Jeremy Crawford On The Dark Side of Developing 5E

WotC's Jeremy Crawford spoke to The Escapist about the D&D 5th Edition development process and his role in the game's production. "There was a dark side where it was kind of crushing. The upside is it allowed us to have a throughline for the whole project. So I was the person who decided if what we had decided was important two years prior was still being executed two years later."


You can read the full interview here, but below are the key highlights.

• Mike Mearls started pondering about D&D 5th Edition while the 4E Essentials books were being worked on in 2010.
• There were "heated discussions" about the foundations of 5E.
• Crawford is the guy who "made the decision about precisely what was going to be in the game".
• Crawford considers D&D's settings as an important pillar.

For another recent interview, see Chris Perkins talking to Chris "Wacksteven" Iannitti.

 

[Remathilis]

Actually, at least four of the MWP Dragonlance licensed RPG books are on Drivethru right now. The "remastered" for 3E Dragonlance Chronicles adventures (3 books), plus the bestiary and the "dragons" sourcebook. Huh, I guess that's at least five books!

While we won't know until we see them, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Ravenloft RPG books licensed by White Wolf appear on the site at some point.

I'm sure MWP had a very different contract than Arhaus/WW did. For one thing, the Dragonlance Campaign Setting book was published by WotC, not MWP, whereas the Ravenloft books were all Arhaus. In that regard, its probably closer to the Rokugan/OA scenario than the Ravenloft one.

That said, good on the DL books being there. I still don't suspect any of the 3e-era Ravenloft stuff (barring Expedition) will be up there ever. Either way, I'd much prefer a dozen or so pages of quality 5e material to the often-questionable 3e stuff that was out, but cie-la-vie.

 

[Wicht]

So why jump in with the 5e is doomed and Pathfinder uber alles song and dance in every thread where it might remotely be tangental to the topic?

If you could find me any actual quote where I have ever said 5e is doomed, I would be very interested to read it.

My entry into this thread was actually on a completely different subject, and the only reason we are having this present discussion is because I answered a question you had asked concerning 4e sales relative to Pathfinder. My only point at the time being that initially 4e outsold Pathfinder, but as time went on, the sales of 4e decreased and the sales of Pathfinder increased so that positions were reversed. This was not to start a major argument on anything. Most people concede that this is indeed what happened. But you brought it up and now I am almost sorry I replied to you.

EDIT: And to clarify why I participate in discussions about the market, it is because I find the topic, and the history of my hobby, to be interesting.

 

[Celtavian]

I remember that 2e was so strong that even atfer being in production for more then 10 years, with TSR burning down and with CCG, LARP, indie and Storytelling trends raging - it was still the biggest RPG in town.

2E was a very fun game. The amount of high quality material produced during 2E was impressive. It still has my favorite books for clerics. I have very fond memories of 2E.

 

[Wicht]

2E was a very fun game. The amount of high quality material produced during 2E was impressive. It still has my favorite books for clerics. I have very fond memories of 2E.

Yeah, there was a lot of good stuff for that edition. Its a hallmark of how good the 3e rules were, I think, that I transitioned so easily out of 2e, because, like you, I have very fond memories of playing 2e.

 

[Tony Vargas]

2E was a very fun game. The amount of high quality material produced during 2E was impressive. It still has my favorite books for clerics.

Aaron Allston's "Complete Priest's Handbook?"

I remember that 2e was so strong that even atfer being in production for more then 10 years, with TSR burning down and with CCG, LARP, indie and Storytelling trends raging - it was still the biggest RPG in town.

We're not disagreeing. One thing that's hard to keep in perspective is just how far D&D had to slide from the top of the boom years, just how far ahead it started relative to it's imitators and challengers. For half the 90s, Storyteller dominated the sub-culture - but they never, AFAIK out-sold D&D.

 

[Staffan]

As I recall, back in 1997 after a few months of nothing new being released for AD&D (because of the "problems at the printer") they did lose the top sales spot.

To Palladium.

 

[Nellisir]

2E was a very fun game. The amount of high quality material produced during 2E was impressive. It still has my favorite books for clerics. I have very fond memories of 2E.

There are a lot of things 2e really set the bar for. I was ready to move on to 3e, but it was a bigger change than most people were expecting. I thought it'd be a cleaned-up 2e for the most part.

 

[Celtavian]

Aaron Allston's "Complete Priest's Handbook?"

I believe it was Faiths and Avatars and Powers and Pantheons. Those two books made running a priest much more fun than usual.

I'm still mixed on the 5E cleric. Seems like an incomplete class. They didn't supply many cantrips for the cleric. One attack cantrip that does radiant damage. Very light on the damage spells. Cleric is perhaps the weakest damage class in the game again. Considering the game dynamic is different than previous editions, I don't understand why the cleric seems so lacking in capacity to do well in combat. I know they have the most powerful buff spell in the game: bless. That doesn't seem a sufficient reason to not supply them with additional interesting and varied combat options. My cleric is evil and a drow. It's hard to see her using sacred flame. They gave no other cantrip options for PC priests unless I make it up. I hope they have a book planed fairly early to make clerics more interesting.

 

[Celtavian]

There are a lot of things 2e really set the bar for. I was ready to move on to 3e, but it was a bigger change than most people were expecting. I thought it'd be a cleaned-up 2e for the most part.

The only reason we moved on from 2E is because we had played it so long we wanted something new. We still liked the game. You know gamers and their inability to resist shiny new books with new rules to master.

 

[Nellisir]

The only reason we moved on from 2E is because we had played it so long we wanted something new. We still liked the game. You know gamers and their inability to resist shiny new books with new rules to master.

I had a binder of house rules and changes and tweaks, that had more pages than the PHB. I wasn't sorry to stop using it.