D&D General Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford Join Darrington Press

Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford have a new home, joining Critical Role’s Darrington Press. The LA Times was the first to report on the news of the pair joining Darrington in undisclosed roles. [UPDATE: Per Darrington Press, Perkins is Creative Director and Crawford is Game Director, matching their roles at Wizards.] According to the article, Perkins and Crawford were approached by Critical Role shortly after news broke that the pair were departing Wizards of the Coast.

I was committed to staying with Wizards until after D&D’s 50th anniversary, which gave me lots of time to work on succession planning and exit strategies,” Perkins told the LA Times. “What brought me out of retirement was the chance to work with Jeremy and the brilliant folks at Critical Role on things that have a lasting, positive impact on the world.”

“Chris and I talked about his retirement plan for years, so his approaching departure was long on my mind. When we sent the new D&D rule books to the printer last year, I felt it was time to explore a new chapter for myself,” Crawford added. “I love the game and its team, but 18 years is a long time. I was ready for a new adventure. The chapter that we’ve now opened feels like coming home — resuming work with Chris and returning to Southern California.”

Darrington Press just launched Daggerheart, a fantasy TTRPG that’s more narrative focused than D&D, but also has significant rules-crunch. Many have described Daggerheart as a rival to D&D, a comparison that will likely be made even more now that Darrington has snatched away two of D&D’s primary architects for the last 10+ years.

 

[Vael]

Daggerheart is the new hotness, and getting Perkins and Crawford will certainly help give Darrington some clout, but I highly doubt this is some threat to WotC or DnD as a brand. 5e will continue, as will DnD. Paizo and Pathfinder didn't kill it, I don't think Daggerheart and Darrington will either.

That said, I am very impressed with the system and am seriously considering switching to Daggerheart over 5e. I was never in the market for a crunchier system, Level Up and Pathfinder are not my cup of tea ... but Daggerheart is. There's a lot of 4e in it and char gen looks fun. I've found a lot of PbtA games a little intimidating, yet Daggerheart feels more approachable.

 

[Afroconan]

At first I was wondering what that site was, and then I saw the right wing politics at the end and the lightbulb went off.

Yeah. I deleted my xitter account sometime after the buyout.

I caught wind of the news because of Ted from Nerd Immersion, came here to see if anyone had posted anything about it and since I couldn't find it went looking for it.

xcancel does the job as ethically as possible since it saves you the need for an account and it doesn't give that godawful site any traffic... Won't save you from reading "chuddery" though...

 

[Zaukrie]

I plan on working till I'm dust. Or the bus hits and kills me instantly.

Whichever one happens first.

I'm very happy not working! But differences make the world go round.

 

[Afroconan]

Yup. If something is published under an old license it's legit in perpetuity - you just need to check before anything new. The other part the outrage machine objects to is that if you publish something you can't sue Darrington for something similar they publish unless it's a blatant lift, and you can't drag them into your lawsuits. This license came from people on the fringes of the Hollywood machine...

Yeah. I don't get the outrage. A third party open license is great to have but IMO it's not a blemish if you don't. I have my issues with IP law and IP as a concept, but thems the rules.

Just the same with WotC and the OGL AFTER(!) they published the SRD under CC. They tried the rugpull. It blew on their faces. We got something better out of it. So WotC's okay in my book until the next f*ckup.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Before Darrington Press hired them, they had to each fight a young indie creator to the death in a steel cage match.

Yeah I don’t get it.

You want a mix, right? Like I wanna see more new young people on the D&D team, in large part because the core books were written primarily by two guys who have been making D&D stuff for longer than the youngest lead designer has been alive, so James Wyatt is really all the “experienced old guard” the game needs for a while. Let Justice Arman and Makenzie De Armas step up to create new things for the game.

On the other hand, here we have a brand new game, with fairly experienced but young designers, who just added extremely experienced designers who made some of the most successful TTRPG material ever, between the two of them, and just updated that game very very very successfully, and who are eager to do some new creative stuff. That’s awesome!

Like, an inspired and invigorated team of diverse people are the ideal, not because of ideology as some folks try to insist, but because diversity provably increases productivity, engagement, and team strength, and in creative fields the benefits are even greater than in other fields.

 

[SkidAce]

Yeah and if I was gonna live in an expensive part of Cali, it would Goleta where my family is all from. God i miss Goleta…

Its a nice place...visited there a bit while I was stationed at Vandenberg AFB.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Its a nice place...visited there a bit while I was stationed at Vandenberg AFB.

I’m biased by nine generations of my family being buried there, but yeah, it’s really nice.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Yes and no. Shadowdark is firmly within the OSR space as far as play style goes, but it leans heavily on some 5e mechanics which does draw some people from D&D as well. I think that's why it was so successful, because it had something for both camps. The creator is also pretty cool, and the license is very easy to use.

I don't see much about Daggerheart that interests me or my group. But the CR community's impact on its potential to replace Pathfinder can't be ignored. Guess we'll wait and see.

If you're into OSR, then Daggerheart is not for you (near as I can tell). It's for the players who want drama to be the main thing and adventuring for context.

But, in my experience, that's a very big chunk of new players. So Daggerheart could (and probably will) be a big deal.

13th Age is toast.

 

[BruceWright]

If you're into OSR, then Daggerheart is not for you (near as I can tell). It's for the players who want drama to be the main thing and adventuring for context.

I concur. I picture D&D as the "middlest" fantasy TTRPG. The most agreeable, compromise game. Pathfinder if you want more crunch, Shadowdark if you want more fast and dangerous, Daggerheart if you want more soap opera.

And D&D is there for when your table can't agree on one of the more specialized ones.

 

[popuman]

two creators enter
one creator leaves.

Before Darrington Press hired them, they had to each fight a young indie creator to the death in a steel cage match.