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.

 

[Reynard]

is anyone publishing such modules? I assume they are harder to make than ones that are ‘traditional’, unless you basically create a setting rather than an AP

In the modern era, some Savage Worlds plot point campaigns qualify. Despite the name, a lot of them are more situation descriptions than adventure flowcharts. That's what DH needs IMO.

The difference from a publishing stand point (source: I have written these for Savage Worlds published products) is that they cover the broad situation and they key inflection points, rather than telling you what the path is.

I think, for example, Avernus could have been a GREAT situational adventure. It has a compelling hook, a cool setting and a great conflict and villain. But then they literally gave you "flow chats" that were linear connections.

I'm not saying D&D, even 5E, has no good open play to.find out adventures, but they are the rare exception.

Now, of course, that's what I want and think would be good for DH. Others, including lead designers, might disagree.

 

[Matchstick]

Completely agree about plot point campaigns; something along those lines would work great. Can you imagine 50 Fathoms for Daggerheart? I absolutely can!

 

[Clint_L]

It is not a D&D cartoon. They have gone out of their way to not use any D&D protected property. They have renamed and/or changed monsters, spells, items, and locations from the campaign to the animation show for this reason.

With respect, it is 100% a D&D cartoon, just with the serial numbers filed off. It is a direct adaptation of a D&D campaign.

With regards to the growing scope of Critical Role's endeavours, according to the recent Rolling Stone article (also, they get a Rolling Stone article), they currently employ over 70 people, which is getting pretty big for this industry.

My bet is that Perkins and Crawford are there to coordinate the D&D side of the venture, which is still a big partnership for both WotC and CR.

 

[zakael19]

Just for context I, in my first time running Daggerheart last Saturday, taught three people to play, including full character generation from a standing start. And a big part of that rather than getting lost in character creation and sharing a rulebook was the cards.

The "Sidecars" to have the quick reference right besides applicable parts of the char sheet is fantastic design.

 

[zakael19]

In the modern era, some Savage Worlds plot point campaigns qualify. Despite the name, a lot of them are more situation descriptions than adventure flowcharts. That's what DH needs IMO.

The difference from a publishing stand point (source: I have written these for Savage Worlds published products) is that they cover the broad situation and they key inflection points, rather than telling you what the path is.

I think, for example, Avernus could have been a GREAT situational adventure. It has a compelling hook, a cool setting and a great conflict and villain. But then they literally gave you "flow chats" that were linear connections.

I'm not saying D&D, even 5E, has no good open play to.find out adventures, but they are the rare exception.

Now, of course, that's what I want and think would be good for DH. Others, including lead designers, might disagree.

Given how they structure the guidance around campaigns in Story Arcs with with Storylines / sub plots, you could absolutely do a collection of those + the detailed Sablewood style environments as a relatively compact supplement, or a handful as a compilation style book. It would be interesting to have an example of how they envision GMs sticking to "play to find out" and "fill space/leave blanks" inside the umbrella of loose story structure.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Post by Spenser Starke on Reddit:

Hi JustADream! Not to worry, I'm still the lead designer on Daggerheart and I'm not going anywhere!! Jeremy and Chris are here to help us continue to build out Darrington Press, Daggerheart and otherwise, but the vision, the approach, and the game style are not going to change. Quite the opposite, in fact, because I am now able to solely focus on the stuff I'm passionate about with Daggerheart.​

​

For context, I told the team from day one at Darrington that I wasn't really interested in moving into a position where I was only overseeing people and no longer doing design work itself, even if that meant hiring additional people so I could continue doing the game design. I just want to build games! So this is the ideal scenario for me and the kind of work I love to do ​

 

[zakael19]

Post by Spenser Starke on Reddit:

Hi JustADream! Not to worry, I'm still the lead designer on Daggerheart and I'm not going anywhere!! Jeremy and Chris are here to help us continue to build out Darrington Press, Daggerheart and otherwise, but the vision, the approach, and the game style are not going to change. Quite the opposite, in fact, because I am now able to solely focus on the stuff I'm passionate about with Daggerheart.​

​

For context, I told the team from day one at Darrington that I wasn't really interested in moving into a position where I was only overseeing people and no longer doing design work itself, even if that meant hiring additional people so I could continue doing the game design. I just want to build games! So this is the ideal scenario for me and the kind of work I love to do ​

Good for him to know what he wants and not take on managerial positions that move away from that. The WOTC pair clearly bring high level team and product management to the portfolio.

 

[jmartkdr2]

In the modern era, some Savage Worlds plot point campaigns qualify. Despite the name, a lot of them are more situation descriptions than adventure flowcharts. That's what DH needs IMO.

The difference from a publishing stand point (source: I have written these for Savage Worlds published products) is that they cover the broad situation and they key inflection points, rather than telling you what the path is.

I think, for example, Avernus could have been a GREAT situational adventure. It has a compelling hook, a cool setting and a great conflict and villain. But then they literally gave you "flow chats" that were linear connections.

I'm not saying D&D, even 5E, has no good open play to.find out adventures, but they are the rare exception.

Now, of course, that's what I want and think would be good for DH. Others, including lead designers, might disagree.

Given Daggerheart’s “campaign theme” mechanism I think there’s some real potential for stuff like this, especially if the module adds new game features to really make it shine.

 

[Ogre Mage]

I had originally thought Darrington Press/Daggerheart was going to be a respected but niche publisher in the TTRPG sphere like Savage Worlds, Cypher/Numenera and TORG Eternity. If Crawford and Perkins are now on the team that changes things. I could see them eventually becoming one of the major players like Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu and World of Darkness. We'll see.

 

[The Soloist]

Just for context I, in my first time running Daggerheart last Saturday, taught three people to play, including full character generation from a standing start. And a big part of that rather than getting lost in character creation and sharing a rulebook was the cards.

Cool. I was talking about the upcoming D&D starter set, in case the wasn’t clear. Yes, cards are helpful to teach to new players.