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.

 

[Alzrius]

 

[AlViking]

Beyond being warm in this tells me there isn't a lot of bad blood here. We'll find out the full story eventually.

I would assume the full story is that they had worked for the same company for a long time, got done with a big project and decided to move on. Throw in a chance to move from the Seattle area to southern CA and work on new stuff with a smaller company. I wish them both luck but I don't see any bigger story than that - it was time to move on and this sounded like an interesting opportunity for them and a change of pace.

 

[Pedantic]

I'm mostly hoping this means a lot more content comes out to support Daggerheart. I didn't immediately love it, but there's nothing there another 6 sourcebooks couldn't fix. Hopefully this land we see a mainstream popular RPG with a steady content release schedule.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Beyond being warm in this tells me there isn't a lot of bad blood here. We'll find out the full story eventually.

I suspect we already know the full story, doesn't seem like there's anything happening here other than what they are telling us.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Wow, that is a major win for Darrington Press and shows that they are absolutely looking to become a force as a TTRPG publisher. Spencer is okay as a game designer, but P&C are going to elevate the product to the next level, perhaps one that truly could compete with D&D.

I would love it if he picked their brains on how to improve a second edition of Kids on Brooms, which feels like half a product at best.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yes, it was the talk of the hobby store. Haters hoped D&D would die. My friends and I objected but were ridiculed. They were already building the bonfire.

Do any of them post here?

 

[Nikosandros]

Beyond being warm in this tells me there isn't a lot of bad blood here. We'll find out the full story eventually.

Why should there be any at all?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would assume the full story is that they had worked for the same company for a long time, got done with a big project and decided to move on. Throw in a chance to move from the Seattle area to southern CA and work on new stuff with a smaller company.

Despite what one might see in the news, especially this month, Southern California is great. I moved here in the 1990s and have never looked back. I suspect after decades of rain and gray skies, "come work with us in Pasadena" sounded amazing.

 

[AlViking]

Despite what one might see in the news, especially this month, Southern California is great. I moved here in the 1990s and have never looked back. I suspect after decades of rain and gray skies, "come work with us in Pasadena" sounded amazing.

I lived in Folsom for a little over a year - not quite southern CA but I did enjoy it. Unfortunately our company was run by idiots. Of course I was also an idiot for transferring to stay with the company but that's another story.

 

[SteveC]

As I've been thinking about this, I do a sports analogy. When a baseball or football team makes a move to acquire the best-known and respected talent that's suddenly available, I think of it as making a big commitment. Okay, so the analogy breaks down in that there's no world series or super bowl to go to, but I think it shows a willingness to move up into the major game producers.

Is this the end for D&D? (I said that with the voice from the voice over from the old Batman tv show). Hardly. But I do think it shows an interest in taking some of the market share from WotC. I'm not convinced that RPGs are growing as a whole (and feel free to tell me I'm wrong here...) so it's moving people from an existing base to something new. It's exciting.