D&D 5E Mike Mearls is back on the D&D RPG Team

Three weeks ago, WotC's Jeremy Crawford told us that Mike Mearls was no longer working on the tabletop RPG, and hadn't since some time in 2019. Today, the (newish) D&D head Ray Winninger said on the company's Twitch livestream that Mearls is now back full-time on the tabletop game.

Mike Mearls is back full time on the RPG again. He was splitting his time working on some computer game stuff for us, but he’s back.

He still doesn't appear to be back on social media since his final tweet back in 2019.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

None of which you can trust, because 3/4 of them are bots making crap up.

I'm not talking about politics. I'm talking about things like Ferguson.

 

[vpuigdoller]

He was let go in 2018, just before Waterdeep was released. Dunno about any reason, per se, though he did get in a Twitter tiff with Bruce Heard, of all people, about Mystara shortly beforehand...

What was the argument about?

 

[Parmandur]

What was the argument about?

I don't know that this is why he and WotC parted ways, but it was shortly beforehand at any rate...he had mocked Mystara and Spelljammer on a Lore You Should Know segment, and...the Internet got heated n certain quarters, and he issued a formal apology. Deets on the controversy here:

WotC Spokesperson Apologizes to Mystara fans - The Piazza

 

[Olrox17]

As I said in the past, I’m not Mearl’s biggest fan and I disagree with a lot of his takes, but I can’t argue with his results with 5e. Welcome back.

 

[dave2008]

A case of whimsical musical chairs at Wizards of the Coast?
Or clueless decisions by top management pushing the labor around?

probably neither

 

[akr71]

Or perhaps BG3 is close enough to finished from a lore/brand point of view that he's not longer needed there any more?

Yes, the logical reason is likely the right one. As someone else posted up-thread, everything else is likely coincidence. Staying away from Twitter could also have been as a result of NDA's while working so closely with the BG3 team.

There are thousands of reasons for why he could have been moved & now moved back.

 

[TheSword]

Glad to hear it. Looking forward to seeing what the next product is.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

A case of whimsical musical chairs at Wizards of the Coast?
Or clueless decisions by top management pushing the labor around?

Or just normal business where a high-ranking employee will work on different projects depending on where he's needed the most.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm intrigued to know what his actual position is, and what he's actually working on. I suppose we won't find out until he is credited in a book at some point in the future.

Or just normal business where a high-ranking employee will work on different projects depending on where he's needed the most.

That's not really normal, though. High-ranking employees typically have well-defined purviews, specifically to stop them clashing with other high-ranking employees and potentially causing issues. They may well have different projects within that purview, but this is quite different from that. It's certainly not "normal business" in a hierarchical organisation like WotC (it might be at, say, Valve, or some flatter-structured start-ups, but WotC has a clear hierarchy). Plus it sounds like he's working more directly, not managing, which is kind of unusual/interesting.

Like I said though, we probably won't know more until he's credited in a book.

 

[Sketchpad]

And now would be a great time to see Star Frontiers and Gamma World developed by Mike, while Ray handles D&D.