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.

 

[EthanSental]

not saying they were used as lot, but I am not sure how they can tell

Maybe I am mixing up various play test surveys from Wotc but I thought a couple of times the surveys asked about feat usage, but I could be off but if it was then 5000 (or whatever the replies were) and x amount say they used them might steer them toward a design goal is my guess.

 

[Yaarel]

2014 leaned fairly hard on optionality in its corebooks for a mainstream RPG that isn't like multi-genre (i.e. GURPS/SWADE/FATE are multi-genre) - it's somewhat unusual.

Then 2024 banishes that entirely. A response to the market? I suspect so, I suspect relatively few people were using any of the optional rules as far as WotC could tell (but who knows!).

Anyway, doing that must have been a very conscious decision.

I tend to think we're more likely to see some optionality return whenever 6E appears (I think you please more people when there are options, even if they don't use them), and I expect that any "extra mechanics" books for 2024 are going to be full of optionality too.

I expect the settings to provide the options, such as thru feature swaps. The tone and needs of the setting will determine the mechanics in play.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I expect the settings to provide the options, such as thru feature swaps. The tone and needs of the setting will determine which core mechanics are in play.

Yeah it'd be interesting to see if they go back to that - it's how 1E through 3E worked, essentially, probably 4E as well but I don't think I got any setting books for that (as I was running a homebrew campaign the whole time).

 

[Yaarel]

Yeah it'd be interesting to see if they go back to that - it's how 1E through 3E worked, essentially, probably 4E as well but I don't think I got any setting books for that (as I was running a homebrew campaign the whole time).

I expect 2024 Forgotten Realms to (continue to) do stuff like feature swaps for species, classes, and backgrounds.

 

[Argyle King]

too early, 5.5 is just barely out the gates, if they are thinking about 6e now (I don’t think they are) then it would have to be an abysmal failure. What is their turnaround time on 5.5, three years?

Maybe, but Book of 9 Swords was published in (I think 2006). 4th Edition was announced in 2007; released in 2008.

Looking at the contemporary climate, a lot 5.5-related folks are being cut from the company. Most of the Project Sigil Team has also been cut.

Pure speculation on my part, but there appears to be a somewhat radical change in how D&D 5.5 is viewed by the company making it right now.

 

[Parmandur]

And the format seemed to me to mostly be a way to make more money off of a smaller page count

Which, honestly, is exactly what people would say about any shorter product: so maybe this is an example of why they don't?

 

[mamba]

Maybe, but Book of 9 Swords was published in (I think 2006). 4th Edition was announced in 2007; released in 2008.

when they started working on it and when they announced it are not the same thing. I doubt they have been taking the first steps towards a 6e in parallel to working on 5.5

Pure speculation on my part, but there appears to be a somewhat radical change in how D&D 5.5 is viewed by the company making it right now.

guess we will see, to me the reason for WotC wanting a radical change would be the sales tanking drastically, that was always the reason in the past. I don't think 5.5 is meeting expectations, but I am not seeing it tanking to that point already either.

 

[Parmandur]

when they started working on it and when they announced it are not the same thing. I doubt they have been taking the first steps towards a 6e in parallel to working on 5.5


guess we will see, to me the reason for WotC wanting a radical change would be the sales tanking drastically, that was always the reason in the past. I don't think 5.5 is meeting expectations, but I am not seeing it tanking to that point already either.

By all accounts, the new books are exceeding sales expectations.

 

[Alzrius]

Maybe, but Book of 9 Swords was published in (I think 2006). 4th Edition was announced in 2007; released in 2008.

4E got started even earlier than that. Page 8 of Wizards Presents: Races and Classes (affiliate link) says:

PRE-DESIGN: EARLY 2005

Bill Slavicsek (Director of R&D for D&D), Chris Perkins (Design Manager), and Jesse Decker (Development Manager) interview R&D staff to form a 4th Edition design team possessing complementary strengths and a high probability of working together in harmony. They settle on Andy Collins as the bassist, James Wyatt on vocals, and [Rob Heinsoo] on lead guitar.

Despite ending on a joke, the next entry notes that the first instances of "design workshop" began in May of 2005.

 

[mamba]

By all accounts, the new books are exceeding sales expectations.

I never heard any prognosis from WotC, nor have I seen any actual sales numbers. What I have heard is that they are the fastest selling, I do not doubt that, anything else would be a major failure, but that leaves a wide range

Do you have anything from WotC on what they expected sales to be and what they are in comparison?