Dungeons & Dragons Designers Christopher Perkins and Jeremy Crawford Retire After Destroying The Game With Woke Agenda
Senior Dungeons & Dragons designers Christopher Perkins and Jeremy Crawford have all departed Wizards of the Coast, leaving behind a game they fundamentally transformed to turn the game woke before facing any consequences from Hasbro for their decisions.
With the new edition of D&D, Wizards of the Coast has already courted controversy with their changes to the game by adding a diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda on top of their core rulebooks. D&D players, as a result, have been watching their beloved roleplaying game of questing and fighting monsters turned into a political cudgel and social conditioning tool by the Hasbro corporation.
The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide infamously incorporated BDSM fetish community practices in the game for safe spaces, having players make an X with their arms if they feel triggered by a situation and requiring a DM to stop the game and address the player in question.
The 2024 Player's Handbook is filled with imagery of BIPOC and female characters at a margin of more than five to one for white male characters, about the direct opposite of the demographics who play the game. Moreover the game doesn't allow players to play half-elves half-orcs, also replacing the term "race" with "species" to try to be politically correct.
Perhaps the worst iteration of all was the 2024 Monster's Manual, which removed orcs as monsters and offered no ruleset for players to create their own monsters, a time-honored tradition in D&D.
The game came under further scrutiny after it was revealed senior designer Jason Tondro penned a forward to a history book on Dungeons & Dragons, calling Gary Gygax misogynistic and accusing him of cultural appropriation.
Now, with the fallout from these controversial decisions still unfolding, key architects of these changes are abandoning ship. Christopher Perkins, a 28-year veteran of Wizards of the Coast, announced his retirement in April. Perkins served as a senior story designer and was instrumental in shaping the direction of the game during its most controversial period.
In his retirement announcement on Bluesky, Perkins wrote: "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!"
This carefully worded statement makes no mention of the controversy surrounding the game he helped reshape, nor does it acknowledge the growing discontent among the player base.
Jeremy Crawford has also reportedly stepped back from his position, though he remains with the company in a reduced capacity.
These departures come as Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast's parent company, faces financial pressures and declining sales across multiple product lines. The timing suggests these designers may be leaving before having to face the consequences of their decisions as sales figures for the controversial 2024 core rulebooks begin to emerge.
For longtime D&D fans who have watched their beloved game transformed into a vehicle for political messaging, these departures seem conveniently timed as the company has to be bracing fur further layoffs. With the architects of D&D's controversial new direction now gone, questions remain about whether Wizards of the Coast will course-correct or continue down the path that has alienated so many of its core players.
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Good riddance to bad rubbish.