Summary
- Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford have departed Wizards of the Coast.
- Both were extremely influential game designers who worked on Dungeons & Dragons.
- Fans are speculating on the nature of these departures.
Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford, two Dungeons & Dragons senior game designers, have both announced their respective departures from Wizards of the Coast.
Perkins worked at Wizards of the Coast for 28 years, beginning as an editor for Dungeon magazine before shifting towards game design, where he would eventually become a creative director. Perkins was the lead story designer for Curse of Strahd, by far the most popular adventure book written for fifth-edition (5e) Dungeons & Dragons. Curse of Strahd is a 5e adaptation of the 1983 module Ravenloft and is so popular that it has spawned a fandom that doesn’t even necessarily overlap with Dungeons & Dragons at large.
Two High-Profile Departures
In a statement on Bluesky, Perkins bid farewell to Wizards of the Coast: “Today I retire from Wizards of the Coast after 28 years. With D&D’s 50th anniversary wrapping up and the revised rulebooks doing gangbusters, this is the perfect fairytale ending for me. I can’t wait to enjoy D&D purely as a fan again, knowing the game is in good hands. See you in the Feywild!”
A week later, Crawford was also confirmed to be departing the company (via ScreenRant). Crawford transitioned from an independent tabletop game designer to working for Wizards of the Coast in 2007. He helped lead the design of Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition. He was also the lead designer on the 2024 revision of the Player’s Handbook.
Wizards of the Coast has stated that the timing of these departures is deliberate, as both have just finished up work on the game’s new core rulebooks and felt it was an appropriate stopping point after a combined 46 years working on Dungeons & Dragons.
However, fans aren’t convinced the departures are as non-contentious as everyone’s statement claims. Although Perkins worked on Dungeons & Dragons for over two decades and may just be looking for something new creatively, observers are concerned about Crawford’s subsequent departure.
“Jeremy Crawford announcing that he would leave about a week after Perkins is definitely some bad news at the corporate level,” theorises Cyberpunk_Werewolf on a Reddit thread about Crawford’s departure.
“Chris and Jeremy leaving the same month; the entire [virtual tabletop] team got fired overnight. You don’t need to be a fortune teller to tell things are not looking bright,” writes Scandii.
Wizards of the Coast has already announced James Wyatt and Wes Schneider are set to take on additional responsibilities following the departure of Crawford and Perkins. Schneider and Wyatt both have a long history in tabletop RPGs, though it is unknown if they’ll be receiving promotions to the departing pair’s old roles.
Dungeons & Dragons
- Original Release Date
-
1974
- Player Count
-
2+
- Age Recommendation
-
12+ (though younger can play and enjoy)
- Length per Game
-
From 60 minutes to hours on end.
