Dungeons & Dragons’ Chris Perkins Exits Wizards of the Coast

After 28 years, longtime Dungeons & Dragons designer Chris Perkins revealed he’s exited the corporate and retired from Wizards of the Coast.

Perkins mentioned on Friday he was leaving with a “excellent fairytale ending…I can’t wait to take pleasure in D&D purely as a fan once more, realizing the sport is in good arms.” His retirement comes within the wake of the TTRPG’s fiftieth anniversary and the current launch of its revised rulebooks, which he mentioned had been “doing gangbusters.” Previous to this, he stepped down as D&D’s product lead after the launch of the Dungeon Master’s Guide in October 2024. On the time, a Wizards consultant instructed Polygon that Perkins “wasn’t going wherever,” and that he was taking up a brand new function on the firm.

As we speak I retire from Wizards after 28 years. With D&D’s fiftieth anniversary wrapping up and the revised rulebooks doing gangbusters, that is the right fairytale ending for me. I can’t wait to take pleasure in D&D purely as a fan once more, realizing the sport’s in good arms. See you within the Feywild! pic.twitter.com/YWV4hlEPg6

— Christopher Perkins (@ChrisPerkinsDnD) April 4, 2025

Chris Perkins entered the tabletop recreation business in 1988 beneath the pen title “Christopher Zarathurstra,” which he used to jot down Dungeon Journal #11’s “Wards of Witching Methods” journey. He formally joined Wizards in 1997 as an editor for Dungeon, and later editor-in-chief of Wizards periodicals. Through the years, he’s develop into a extra outstanding determine for Dungeons & Dragons and contributed to its fourth and fifth editions and the well-known Curse of Strahd module. Perkins additionally helped popularize the Precise Play style via D&D video games at in style fanatic occasions like PAX, then operating the Twitch present Cube, Digicam, Motion and visitor starring on Crucial Function.

After Perkins revealed his retirement, the Dungeons & Dragons workforce thanked him for “the a long time of labor he has poured into Wizards of the Coast, as D&D wouldn’t be what it’s at the moment with out his quite a few contributions. Whereas we’re extremely unhappy to see him go, we welcome him at our recreation any day. Whereas at D&D, Chris mentored the subsequent technology of leaders who’re stepping up as he strikes on to take pleasure in his retirement.”

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