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.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

How often has he responded to such queries? I seem to recall he had all bit distanced him self from making rulings. Weather he likes it or not it goes with the job. He knew that going in and was paid to deal with it. As have everyone who preceded him did and will everyone that follows him will. Right there in the job description!

You didn’t answer my questions.

 

[Faolyn]

So you figure that a company should ignore what fans expressly tell them so they can publish something “innovative “ which just happens to be what you want. And WotC listening to fans is only due to corporate oversight.

Yeah I’m going to stand pat on “innovative is stuff I like”.

No, I'm saying that if you want to buy games that are labors of love and are by creators who wrote what they wanted to write, you should go for indie and small press games.

If you want to buy games where financial matters are in charge of what does and doesn't get written, stick to larger companies.

 

[kayakingpoodle]

You didn’t answer my questions.

Didn't I, weather he likes it or not it goes with the job, kinda like cops being expected to deal with upset and nasty verbal citizens. It goes with the territory and they are paid for dealing with it. Whether they negotiated appproiate compensation is up to them. The game has 50 years of history to draw on, it's not like dying gets you out of being ridiculed in this job.

 

[Yaarel]

Can kitchen sinks not have “mature” content? Weren’t you just praising BG3 for exactly that?

5e books have slavery. 5e books have body horror. 5e books have violence and some gore. 5e books have swearing. I’m having a hard time recalling specific instances of genocide in 5e books, but I’m sure it’s been referenced before. There’s even a bit of nudity in some art work, like the Harpy and Sea Hag.

The Spelljammer adventure pressures players to commit genocide. Actually I am less than thrilled with this.

 

[Yaarel]

IMHO we're almost certainly going to see it replaced by something not even backwards-compatible.

I am curious about your take on the trends. What do you expect Wyatt and Schneider to do differently from Crawford and Perkins?

 

[AK81]

It was pretty awesome. Masters of the Universe: Revelation was pretty solid too.

I really liked the new He-man series. And I grew up with the original series in the 80's

 

[AK81]

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

I definitely think it was more than that.

I think the hordes of older players loving it and praising it everywhere, and giving it their stamp of approval helped alot.

And then it just caught the zeitgeist of the moment. With Critical Role and maybe even more important Stranger Things.

I started playing because of Stranger Things and also the very positive vibes of the community of early to mid-stage 5e.

And I also think it helped a lot that the ruleset was pretty easy and accessible for new players.

 

[pete284]

Didn't I, weather he likes it or not it goes with the job, kinda like cops being expected to deal with upset and nasty verbal citizens. It goes with the territory and they are paid for dealing with it. Whether they negotiated appproiate compensation is up to them. The game has 50 years of history to draw on, it's not like dying gets you out of being ridiculed in this job.

Nobody goes into job expecting deal with upset and nasty verbals. Sadly, in the age of social media people are happy to attack and bad mouth individuals. With what has gone on the last few years I hope those individuals that have left have a have a much quieter life and can once enjoy gaming as gamers and not as the target for every decision their employer makes.

 

[Yaarel]

Well, the at least 31% of fans who say they don’t want something.

What gatekeeping is going on when WotC asks for fan feedback and says, “anything that doesn’t get over 70% approval won’t get printed”? In what manner is that gatekeeping?

Fans demanded that WotC listen to them. That’s what wotC is doing. Arguments that innovation is being stifled by corporate seem to ignore the fact that this is what fandom demanded.

And it has to be this way.

One of the problems with 4e was it had excellent game designers but little understanding with what gamers at large wanted.

5e came into existence by means of unprecedented surveys to better understanding the gaming community, young and older. The result was wildly popular.

The price for this wide scale success was fulfilling the wants of the greatest number of customers. It meant niche desires were left for indies to fill in the gaps.

Often I love the innovations that happen when figuring out how to meet the needs from the surveys.

Personally, the stuff that bothered me in 2014 when it first came out has by now resolved. The only thing left that bothers me is the lack of a (full-caster slot-9) Psion class − but there is only psionic fans to blame for this. Meanwhile there are high quality indy Psion classes, such as by LaserLlama, to fill in the niche.

Ultimately, I feel the democratic approach to the D&D customers is serving the D&D traditions well.

 

[KYRON45]

I think AI is soon, but it sure isnt here yet.

AI can produce a statement that is convincing (at least at first glance). But one cant yet have a 'conversation' with AI that feels convincing.

It's going to happen on some level; of that i have no doubt.
Maybe the robots will finally come up with a version of Hiding that everyone will like.

People complain about the stuff people make.
People complain that the robots will be creating stuff.
People complain about the stuff the robots make.
It would seem to me that as long as people have things to complain about, humanity will survive.