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."

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Oh wow, I just checked and Ray wrote the level of Castle Greyhawk that had Mordenkainen making movies and sitting in a hot tub. Gotta love it.

 

[gyor]

Yes, the story made it outside of the various forums, especially after WotC had to put out their own press release about the incident and the involvement of Zak with their products, and the subsequent severing of ties with him, I think including removing his name from all products he worked on. Their statement does not mention Mike at all, but it is still available to read on their website.

I thinking that is wrong, no matter what he did or didn't do, that is dishonest on their part and I don't care for easure thing. If he worked on stuff, then he did, you don't just get to take way the credit for work someone else does.

 

[Mistwell]

I thinking that is wrong, no matter what he did or didn't do, that is dishonest on their part and I don't care for easure thing. If he worked on stuff, then he did, you don't just get to take way the credit for work someone else does.

If it were a movie the union would be filing an unfair labor practice.

 

[Parmandur]

I thinking that is wrong, no matter what he did or didn't do, that is dishonest on their part and I don't care for easure thing. If he worked on stuff, then he did, you don't just get to take way the credit for work someone else does.

The only thing Zak S had done was some consulting and playtesting: they simply removed all the consultant credits in future printings.

 

[buzzardoftheages]

I hope someone who is still currently on the D&D design team can continue with the spirit of what the Happy Fun Hour was doing on Twitch in a new series. While I do enjoy listening to Jeremy Crawford discuss how the decisions were made during the design process of the Unearthed Arcana articles after the fact, I really enjoyed watching Mearls work on and discuss initial design, along with the philosophy involved from the 5e perspective, as he interacted with the stream throughout the process.

 

[gyor]

The only thing Zak S had done was some consulting and playtesting: they simply removed all the consultant credits in future printings.

Consulting is still work.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

I thinking that is wrong, no matter what he did or didn't do, that is dishonest on their part and I don't care for easure thing. If he worked on stuff, then he did, you don't just get to take way the credit for work someone else does.

So someone shouldn't suffer consequences for the actions that they have taken, am I getting that right?

 

[darjr]

I hope someone who is still currently on the D&D design team can continue with the spirit of what the Happy Fun Hour was doing on Twitch in a new series. While I do enjoy listening to Jeremy Crawford discuss how the decisions were made during the design process of the Unearthed Arcana articles after the fact, I really enjoyed watching Mearls work on and discuss initial design, along with the philosophy involved from the 5e perspective, as he interacted with the stream throughout the process.

gosh yes! And also campaigns and adventure design as well, in the same spirit. Very much like a “here’s how I’d do it” and a “here is some info about why we did what we did and/or how we did it”.

 

[gyor]

I listedned to an interview of folks who contributed to Castle Greyhawk and they were doing it absolutely think

gosh yes! And also campaigns and adventure design as well, in the same spirit. Very much like a “here’s how I’d do it” and a “here is some info about why we did what we did and/or how we did it”.

I just want them to finish the Psion class he was doing, it was awesome.

 

[Schmoe]

So someone shouldn't suffer consequences for the actions that they have taken, am I getting that right?

I think you're taking it to the extreme. The point wasn't that there shouldn't be consequences, the point was that it is dishonest to publish something that someone contributed to and not acknowledge their contributions.

 

[Charlaquin]

The encounter design was basically fine. If you had a low bar for what constitutes a good adventure and a party that doesn't ask questions, or need good plots, or enjoys interacting with NPCs, it's fine. As a showcase for 4E combat, it works.

As anything else? Pffffft, not sure about that.

And whilst it was criminally boring, at least it wasn't as IQ-loweringly stupid as Thunderspire Labyrinth (featuring the world's most poorly-explained random Green Dragon).

Yeah, I did not care for Thunderspire Labyrinth. I enjoyed the combat - 4e combat was almost always enjoyable - but the adventure was pretty dumb.

 

[Charlaquin]

As far as Zak S, nobody cares or even knows about that stuff aside from diehard fans who frequent niche RPG forums and read about rumors and gossip.

Or, you know, anyone who follows World of Darkness development at all.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

So someone shouldn't suffer consequences for the actions that they have taken, am I getting that right?

For what he specifically contributed to 5E, taking his name out is enough of a grey area where he would not have been successful if he had tried to get it reversed. Now, if he had written actual parts of the PHB, or other books, and then had his name removed from the credits, that would probably be enough for a lawsuit, and WotC would have had to just deal with his name being in the credits. And he did suffer consequences, as far as we know, if he has not been hired to work on any other RPG projects anywhere and/or if sales of his own works have gone down.

 

[teitan]

We've veered a little offtopic in the Zak S. commentary. Them horses be D-E-A-D.

 

[zenopus]

.

 

[gyor]

So someone shouldn't suffer consequences for the actions that they have taken, am I getting that right?

That is for a court of law to decide. And it is not fair to the consumer to misrepresent the credits, plus it's just childish of WotC. Plus it's historical revisionism, which is getting old.

Anyways I'm moving on, this is the past, I am more interested in the future. For those more familiar with Ray, what do you think his mark on D&D 5e will be?

 

[Jester David]

That is for a court of law to decide. And it is not fair to the consumer to misrepresent the credits, plus it's just childish of WotC.

There are consequences beyond legal ones. If you misbehave at work that’s a human resources issues. And arguing “innocent until proven guilty” with HR seldom ends well...

 

[gyor]

There are consequences beyond legal ones. If you misbehave at work that’s a human resources issues. And arguing “innocent until proven guilty” with HR seldom ends well...

Of course not, HR is usually run by an people who couldn't find productive work to do, so instead they run HR.

But anyways, I'm trying to move on from this topic, catch the hint. This thread is supposed to be about Ray, not Zak.

 

[teitan]

There are consequences beyond legal ones. If you misbehave at work that’s a human resources issues. And arguing “innocent until proven guilty” with HR seldom ends well...

Dead horse still buuutttt HR legally has to investigate a complaint to see if it violates expectations before they can provide disciplinary action. The court of public opinion provides no such benefit vis a vis Johnny Depp and Amber Herd. Ok I’m done.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

That is for a court of law to decide. And it is not fair to the consumer to misrepresent the credits, plus it's just childish of WotC. Plus it's historical revisionism, which is getting old.

Anyways I'm moving on, this is the past, I am more interested in the future. For those more familiar with Ray, what do you think his mark on D&D 5e will be?

So the consumer shouldn't get to decide anything? Great! I agree with you!

The consumer did not decide this though, the company did.