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Mike Mearls

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Mike Mearls
OccupationWriter, game designer
NationalityAmerican
Alma materDartmouth College
GenreRole-playing games
Children1

Michael Mearls is an American writer and designer of fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) and related fiction.

Mearls worked for Wizards of the Coast from 2005 to 2023, holding various positions. He was the senior manager for the Dungeons & Dragons research and design team and then later became the franchise's Creative Director. He co-led design for the 5th edition of the game. He also worked on the Castle Ravenloft board game, and various compendium books for 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions Dungeons & Dragons. In 2024, he became the Executive Producer of role-playing games at Chaosium.

Education

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Mearls is an alumnus of Dartmouth College.[1] While at Dartmouth he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity, and became known for a satiric letter to the campus paper.[2]

Career

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Mearls wrote the adventure To Stand on Hallowed Ground/Swords Against Deception (2001) for Fiery Dragon Productions,[3]: 226  and the last product from Hogshead Publishing, a Warhammer adventure titled Fear the Worst (2002) that Hogshead released for free on the internet.[3]: 307  He also designed the game Iron Heroes (2005) for Malhavoc Press.[3]: 226 

In June 2005, Mearls was hired as a designer by Wizards of the Coast based on his work on third-party d20 products.[3]: 301  Along with Andy Collins, David Noonan, and Jesse Decker, Mearls was part of the fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons "Flywheel" design team led by Rob Heinsoo, and this team was responsible for the final concept work from May 2006 to September 2006, before the first books for the edition were written and playtested.[3]: 297  Between the fourth edition design phases titled "Orcus I" and "Orcus II", Mearls added the encounter-power mechanics of fourth edition into Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords (2006), which was in process during development of the new edition.[3]: 298  Heinsoo was laid off in 2009, so Mearls was made the new lead designer of Dungeons & Dragons.[3]: 301 [4] Following Collins departure from Wizards in May 2010, Mearls was promoted to Group Manager of the Dungeons & Dragons R&D team.[4] Mearls oversaw the launch of 4th Edition's Essentials line;[4][5] Shannon Appelcline, author of Designers & Dragons, commented that the new line was "primarily the brain child of Mike Mearls".[6] Mearls also co-designed the Castle Ravenloft Board Game (2010) with Bill Slavicsek.[3]: 302 

In 2014, Mearls was a senior manager for Dungeons & Dragons research and development.[7][8] Mearls was, together with Jeremy Crawford, Co-Lead Designer for the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons.[9][10][11] By 2018, Mearls had become the franchise's Creative Director.[12][13] He left the Wizards of the Coast tabletop RPG team in 2019 and was replaced by Ray Winninger as the Executive Producer in charge of the Dungeons & Dragons studio in 2020.[14][15][16] Mearls went on to join the Exploratory and Vision design teams for Magic: The Gathering.[17][18][19] He received "special thanks" in the credits for Baldur's Gate 3 (2023); in a 2019 interview, Mearls described his role as "story and system support".[20] Mearls confirmed on Bluesky that he was laid off in December 2023.[20][21][19]

In May 2024, Chaosium announced that Mearls was their new Executive Producer of role-playing games.[22]

Writing credits

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References

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  1. ^ "TheDartmouth.com | Graduation List as of June 5, 1997". Archived from the original on July 9, 2013. Retrieved April 10, 2009.
  2. ^ "College Should Look Into Robot Workers, Cloning and Zombies". Archived from the original on 2021-09-14. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  4. ^ a b c Macris, Alexander (September 14, 2010). "Red Box Renaissance". The Escapist. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 17, 2010. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  5. ^ Macris, Alexander (September 16, 2010). "Complete Mike Mearls D&D 4th Edition Essentials Interview". The Escapist. Archived from the original on September 21, 2021. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  6. ^ Appelcline, Shannon. "Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (4e) | Product History". Dungeon Masters Guild. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  7. ^ Frum, Larry (19 August 2014). "Digital-age 'Dungeons & Dragons' more than rolling dice". CNN. Archived from the original on 2020-10-07. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  8. ^ a b "Mike Mearls; Dungeons & Dragons". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on April 24, 2016. Retrieved 2020-03-09. Mike Mearls is the senior manager for the D&D research and design team. He led the design for 5th Edition D&D. His other credits include the Castle Ravenloft board game, Monster Manual 3 for 4th Edition, and Player's Handbook 2 for 3rd Edition.
  9. ^ Wizards RPG Team (2014). Players Handbook. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0786965601.
  10. ^ Bolding, Jonathan (June 2, 2014). "Inside the Launch of the New Dungeons & Dragons With Designer Mike Mearls". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2020-10-07. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  11. ^ Bolding, Jonathan (April 2, 2015). "An Interview With Jeremy Crawford, Co-Designer and Editor of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2020-07-20. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  12. ^ Brodeur, Nicole (2018-05-04). "Behind the scenes of the making of Dungeons & Dragons". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on 2018-05-13. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  13. ^ Hoffer, Christian (June 7, 2018). "Exclusive: 'Dungeons & Dragons' to Announce New Settings for Fifth Edition Later This Year". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  14. ^ Thomas, Jeremy (April 29, 2020). "Dungeons & Dragons' Design Team Has a New Head, Mike Mearls Exited Last Year". 411MANIA. Archived from the original on 2020-05-02. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  15. ^ Hoffer, Christian (February 9, 2024). "Joe Manganiello Compares Baldur's Gate 3 to Early Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on February 10, 2024. Retrieved February 9, 2024. Mearls was pushed out of his position as creative director of Dungeons & Dragons in 2019
  16. ^ Crawford, Jeremy (2020-04-28). "He no longer works on the tabletop RPG team and hasn't since sometime last year". Twitter. Jeremy Crawford. Archived from the original on 2020-05-05. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  17. ^ Rosewater, Mark (March 29, 2023). "March of the Machine Learning, Part 1". Magic: The Gathering. Archived from the original on May 18, 2024. Retrieved May 24, 2024. Mike Mearls (exploratory and vision): Mike came to Magic from Dungeons & Dragons. This was the first premier set he worked on.
  18. ^ Rosewater, Mark (May 8, 2023). "March of the Machine Vision Design Handoff Document, Part 1". Magic: The Gathering. Archived from the original on May 18, 2024. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  19. ^ a b Randall, Harvey (2023-12-13). "Hasbro's 1,100 layoffs have hit D&D and Magic: The Gathering hard, as a growing list of staff announce their departures". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2023-12-13. Retrieved 2023-12-13.
  20. ^ a b Walker, Ian (2023-12-15). "'Almost nobody left' of D&D team that helped get Baldur's Gate 3 off the ground, says Larian CEO". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2023-12-15. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  21. ^ Carter, Chase (2023-12-13). "D&D and MTG designers, artists and producers lose jobs among over 1,000 Hasbro layoffs, former devs confirm". Dicebreaker. Archived from the original on 2023-12-13. Retrieved 2023-12-13.
  22. ^ O'Brien, Michael (May 24, 2024). "We welcome six new members to the team!". Chaosium (Press release). Archived from the original on May 24, 2024. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  23. ^ Crawford, Jeremy; Mearls, Mike; Wyatt, James. "Contents". Player's Handbook 2. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on June 30, 2008. Retrieved 2011-10-05.
  24. ^ Mearls, Mike. "Playtest: New Hybrid and Multiclass Options". Dragon magazine #400. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  25. ^ Mearls, Mike (2007-09-21). "Encounter Design in 4th Edition". Dragon magazine #360. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2010-01-07. Retrieved 2012-08-23.
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