Now that the new DnD rulebooks have been released, the creatives at the helm of the game have taken the chance to ride off into the sunset. Creative Director Chris Perkins, who had a large influence on the game’s narrative side, retired on April 4. Game Director Jeremy Crawford, who shaped Dungeons and Dragons 5e’s rules, will follow suit at the end of the month. The question is, what’s next for D&D? What creative minds will now steer the ship?
Both Dungeons and Dragons designers have left large shoes to fill. Perkins began writing for Dragon magazine in 1988, and he was hired as its editor in 1997. He contributed to D&D’s fourth edition and fifth edition as a senior producer and story designer, notably taking the lead on 5e’s most popular campaign, Curse of Strahd.
Crawford was hired by Wizards of the Coast in 2007, taking on the mantle of rules manager. Along with Mike Mearls, Crawford co-designed D&D 5e, and he was the face of the ‘Sage Advice’ column that answered questions about rulings. Crawford also helped make D&D a more diverse game, with more female designers credited on 5e than any previous edition.
According to an interview by ScreenRant, no one will immediately inherit the roles left open by Perkins or Crawford. The core rulebooks and this year’s DnD release schedule are set up and running smoothly, so there’s apparently little need for top-level design roadmaps in the short term.
Someone will have to step into those leadership shoes eventually, though – and a few names have already been thrown around. Here’s a brief explanation of who’s who.
James Wyatt
Wyatt is one of two employees who will apparently play a bigger role at Wizards of the Coast now that Perkins and Crawford are out of the picture. He began writing for Dragon magazine in the mid-’90s, and he was hired to work on D&D full-time in 2000.
Wyatt is credited with writing the fourth-edition Dungeon Master’s Guide, and he was a co-author of the original Eberron Campaign Setting book, which introduced the now-beloved setting to D&D. Wyatt also authored the third-edition version of Oriental Adventures, a controversial setting book that’s been criticized for its depiction of Asian cultures.
Wyatt briefly left D&D to work on Magic: The Gathering in 2014, but he was back by 2018, working on books such as Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, Mythic Odysseys of Theros, and Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.
F. Wesley Schneider
Schneider is the second designer named in ScreenRant’s article, and he will apparently play a prominent role in D&D’s future. Schneider was an assistant editor for Dragon magazine in 2003, and he has written many adventure paths and fiction novels for Pathfinder. He was also editor-in-chief at Paizo before joining Wizards of the Coast as a developer in 2019.
Schneider worked as a senior designer on many of fifth edition’s early Unearthed Arcana documents. Later, he was the designer and editor for Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. After that, Schneider took the lead on the design for several DnD books, including Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, and the award-winning Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel.
Justice Ramin Arman
According to Wizards of the Coast’s VP of Franchise and Product Jess Lanzillo, Justice Ramin Arman will also be taking on more leadership duties in the wake of Crawford and Perkins’ departure. Previously a game designer and producer for Beadle & Grimm’s, Arman joined Wizards of the Coast three years ago.
Since then, Arman has (in our opinion) penned some of the most unique D&D adventures, with credits in books like Journeys through the Radiant Citadel and Keys from the Golden Vault. He was a lead designer on Quests from the Infinite Staircase and Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse. In 2024, Arman was promoted to the role of Managing Game Designer for D&D.
Makenzie De Armas
Mackenzie De Armas was not named as a potential successor for any leadership roles, but we speculate that she will play more of a role in D&D’s design going forward. De Armas joined Wizards of the Coast as an associate game designer in 2021, and as of writing, she works on the game design team.
While De Armas isn’t known to lead design on many D&D books, she has played a prominent role in D&D’s marketing, regularly appearing at press events and in videos to discuss upcoming books. She’s credited with working on all three of the new core rulebooks, as well as adventures like Vecna: Eve of Ruin. De Armas also introduced the first canonically autistic character to D&D in the Book of Many Things.
Amanda Hamon
Another unmentioned but likely player in the future of D&D is senior designer Amanda Hamon. Hamon previously worked for both Kobold Press and Paizo, and she’s credited as a co-creator for the latter’s Starfinder RPG.
She has been working at Wizards of the Coast since 2020, and in recent years she’s been the lead designer for Vecna: Eve of Ruin and Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk.
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Source: Wargamer
