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 get pleasure from D&D purely as a fan once more, understanding the sport is in good arms.” His retirement comes within the wake of the TTRPG’s fiftieth anniversary and the latest 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 advised Polygon that Perkins “wasn’t going wherever,” and that he was taking over a brand new position on the firm.

Right this moment I retire from Wizards after 28 years. With D&D’s fiftieth anniversary wrapping up and the revised rulebooks doing gangbusters, that is the proper fairytale ending for me. I can’t wait to get pleasure from D&D purely as a fan once more, understanding 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 sport business in 1988 underneath the pen title “Christopher Zarathurstra,” which he used to write 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 turn out to be a extra distinguished 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 by means of D&D video games at standard fanatic occasions like PAX, then operating the Twitch present Cube, Digital camera, Motion and visitor starring on Vital Position.

After Perkins revealed his retirement, the Dungeons & Dragons staff thanked him for “the many years of labor he has poured into Wizards of the Coast, as D&D wouldn’t be what it’s right this moment with out his quite a few contributions. Whereas we’re extremely unhappy to see him go, we welcome him at our sport any day. Whereas at D&D, Chris mentored the following era of leaders who’re stepping up as he strikes on to get pleasure from his retirement.”

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