WotC Ray Winninger Is Head of D&D RPG Team; Mike Mearls No Longer Works on RPG

People have been wondering where Mike Mearls has gone for quite some time. It seems that he has not been working on the D&D tabletop RPG since some time last year, and the new head of the team and Executive Producer is Ray Winninger.

Winninger is an RPG industry veteran. Amongst other things, he was co-designer of DC Heroes and Torg, and wrote the Dungeoncraft column for Dragon Magazine. He has worked at a number of RPG companies including TSR, Mayfair Games, West End Games, and more.

Winninger is Chris Perkins' and Jeremy Crawford's boss. And in further comments, Chris Perkins says that Mike Mearls has not been part of the tabletop RPG team since some time last year.


That explains why Mearls' Twitch shows, like Happy Fun Hour, have disappeared. Although he's made a couple of retweets since, his last tweet on Twitter was February 13th, 2019. He still works at WotC on the D&D brand in some capacity, but not the tabletop RPG itself (he did an interview about Baldur's Gate 3 on Polygon last year).

Ray Winninger introduces himself in the latest issue of Dragon+, WotC's online magazine. "My name is Ray Winninger and I’m the new Executive Producer in charge of the Dungeons & Dragons studio at Wizards of the Coast. In just a few months on the job, I’ve already been impressed by the skills and the passion of the designers, artists, editors, and production staff who bring you our terrific D&D products. They are a uniquely talented group, and it is an honor to work alongside them."

 

[gyor]

I don't think "the people" is true. The other articles I can think of that were critical of 4E were both less "under the bus"-y and not by people who actually worked extensively on 4E (Mearls was in charge of it for almost the entire time it existed, from 2009 onwards). Hypercritical is about right though. And it seemed really odd given 4E was specifically criticised for criticising previous editions. I guess whatever works though.



This is true but the reason people think otherwise is that Mearls himself claimed he wasn't "there at the start" of 4E development, didn't understand why certain decisions had been made, and so on. This was all part of the "under the bus"'ing of 4E though, so take that as you will.



Why would you expect that from Winniger's background?

The two RPGs he created - Torg and Underground, were anything but tactical, and his columns have always been more about ideas, stories, and good DMing than anything else. If anything, from his background, you'd expect more of a focus on risky/daring settings, and better DM advice (neither of which will actually happen, I suspect, but if we're going by background).

Well so far under him the two books we got (by June 2nd) were Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and Mythic Odysseys of Theros.

Wildemount is the first major setting partnership with a 3rd party for 5e and one that is integrated with the D&D multiverse, and Theros is experimenting with a host of new/expanded mechanics and it's a setting that is untested in D&D, neither setting has been published officially for the D&D multiverse, so I think he's off to a great start on the risky/daring settings front.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I guarantee you he had a few sleepless nights in there after "edgy" humor from a few years back ended up being a problem later on. The fact that it was dredged up by people with a political axe to grind doesn't negate the fact that it was still there to find.

What was deeply mystifying to me was like, why is this on Twitter? Why was that ever on Twitter? Was that not like a group chat on WhatsApp or something? Why ever say that stuff in public.

Maybe it really is a "fans feedback" thing but it's just so hard to picture.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Zack S stuff had something to do with Mearls changing positions, but I very much doubt it was WotC forcing a move. More likely, in my opinion, Mearls got tired of all the public scrutiny and decided to start looking for opportunities to make a lateral move within the company away from the public eye.

Yeah I feel like this is an unrealistic take how things work in companies like WotC. Also, if that was really it, they wouldn't have kept that he'd "laterally moved" quiet for months and months. I notice his LinkedIn remains unupdated. Unless we assume he moved 2 years ago. In which case it's funny because Winniger gets promoted around the same time, so it's more like Mearls has been out around two years.

 

[Parmandur]

DCA was Chris Perkins, not Mike Mearls. I don’t think Mearls had anything to do with DCA. They’ve also started a new show with the same cast minus Holly and Jared and a couple new folks.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Zack S stuff had something to do with Mearls changing positions, but I very much doubt it was WotC forcing a move. More likely, in my opinion, Mearls got tired of all the public scrutiny and decided to start looking for opportunities to make a lateral move within the company away from the public eye.

Yeah, he had already changed job titles, but the awful mistakes he made probably was encouragement to get out of being in a customer facing position.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Well so far under him the two books we got (by June 2nd) were Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and Mythic Odysseys of Theros.

Wildemount is the first major setting partnership with a 3rd party for 5e and one that is integrated with the D&D multiverse, and Theros is experimenting with a host of new/expanded mechanics and it's a setting that is untested in D&D, neither setting has been published officially for the D&D multiverse, so I think he's off to a great start on the risky/daring settings front.

I think your bar for risky/daring is like, a lot lower than mine. Wildemount is smart, it's the opposite of risky or daring. It's a totally generic setting from an incredibly popular and really reasonable-seeming bunch of people. Theros is a small risk - smaller than Ravnica, I'd say, because the basic underlying material has a broader appeal and it sounds like it'll have more and more widely-usable content than Ravnica.

They don't compare to stuff like Underground. I mean go read the link - that's risky, I mean, even for edgy '90s RPGs, Underground was like razorblade made of glass edgy, and Torg was a hugely daring thing, even if kind of a failure. It would be totally unreasonable to expect anything like either form WotC, but I do hope they move a bit outside the generic/kitchen sink and MtG settings they've been doing so far.

EDIT - Reading Winniger's LinkedIn a bit more, and he is staggeringly qualified for this position, overqualified even. I guess starting with Mayfair games to being in charge of the biggest RPG company on the planet at the apex of their power is kind of a dream job for him.

Seriously worth a look and expand the "Experiences" a couple of times: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raywinninger/

 

[Parmandur]

Well so far under him the two books we got (by June 2nd) were Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and Mythic Odysseys of Theros.

Wildemount is the first major setting partnership with a 3rd party for 5e and one that is integrated with the D&D multiverse, and Theros is experimenting with a host of new/expanded mechanics and it's a setting that is untested in D&D, neither setting has been published officially for the D&D multiverse, so I think he's off to a great start on the risky/daring settings front.

Those products both have 2 years of planning behind them. It'll be awhile before they really get into new territory on that front.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yeah I feel like this is an unrealistic take how things work in companies like WotC. Also, if that was really it, they wouldn't have kept that he'd "laterally moved" quiet for months and months. I notice his LinkedIn remains updated. Unless we assume he moved 2 years ago. In which case it's funny because Winniger gets promoted around the same time, so it's more like Mearls has been out around two years.

Fair enough. I’ll be the first to admit I know less than nothing about how things work in companies like WotC.

 

[Parmandur]

What was deeply mystifying to me was like, why is this on Twitter? Why was that ever on Twitter? Was that not like a group chat on WhatsApp or something? Why ever say that stuff in public.

Maybe it really is a "fans feedback" thing but it's just so hard to picture.



Yeah I feel like this is an unrealistic take how things work in companies like WotC. Also, if that was really it, they wouldn't have kept that he'd "laterally moved" quiet for months and months. I notice his LinkedIn remains updated. Unless we assume he moved 2 years ago. In which case it's funny because Winniger gets promoted around the same time, so it's more like Mearls has been out around two years.

Mearls had already changed into the branding/licensing side of things, and they had begun looking for someone to take over a lot Nathan Stewart's people management areas after his promotion. I think the controversy did, however, lead to Mearls no longer being a face.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

While some are talking about the start of 5E and who did what, I think a lot of people have forgotten that Monte Cook was the lead designer for 5E for several months before parting ways with WotC. From Wikipedia:

Cook returned to Wizards of the Coast in 2011. On September 20, 2011, Mike Mearls announced that Cook would be taking over his "Legends & Lore" column for the Wizards of the Coast website. In January 2012, it was revealed that Cook was to be the lead designer for the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. In April 2012, Cook announced his departure from Wizards of the Coast due to "differences of opinion with the company" but not "with [his] fellow designers".

I always wonder if that whole modularity thing they were talking about went away with Monte?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I always wonder if that whole modularity thing they were talking about went away with Monte?

Remind me what that was? Google isn't finding it for me.

 

[gyor]

What was deeply mystifying to me was like, why is this on Twitter? Why was that ever on Twitter? Was that not like a group chat on WhatsApp or something? Why ever say that stuff in public.

Maybe it really is a "fans feedback" thing but it's just so hard to picture.



Yeah I feel like this is an unrealistic take how things work in companies like WotC. Also, if that was really it, they wouldn't have kept that he'd "laterally moved" quiet for months and months. I notice his LinkedIn remains updated. Unless we assume he moved 2 years ago. In which case it's funny because Winniger gets promoted around the same time, so it's more like Mearls has been out around two years.

Winniger has only been in the job fora few months, not years. I don't know who held the job honestly in the period between Mearls moving to a new position and Winniger getting the job.

Anyways having a deep looking at Winniger's resume, he's been playing D&D since before I was alive. He's worked on D&D products, wrote Dungeoncraft and a review columns for Dragon Magazine, worked on various RPGs like Chill, Underground, Superhero RPG stuff, Doctor Who RPG, worked on video games, worked with apps and other technology in a mamgerial position, and he excutively produced Golem Arcana, made his own huge campaign setting at 14. So he's extremely familiar with D&D, RPGs in general including mechanics design, Campaign Setting creation and DMing, experience writing, business experience, technology experience, game design experience (both video and tabletop), integrating Table Elements with Technological App elements, management/executive producing experience. I find I am EXTREMELY impressed by his resume.

But I have one question left, how good is he with Forgotten Realms lore? (and other settings).

Golem Arcana - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org