D&D Director Jeremy Crawford Also Leaving Wizards of the Coast
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Just days after it was announced that Dungeons & Dragons Creative Director Chris Perkins was retiring, we’ve since learned that fellow Game Director Jeremy Crawford will also be leaving Wizards of the Coast. Crawford had been with the company for almost 20 years, working on a number of major D&D titles and becoming a popular spokesperson for the company during some of its most pivotal moments.
In recent years, Crawford was one of the key creator working on the new D&D 2024 Core Books, including serving as the Lead Designer on the revised Player’s Handbook. His departure represents yet another major loss for the Wizards of the Coast design team, with the company facing a number of new challenges.
So just why is Jeremy Crawford leaving Wizards of the Coast and what might come next for him? Below, we break out all the details.
Who is Jeremy Crawford?
Jeremy Crawford is an American game designer best known for his work on Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast. He began his professional career at Green Ronin Publishing, where he co-designed Blue Rose, a romantic fantasy RPG that was released in 2005 and won multiple ENNIE Awards. After contributing to other titles, including Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Mutants & Masterminds, Crawford joined Wizards of the Coast in 2007. He initially served as rules manager for D&D 4th Edition and later became Co-Lead Designer of the D&D 5th Edition rules alongside Mike Mearls. Crawford played a central role in shaping the D&D 5e ruleset, serving as the managing editor for the core books, including the 2014 Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Crawford’s work on the fifth edition rules was instrumental in helping to drive D&D’s popularity, with demographics shifting to include a significantly larger number of women and new players. After working on numerous D&D products, including major campaigns and sourcebooks, he was named lead designer on the 2024 revision of the Player’s Handbook. Over the years he has also appeared in countless promotional videos and actual play events, becoming one of the most recognized faces of the D&D brand. As an openly gay and married man, Crawford also received the Gayming Icon Award in 2024 in recognition for his impact on game design and LGBTQ+ visibility in the industry.
Why is Jeremy Crawford leaving Wizards of the Coast?
Crawford’s departure from WotC was first announced in a story broken by Screen Rant. In the articles Wizards of the Coast’s VP of Franchise and Product Jess Lanzillo said that the departure of both Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins had been planned for some time. “Both of them have been working on Dungeons and Dragons for a very long time. It’s been a point of discussion for some time and something that we’ve been training up everyone for. They feel really good about the teams that they have in place and the legacy that they’re passing on… They wanted to make sure that [the core rulebooks were really successful, that they were setting up all of the future leads for success. That has happened, and they feel really reassured that the folks in place will be able to carry on with the wonderful legacy that they’ve given us, and then bring their own stuff to the table, which they’ve already been doing.”
It’s not clear from Lanzillo, however, if Crawford is leaving because of issues at Wizards of the Coast or if he was simply looking for something else after years of what is no doubt an incredibly demanding job. It’s also no clear what Crawford will do next, but it seems unlikely he’ll simply retire from the TTRPG hobby.
Final Thoughts
Jeremy Crawford has been a major influence on the design and direction of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition and his departure raises some major questions for how Wizards of the Coast will fill the role he leaves behind. As Crawford is relatively young and a well known commodity within the TTRPG industry, however, it seems unlikely that this is the last we’ll see of him.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with new information as it’s made available.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
