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.

 

[Charlaquin]

Or Mearls forwarded it to one or more someone else(s) who passed it on to Zak?

That would still mean he was sharing emails sent to him in confidence from a harassment victim about her harrasser.

 

[Nikosandros]

It seems that Mearls is in charge of the Franchise Studio for D&D, and spent a lot of time in Belgium working on BG3, but is now back in Seattle. Effectively, promoted.

That was my (limited) understanding as well, but today I listened to Dragon Talk and got a bit confused, but probably I misunderstood what Winninger meant when he listed the people working with him on D&D.

 

[Parmandur]

This seems the most likely explanation to me.

It's generally hard for people who are not sociopaths, and never been subject to abuse by sociopaths, to really see through the facade of an abuser, or forsee their behavior. Even with people signaling the alarm, it can be easy for a truly charismatic sociopath to create the illusion of a conspiracy against them.

 

[Parmandur]

That was my (limited) understanding as well, but today I listened to Dragon Talk and got a bit confused, but probably I misunderstood what Winninger meant when he listed the people working with him on D&D.

I haven't had a chance to listen yet, but if Mearls is full-time on Franchise development, he's going to still coordinate with the head of the TTRPG which is at the heart of the bigger franchise picture. What did Winninger say, precisely?

 

[3catcircus]

I appreciate that.


I’ll admit to not knowing the full story, and from what I do know, this may be a possibility. I do know the victim in question, though not well. I’m a fan of her RPG work and had an opportunity to work with her on a freelance basis at one time, but missed out on it due to some other unfortunate circumstances involving Zak S’s harassment of her that I’m not going to discuss here. But there’s my bias disclosed.

And there is the issue - being a fan of someone's work and/or almost working with them isn't knowing them. You know of them. People reading things other people post on the internet gives them a false sense of familiarity.

From my (again, admittedly incomplete) understanding, Mike Mearls was investigating accusations of Zak S’s harassment of several people, including this victim. I don’t know if this was on behalf of WotC or personal. She made this burner account to send Mike Mearls evidence of Zak S’s past harassment against her. That’s all I know.

Unless it involved stuff done in the context of doing business with WoTC, why would you send evidence to them? Is WotC involved in this or were they an unfortunate third party? It's like two drunks fighting in a Waffle House.

 

[Nikosandros]

I haven't had a chance to listen yet, but if Mearls is full-time on Franchise development, he's going to still coordinate with the head of the TTRPG which is at the heart of the bigger franchise picture. What did Winninger say, precisely?

Well, he actually just says that the "team" he is working with is fantastic and then he lists Crawford, Perkins and Mearls. I took it to mean that they were all in the group that reports to him, but he doesn't really say that.

 

[billd91]

That would still mean he was sharing emails sent to him in confidence from a harassment victim about her harrasser.

Given the corporate environment he was working in, I think it's entirely understandable if he forwarded it up the managerial chain. Neither of the principals involved worked at WotC, so it's not really an HR issue (who I would absolutely expect to be involved if either of the principals was), but what would anybody expect Mearls to do with a complaint about someone given a credit on D&D as a consultant? To sit on it? What's the point of notifying Mearls if they don't want something done? And what would a reasonable person expect Mearls to do with the accusation?

 

[3catcircus]

Or Mearls forwarded it to one or more someone else(s) who passed it on to Zak?

Maybe. But it's speculation unless the emails in question can be produced.

I gotta say, it seems strange that someone would email a game designer to complain about HR stuff and the recipient would forward it to the accused. If it's true that Mearls forwarded info from an accuser to an accused in a corporate context, just about every corporate legal dept would decide he's too stupid to keep employed, because there is no ambiguity, and he would have been terminated. That he wasn't leads one to believe he didn't.

Doing so as a private citizen? We've accusations but no proof. There may be proof that would come out in a court case, but the internet isn't that proof.

 

[Parmandur]

Well, he actually just says that the "team" he is working with is fantastic and then he lists Crawford, Perkins and Mearls. I took it to mean that they were all in the group that reports to him, but he doesn't really say that.

Yeah, it seems that Mearls is still involved with the game in some capacity, even if he is neither a designer or a face for the company at this time.

At the Gameholecon panel late last year, Mearls and Perkins had talked about what they do at this point, and Perkins was working on books, while Mearls was talking about the overall brand strategy across the board.

 

[3catcircus]

Given the corporate environment he was working in, I think it's entirely understandable if he forwarded it up the managerial chain. Neither of the principals involved worked at WotC, so it's not really an HR issue (who I would absolutely expect to be involved if either of the principals was), but what would anybody expect Mearls to do with a complaint about someone given a credit on D&D as a consultant? To sit on it? What's the point of notifying Mearls if they don't want something done? And what would a reasonable person expect Mearls to do with the accusation?

A reasonable person (i.e. anyone who actually works in a corporate environment) is contacting their Legal department and doing nothing else to such an email - as it sits there burning up their inbox.

Sending it to his private email and expecting them to do something from a corporate perspective?

Again - if it happened, why doesn't anyone know which email address the accusation was sent to?