D&D 5E Monte Cook Leaves WotC - No Longer working on D&D Next [updated]

[freeAgent]

I'm not jumping to any conclusions. A disagreement with the company could be anything. Maybe the coffee in the break room was so repulsive to him that he was forced to quit. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with 5E other than that he won't be helping to develop it going forward.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Regardless of how I feel about the man as a designer, I have to wonder why so many people seem to be taking this as some kind of reason / opportunity to impugn the guy's character. For some reason.
It's just a game people.

That was kind of my thinking as well. Although I may have gone overboard in my response, it still looks like people are attacking him and basically although a bit passive aggressively calling him a liar.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Rather than speculate, I'm just popping in to wish Monte the best in his future endeavors.

 

[Mark CMG]

For example, for the two weeks notice thing? Generally even contractors I have hired give that courtesy; but the situation could be such that this wasn't a "declaring notice" thing.

What makes you think he didn't give notice? I see no evidence of that. It might even be that he gave notice about the time that Mike Mearls started writing the L&L columns again, which would put it about two months ago -

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[DMBrendon]

I was really looking forward to seeing his influence on D&D Next. Lets hope Rob Schwalb and Bruce Cordell carry the torch well.

 

[braro]

What makes you think he didn't give notice? I see no evidence of that. It might even be that he gave notice about the time that Mike Mearls started writing the L&L columns again, which would put it about two months ago -

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Archive

Here is why I am unclear on the notice thing.

He says that he decided to leave his position at WotC last week.
He is now no longer working for them.

That doesn't mean that he failed to give 2 weeks notice; it could be that he did, but they decided to pull the bandaid. Or it was at a break in contracting terms. Or he had some incorporated paid time off that he was able to use for that week. Or any number of things.

All I am saying is that, I don't know, and I am not going to be able to say I feel a certain way about anything without another source to explain.

 

[seregil]

As someone else said before, WOTC will need to address this issue and 'spin' it so it does not damage 5E's chances.

When you lose one of of your main designers (on a team of three), it is not a negligible loss. This is major and the timing of the departure means that the conflict, whatever it was, was major enough to cause a professional to drop a project mid-run.

Since I believe that 5E being started up so quickly stems from 4E lacklustre results, both in terms of $$ and in terms of enthusiasm from the gamer community, the fact that WOTC did not bend on the issue with Cook leads me to believe that whatever the issue is, it must be MAJOR.

Surely WOTC realises that 5E is their last chance to 'redeem' DND and if they fumble now, DND will continue to loose steam and probably never recover.

About the only issue I can see that corporate suits are this stubborn about would be the OGL. The suits see Pathfinder and are determined never to create their own worst enemy again, failing to see that their stupidity is what is feeding their enemy to begin with.

Pure speculation, of course, but what is the Internet for? Well, speculation and the biggest porn distribution system in the history of mankind.

 

[Perspicacity]

For those knowledgeable of such things, are there now any designers working on DNDNext that didn't work on 4e?

 

[Thyle]

I haven't posted on ENW in several years, and really haven't followed much D&D news since 3.5 came out. It wasn't the announcement of "Next" that caught my interest and brought me back to following the news & developments--it was that Monte was involved. His work is what got me excited about the possibility of returning to D&D with the new edition. I lament this news greatly.

 

[Mercule]

Monte has a lot of great ideas. I never cared for the stuff that was all his, though -- Arcana Unearthed, for example. Given his rock star status, I was actually a bit concerned when he came back to WotC. I definitely liked Mikes' L&L musings last year better than when Monte took the column over.

None of that is meant to knock Monte. He seems like a great guy, and I really do think he has some good ideas. My hopes for 5e just don't rest on him. I think Mike and Bruce are both going to produce something more to my tastes (I really can't single out specific design ideas from the others).

 

[Mark CMG]

Here is why I am unclear on the notice thing.

He says that he decided to leave his position at WotC last week.
He is now no longer working for them.

While he might be "no longer working on Dungeons & Dragons" we don't know if he might be finishing out his two week notice sharpening pencils. Still, I am guessing this decision has actually been coming for some time, since the change over in the L&L articles. He came on board last September, IIRC, about six months ago, so a six month contract seems likely. It might also explain why after the L&L articles were shifted away from him he stayed around this long.

There are obviously different ideas of the way the fifth edition should be built. Anyone reading the WotC articles and blogs can see they haven't (up to this point) settled on one direction. But now they are at a point where they need to build the new edition in a more serious way, with much more direction, for the subsequent playtesting to have any real use for the designers going forward.

If, as I speculate, he wanted to go with the OGL and make full use of all the great design ideas that has generated over the last decade+, and management was opposed to doing so, then that would be a very good reason to walk. It might even be that they brought Monte on board because they wanted his OGC without having to use the OGL, because that is one way around it as would be buying it outright, and maybe Monte didn't want to give up the IP but would have been fine using it under the OGL and even expanding on it, because it would remain either his or OGC. We may never know but these are certainly plausible scenarios.

 

[braro]

While he might be "no longer working on Dungeons & Dragons" we don't know if he might be finishing out his two week notice sharpening pencils. Still, I am guessing this decision has actually been coming for some time, since the change over in the L&L articles. He came on board last September, IIRC, about six months ago, so a six month contract seems likely. It might also explain why after the L&L articles were shifted away from him he stayed around this long.

Working on a non-D&D product is also a viable explanation.

Again, I am not saying that Monte did not give 2 weeks notice. What I am saying is that I do not have enough information to assume I know what is going on.

One thing I do want to point out is that you suggest that it was probably coming and the L&L shift was when WotC maybe decided on a direction; I think that could be possible, but that would be information I would want to actually have from a reliable source, not something I would want to assume.

There are obviously different ideas of the way the fifth edition should be built. Anyone reading the WotC articles and blogs can see they haven't (up to this point) settled on one direction. But now they are at a point where they need to build the new edition in a more serious way, with much more direction, for the subsequent playtesting to have any real use for the designers going forward.

If, as I speculate, he wanted to go with the OGL and make full use of all the great design ideas that has generated over the last decade+, and management was opposed to doing so, then that would be a very good reason to walk. It might even be that they brought Monte on board because they wanted his OGC without having to use the OGL, because that is one way around it as would be buying it outright, and maybe Monte didn't want to give up the IP but would have been fine using it under the OGL and even expanding on it, because it would remain either his or OGC. We may never know but these are certainly plausible scenarios.

These are all indeed possibilities. There are numerous plausible scenarios, and the speculation is fun; I am just responding more to the idea that we should take everything Monte said as a clearly thought out explanation with all the details we need to understand the truth of the situation. That there is nothing in his post that shouldn't be taken with a grain of skepticism.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Best of luck Monte. Would like you to put some products out from Malhavoc. Another dungeon crawl comes to mind as I liked Banewarrens and Demon God's Fane.

Absolutely. Monte is in position to write the first great 5E adventure.

As for what Monte does next, I wish him all the luck in the world, and whatever he might have up his sleeve to announce as a next project, I'll give it a look when it's announced.

Perhaps now is a good time to approach him with a Planescape-esque Pathfinder project.

 

[Hal G]

I don't think he is lying, because the situation is probably that there is no capital-T Truth, just a lot of stories that are true from everyone's perspective.

Just that, before I can really comment on the situation beyond asking questions or picking at things that I want further explained, I would want more information.

For example, for the two weeks notice thing? Generally even contractors I have hired give that courtesy; but the situation could be such that this wasn't a "declaring notice" thing. It could be that the allocated hours completed, and Monte didn't want to re-up, or it could be that WotC was way behind on payments, or it could even be that they were collapsing roles and Monte chose to step away from what he felt was a negative situation so that somebody else could keep their job.

Both of those would match what Monte describes, but they imply different things about what is going on behind the scenes.

So, yes, if I were being pushed to comment or to decide how I felt about the situation, I would need another source or more information.

Plenty of companies that when you give 2 week notice, accept your resignation and agree (pay wise) but do not want any issues and ask you to leave ASAP.

 

[braro]

Plenty of companies that when you give 2 week notice, accept your resignation and agree (pay wise) but do not want any issues and ask you to leave ASAP.

Indeed; that is something I mentioned in an earlier post (but after the one your are quoting). This is especially true in areas where you don't want a person taking information with them.

Somebody else said it could have been a six month contract, that then Monte didn't want to renew; that would explain everything true.

Again, I am not saying Monte failed to give notice. Just that if one of my colleagues put out a post like that, my first step to understanding the information would be to go to a friend still in to the organization and ask "whafu?"

 

[Zaukrie]

When one of the 3-5 people running a project quits, that not usually a good sign. Just speaking from years of experience on projects....Some of the comments in this thread make me sad for the community, but I'm not surprised by them.

 

[Mark CMG]

I am just responding more to the idea that we should take everything Monte said as a clearly thought out explanation with all the details we need to understand the truth of the situation. That there is nothing in his post that shouldn't be taken with a grain of skepticism.

Well, that happens to be in error as line-by-line was pointed out earlier in this thread directly to you, though perhaps you haven't read that yet. Nothing he says is speculative or unclear. He is leaving. He says it is not because of Rob Schwalb and Bruce Cordell. He says he has had disagreements with WotC. An NDA prevents him from saying more at this time though he wouldn't probably say anymore anyway because he doesn't like drama. None of this is speculation or in need of verification. None of it requires the other side of the story. Perhaps you didn't read his anouncement very closely?

http://montecook.livejournal.com/251404.html

 

[RoboCheney]

Designing D&D 5E is about the most prestigious spot an RPG developer could be in right now. So it must have been something pretty significant, maybe disagreement over the direction or some feature that we won't find out about for months. I could see this relating to the OGL, as keener observers have speculated.

But we only get a tiny window into the full breadth of WotC's internal going-ons, so who knows . . .

 

[BryonD]

To me the biggest shame of this is that it is going to open the door to an endless pattern of "woulda coulda shoulda".

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Just popping into this thread to wish Monte all the best and looking forward to seeing what he does next. He has not deserved the vitriol he has received from a specific section of the D&D community.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise