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.

 

[Teemu]

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.

The cartoons aren't tied to the D&D IP though so there are no financial ties to Hasbro or WotC. You could just as well play Daggerheart games inspired by the cartoons.

If Darrington Press / Critical Role do continue to use D&D more or less as their primary vehicle for their flagship show, it will absolutely be a bad marketing move for Daggerheart. If Critical Role doesn't play their own new game and have trust in it, why would the audience do that? If they hired Perkins and Crawford in order to increase their D&D output, they might as well treat Daggerheart as a side project and shelve it in a year or so.

 

[dbm]

Given that Chris Perkins is seen as a great live-play GM maybe this will give them the bandwidth to run both a 5e stream and a DH stream in parallel?

No need to choose.

 

[AlViking]

The cartoons aren't tied to the D&D IP though so there are no financial ties to Hasbro or WotC. You could just as well play Daggerheart games inspired by the cartoons.

If Darrington Press / Critical Role do continue to use D&D more or less as their primary vehicle for their flagship show, it will absolutely be a bad marketing move for Daggerheart. If Critical Role doesn't play their own new game and have trust in it, why would the audience do that? If they hired Perkins and Crawford in order to increase their D&D output, they might as well treat Daggerheart as a side project and shelve it in a year or so.

I have no idea what their plans are but many companies make the mistake of over specialization because one of their products is successful. Over-diversification can also hurt, but most companies are better off hedging their bets. As I said above, I see Daggerheart and D&D having significant differences, there's a lot of overlap but also a fair number that will be interested in one but not the other. It would be different story if Darrington Press had created a game with the mechanics more along the line of PathFinder and D&D, but they didn't.

For their sake I hope they get the balance right because I have no clue what will work for them. I would assume their stream is financing the game development at this point. If Daggerheart is a flash in the pan because even good products sometimes burn out quickly they may want to continue doing a D&D campaign because that's what they're primarily known for at this point.

 

[Bravesteel25]

I have no idea what their plans are but many companies make the mistake of over specialization because one of their products is successful. Over-diversification can also hurt, but most companies are better off hedging their bets. As I said above, I see Daggerheart and D&D having significant differences, there's a lot of overlap but also a fair number that will be interested in one but not the other. It would be different story if Darrington Press had created a game with the mechanics more along the line of PathFinder and D&D, but they didn't.

For their sake I hope they get the balance right because I have no clue what will work for them. I would assume their stream is financing the game development at this point. If Daggerheart is a flash in the pan because even good products sometimes burn out quickly they may want to continue doing a D&D campaign because that's what they're primarily known for at this point.

I don't think anyone is saying that Darrington Press is going to completely abandon 5E, but they would be remiss to not focus on Daggerheart, say 75% DH and 25% 5E.

 

[AlViking]

I don't think anyone is saying that Darrington Press is going to completely abandon 5E, but they would be remiss to not focus on Daggerheart, say 75% DH and 25% 5E.

We'll see what they do, I don't think it's a simple decision. Either way has risks and opportunity costs. I will note that Spenser indicated D&D General - Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford Join Darrington Press that (bold added) "Jeremy and Chris are here to help us continue to build out Darrington Press, Daggerheart and otherwise". So they're going to be working on something else, it will be interesting to see what the something else is.

 

[Reynard]

We'll see what they do, I don't think it's a simple decision. Either way has risks and opportunity costs. I will note that Spenser indicated D&D General - Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford Join Darrington Press that (bold added) "Jeremy and Chris are here to help us continue to build out Darrington Press, Daggerheart and otherwise". So they're going to be working on something else, it will be interesting to see what the something else is.

On Reddit, Stark made sure folks understood that he remains the lead designer on DH, and that he did not want a high level job. Perkins and Crawford were brought on to do what they do best: run the lines and big picture. They will certainly work on DH, but also other stuff (probably CO and 5E stuff).

 

[brodahisou]

This is amazing! I was expecting Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford to start their own company and produce a kickstarter, but this is better. Darrington Press have a fantastic production and marketing team that will give them access to resources they wouldn't necessarily have access to if they were to go solo. I think they're going to do stuff they couldn't do, or weren't allowed to do, at WOTC. It really is an exciting time in the RPG world. I can't wait to see what they do.

 

[bedir than]

If Darrington Press / Critical Role do continue to use D&D more or less as their primary vehicle for their flagship show, it will absolutely be a bad marketing move for Daggerheart. If Critical Role doesn't play their own new game and have trust in it, why would the audience do that? If they hired Perkins and Crawford in order to increase their D&D output, they might as well treat Daggerheart as a side project and shelve it in a year or so.

Critical Role is bigger than Daggerheart. CR should do what's best for CR, not for one of their several games, which they will of course play, because they're literally playing it in shows now. Just like they played their board game and their other games.

Critical Role is a brand with several products. One of those product lines features D&D (clearly). Another product line features Daggerheart and another the Candles games and another that Umbriah (sp?).

A business of their scale has to have more than one product line. That's normal.

 

[Teemu]

Critical Role is bigger than Daggerheart. CR should do what's best for CR, not for one of their several games, which they will of course play, because they're literally playing it in shows now. Just like they played their board game and their other games.

Critical Role is a brand with several products. One of those product lines features D&D (clearly). Another product line features Daggerheart and another the Candles games and another that Umbriah (sp?).

A business of their scale has to have more than one product line. That's normal.

That’s true but D&D and Daggerheart both offer a heroic fantasy RPG and Daggerheart is very much inspired by 5e and D&D in general. They occupy the same category. Daggerheart is like 5e except it’s a little less wargamey and a bit more dramatic action. Critical Role’s flagship D&D show and a possible Daggerheart campaign (extended show) would offer the same kind of fantasy experience. That’s what makes it interesting to see where they go in the future.

 

[chuckdee]

Plot Twist!

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