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.

 

[3catcircus]

There is evidence that serious allegations were made against Zak S to WotC through Mike Mearls. There is also evidence that Mike Mearls passed on the emails he received from the people alleging assaults to Zak along with their unredacted personal information, thus allegedly doxxing them. The evidence is freely available online. If it is real, and if the allegations are true against Zak, then it would appear that Mearls may have provided the victims' personal information to the alleged offender.

Forwarding emails during the course of a corporate investigation is not doxxing someone. It's called gathering evidence.

 

[mjsoctober]

Forwarding emails during the course of a corporate investigation is not doxxing someone. It's called gathering evidence.

The emails were sent by the alleged victims to Mearls with expected privacy. They did not expect that their emails would be passed on to their accuser.

 

[Hoffmand]

Mearls is a good guy. But they should just bring zeb cook and Jeff grubb back. They created the best settings and creative rules to use.

 

[3catcircus]

The emails were sent by the alleged victims to Mearls with expected privacy. They did not expect that their emails would be passed on to their accuser.

Doesn't matter, if part of a legal investigation. If, on the other hand, someone forwards emails from accuser to accused in an attempt to stop an investigation, that's different.

Corporations usually have well established policies on how to handle PII.

 

[polyhedral man]

There is evidence that serious allegations were made against Zak S to WotC through Mike Mearls. There is also evidence that Mike Mearls passed on the emails he received from the people alleging assaults to Zak along with their unredacted personal information, thus allegedly doxxing them. The evidence is freely available online. If it is real, and if the allegations are true against Zak, then it would appear that Mearls may have provided the victims' personal information to the alleged offender.

Yeah lets not go down that rabbit hole again. If someone committed a crime, people should look at their legal options and use the appropriate channels. I don't understand why someone would email a games company to report wrongdoing? But anyway, like i said, i'd prefer not to go there yet again. this whole line of speculation overshadowed the last piece of news (quite unfairly too, in my opinion). I would strongly suggest people open a separate thread to discuss that, if they so wish.

 

[3catcircus]

Mearls is a good guy. But they should just bring zeb cook and Jeff grubb back. They created the best settings and creative rules to use.

This. I'm tired of the "new hotness" designers. I would much prefer old school designers doing new hotness design because there are design concepts that have been lost over the past 30+ years that are better than current ones.

 

[jaelis]

... there are design concepts that have been lost over the past 30+ years that are better than current ones.

Ooh, adventure hook!

 

[Guest 6801328]

Mearls is a good guy. But they should just bring zeb cook and Jeff grubb back. They created the best settings and creative rules to use.

Just resurrect EGG. I mean... really...if any company should be able to resurrect dead people, it should be the publishers of D&D.

Or at least, you know, speak with dead.

 

[jgsugden]

If you're brining people back, go get Andy Collins. He'd be the third most influential name in getting D&D to where it is today.

Whatever took place with Mearls in the past, he seems to have been reprimanded and seems to have come through the other side, hopefully wiser and better prepared to handle a similar situation should it arise. Let's just let him get back to work and enjoy the quality products he'd contribute to developing.

 

[Mistwell]

There is also evidence that Mike Mearls passed on the emails he received from the people alleging assaults to Zak along with their unredacted personal information, thus allegedly doxxing them.

Just to be clear, I have never seen anything like "evidence" that happened though I have dug rather deep to try and find it (as in more than just what's available to the public on the internet), just allegations and inferences from what has been made public. Any time I ask for a link to evidence of that specific allegation I get one of three links back which is not evidence of that allegation.

I don't want to go in circles again on that topic, I just wanted to make it clear to others that this part is a rumor, and not "evidence".