2024 is, sorry. Level Up is at least as innovative, Valda’s Spire of Secrets too, Kobold Press as well, then innovation is almost endless in the D&D sphere in that case

 

[Dire Bare]

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.

While I don't think the idea of "big corporation" vs "small indie publisher" is a reliable bellwether of quality and innovation . . . the two facts of the WotC/Hasbro dynamic I do think holds the D&D team back. 1) Hasbro is a publicly traded company, with decisions driven by shareholder profits, and 2) the company within a company setup.

The WotC/Hasbro corporate dynamic isn't a cause of lower quality or innovation, but at times is a factor. And the more successful D&D has become, the more the c-suite execs start to pay attention and meddle.

But, IMO, WotC continues to make quality and innovative products I enjoy purchasing and using. They've put out some stinkers and some real winners . . . before and after being purchased by Hasbro, and also before and after D&D 5E's surprise success brought the attention of the Eye of Sauron. And smaller companies also have mixed track records.

 

[Dire Bare]

WotC hasn’t been an innovator for a long time. They’re taking care of a brand now. Innovation is something that’s going to happen outside of Wizards. What’s the last new game that came out of WotC? Why did guys like Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Rob Heinsoo leave just to go start making games under their own banners? They hit the top end of what they were going to do at WotC. There could be the caretakers of the brand, but creating something new? Not gonna happen there.

Whatever dude, agree to disagree.

WotC actually does have a new game coming out, Exodus. It's a sci-fi game that does use the 5E engine. But it's hella innovative within that framework and I'm really excited about it.

Can a product designed to work with or be compatible with D&D 5E be innovative, whether published by WotC or a third-party company? YES.

Innovation does not necessarily mean, new rule set for new game.

I do think it's a shame that WotC doesn't publish RPGs other than D&D anymore, as I am a big fan of some of their earlier, not-D&D releases. But the profits vs resources equation of not-D&D compared to D&D never really worked out for WotC, or for TSR before them. It's also the reason why so many game companies publish D&D compatible products, they tend to be significantly more profitable.

There have been some really innovative and different not-D&D games published over the past decade or so that have had some amazing success . . . but not D&D levels of success, that's tough to crack.

 

[TiQuinn]

Innovation does not necessarily mean, new rule set for new game.

I do think it's a shame that WotC doesn't publish RPGs other than D&D anymore, as I am a big fan of some of their earlier, not-D&D releases. But the profits vs resources equation of not-D&D compared to D&D never really worked out for WotC, or for TSR before them. It's also the reason why so many game companies publish D&D compatible products, they tend to be significantly more profitable.

There have been some really innovative and different not-D&D games published over the past decade or so that have had some amazing success . . . but not D&D levels of success, that's tough to crack.

Honestly, their best stab at doing something that could’ve been innovative would’ve been Sigil, but it wasn’t technically feasible and they didn’t have the time/money/resources to commit to it. Expecting everyone to have a powerhouse PC to run it wasn’t going to get far.

We’ll see what Exodus turns out to be. Innovation doesn’t have to be a new game, it could be a new one of playing an existing one. But time will tell. Again, I stand by if you have talent leaving your company to do a new game elsewhere, then that’s a problem.

They’re maintainers of their brands: D&D and MTG. It falls right in line with what their parent company does.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

If 5e is the child friendly edition, I don’t believe that personally, then it has been a huge success - the biggest ever for D&D it seems

It's just a rules system, it's neither child friendly or not.

Settings are what you look at.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

True but it also implies there’s a ceiling at WotC. Once you’ve reached lead designer for D&D, there’s nowhere else to go, no way to move up in any creative space at the company.

They both got recently promoted.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Strixhaven was lame but he did great work on pathfinder. Fizbans was one of the last good things WOTC put out. I thought it was pretty good.

Didn't like how it butchered the lore, but mechanically it was good.