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.

 

[bedir than]

Don't get me wrong - I like Perkins' and Crawford's work. I enjoy their game. But the idea that name recognition is a major reason to hire them fails to recognize that Darrington Press is already based on the largest media machine in RPGs.

I didn't present that name recognition was why they signed the two. I did suggest it was because they wanted to maintain strong ties to D&D, especially 5e.
There's no evidence at all that they are trying to move away from D&D, considering the larger resources they've put towards 5e than any other game.

 

[Sulicius]

The initial response on the webosphere was excellent—almost no bashing. With the art style targeting younger kids (8+), it will look good on the shelves. Parents will pick it up.

I’m confused, I was asking about this:

D&D is loosing players but it is gaining new ones faster. The new starter set with cards will bring in troves.

 

[Reynard]

There's no evidence at all that they are trying to move away from D&D,

This is true

considering the larger resources they've put towards 5e than any other game.

This is not. They just spent a year and obviously huge amounts of resources making a new game that is not related to D&D.

 

[mamba]

There's no evidence at all that they are trying to move away from D&D, considering the larger resources they've put towards 5e than any other game.

while they spent more on D&D, they did so over years and predominantly in the past, the last two or so years they released two non-D&D TTRPGs. I would argue that is evidence that they are moving away from D&D, even if they do not let go of it entirely

 

[AlViking]

while they spent more on D&D, they did so over years and predominantly in the past, the last two or so years they released two non-D&D TTRPGs. I would argue that is evidence that they are moving away from D&D, even if they do not let go of it entirely

I wish them luck but I see Daggerheart leaning more into narrative game space and having a different appeal than D&D. It works great for the original group because they've always been into big time drama which is going to appeal to some people. I looked at it a bit, and it's just not what I want out of a game, most of the people I've played with over the years are happy with the level of drama that D&D provides. It's possible that it could be a smash hit and supplant D&D (which is not going anywhere anytime soon) as #1, but my guess is that it's more likely to be competition for other narrative style games.

I think it's a good thing for people to have options when they want them, we just don't know how big of a deal this is going to be long term or what the CR folks are planning.

 

[Mercurius]

I'm guessing that regardless of how great it is making a living doing D&D stuff, always working within corporate culture with the bigger entity of Hasbro ultimately dictating your course ("profit first, everything else second") becomes a bit wearing after a decade plus. Probably making somewhat less but for a company run by and for gamers ("make what we love first, and then figure out how to make it work financially") sounds rather appealing.

The basic fact is that D&D is, in the end, guided by WotC, which is guided by Hasbro. Top-down, corporate culture, profit above all else. It can be subtly oppressive, but in an accumulative sort of way (or so I imagine). Even if the D&D design team have a good amount of creative freedom, the background of WotC and Hasbro probably has a subtle, but pervasive, impact.

I'm personally not really a fan of Mercerverse gaming (though more "meh" than disliking), but I can see the appeal for Crawford and Perkins - if only to get back into that space where love of the game comes before everything else.

Anyhow, I find the current RPG world interesting, in that regard. D&D remains the main "city" in the RPG world that most people never leave, which is a shame because "population" aside, it is just a tiny fraction of the vast diversity of the "world." It is sort of like getting into pop music as a kid and never exploring beyond. This is not to say that there's anything wrong with liking pop music, but it is just a tiny sliver of what music is.

So good luck on your new adventure, Mr Perkins and Mr Crawford: enjoy the wider world!

 

[Pedantic]

Really? I don’t see any other live streams selling out Madison Square Garden. If that’s suffering, I’ll gladly suffer that. Everyone is having fun. Isn’t that what is important? The whole Dimension 20 team is just passionate about putting out an entertaining product. The whole Dropout platform is what television entertainment should be.

Oh for sure, Dimension 20 is excellent, I'm always excited to give up a Wednesday evening. I just don't think he's at his best in the liveshow situation, especially having seen all the Time Quangle and the Madison Square Garden VODs. They get very parasocical and slimmed down, while still trying to be in epic in scope to squeeze all the references in.

 

[bedir than]

while they spent more on D&D, they did so over years and predominantly in the past, the last two or so years they released two non-D&D TTRPGs. I would argue that is evidence that they are moving away from D&D, even if they do not let go of it entirely

They also released another D&D book, put three on DnD Beyond, extended their D&D cartoon contract with Prime Video and hired the two most famous TTRPG designers of the current era (while not letting go of the people who helped build Daggerheart).

They're a growth stage business adding new product lines, not closing them

 

[Aldarc]

It’s a game with a completely different aesthetic, goals, and thematic assumptions, it using the d20 skills and such is irrelevant to the point.

Sure, but it's still a solidly d20 game that uses basically all the skills, feats, saving throw progressions from 3e across twenty levels as a OGL d20 system. I say this as someone who loved playing Blue Rose and and played the hell out of True20, which was the generic system that came out of it. I don't think that the system holds up nowadays. I don't think anyone wants to relive the days of requiring Ambidexterity, Two-Weapon Fighting, and Improved Two-Weapon Fighting feats in order to achieve lower mediocrity when fighting with two weapons.

I would have loved a 5e update to True 20, but alas it hasn't happened. The AGE system is probably the closest, but it's 3d6 and not as generic as The True 20 Roleplaying Game. Another close contender would be something like the Without Number series by Kevin Crawford, but that also somewhat suffers as a generic system in the manner of True 20 as a result of being genre-specific.

Minor nitpicking. GR ported it to the AGE system.

Nowadays, yes.

 

[Weiley31]

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

Oh same and I get ya.

But the world is a SCARY place if ya don't have any money.