Combined

Dear reader, it might not surprise you to hear this, given my professional, actual job is to write for a site about PC Gaming—but I’m not really into sports. This isn’t universal among our staff, mind. I was duly ribbed for the way I described the following feeling in our morning meet.

However, the recent move of Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins to Critical Role’s Darrington Press, after a combined 46 years at D&D, is the closest I will ever get to witnessing the transfer of a high-profile athlete between sports teams. Now, when someone talks to me about how John Sports was bought by a rival team, I can say “I know exactly how you feel about John Sports”.

Some context, first: Darrington Press is the publishing arm of Critical Role, a long-standing D&D actual play stream that’s accrued enough fans to nigh-instantly fund an Amazon Prime animated series. Critical Role has grown into its own media empire and TTRPG company, releasing sourcebooks for homebrew systems Candela Obscura and Daggerheart.

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Perkins and Crawford, meanwhile, are some major industry talents. Formerly the senior story designer and principle rules designer of Dungeons & Dragons, Perkins left WoTC in April of this year after 28 years at the company, with Crawford departing soon after.

Both were large losses for Wizards of the Coast, which had just finished releasing its 2024 ruleset overhaul. And now they’re working for Critical Role, a company that got its start livestreaming D&D, to design systems that are direct competitors. In a post to the Darrington Press website, Critical Role writes:

“Exciting news—our Darrington Press team has grown, adding Chris Perkins as our Creative Director and Jeremy Crawford as Game Director! We’re thrilled to welcome both Chris and Jeremy’s expertise in game design and storytelling, honed through decades of experience working together on tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars Roleplaying, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and Blue Rose. We’re enormous fans of their work and are honored to welcome them into our team.”

The words “enormous fans of their work” feels like an understatement, when your company got its start playing one of their games—I don’t think Critical Role owes Wizards of the Coast fealty or anything, there’s just a certain kind of poetry in action here. The student has snapped up two of the masters.

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Perkins says: “Storytelling has always been at the heart of everything I do, and joining Darrington Press feels a bit like coming home … I’ve loved being a part of the extended Critical Role family as a regular guest over the years and I’m beyond excited to help create new worlds full of adventure.”

Crawford, meanwhile, seems buzzing with excitement. “This team is passionate, wildly creative, and committed to building welcoming, connected, amazing story-driven experiences—I can’t wait to expand on what Critical Role has already created to develop some really fun and unique games.”

Wizards of the Coast has been fumbling the bag these past 10 years when it comes to D&D—mostly. I might have my issues and grumbles and gripes with D&D’s 2024 rules remaster, but it’s a fine ruleset, and I’m certain plenty of people will enjoy it. When it comes to secondary projects like capitalising on Baldur’s Gate 3’s success, developing its own VTT, and so on? It’s stumble after stumble.

(Image credit: Darrington Press / Art by Nikki Dawes.)

I have to wonder out loud—and this is pure conjecture and speculation—whether Perkins and Crawford moving over to Darrington Press has something to do with wanting to escape a stifling, Hasbro-driven environment. Critical Role isn’t a small pennies company, mind, but it certainly doesn’t have a CEO who keeps talking about how cool AI is.

If there is any lingering disquietude, Perkins, Crawford, and Critical Role are all likely to keep it quiet—and with good reason. It’s bad professional manners to speak poorly of a former employer, for one thing, but Critical Role also isn’t entirely disconnected from the D&D brand just yet.

It’s just as likely that Perkins and Crawford want to do something new. You make the same game for a couple of decades, and you’ll want to go do something else. Especially given D&D 2024 is a rules revamp, not an overhaul—staying would mean committing to another decade or so of tinkering with the same skeleton. Whatever their reasons, I’m genuinely excited to see what Perkins and Crawford bring to the table.

Still, this has to sting a little for ol’ Wizards of the Coast. D&D 2024 went fine, but as a wider company, it can’t seem to stop losing talented business partners and employees. First Larian sets sail for greener pastures, and now this. This might be another sign that the TTRPG industry’s overdue another OGL-style shakeup.

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