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

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

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

Castle Ravenloft Board Game (2010) with Bill Slavicsek.[3]
: 302 

In 2014, Mearls was a senior manager for Dungeons & Dragons research and development.

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

References

  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. ^
    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". dnd.wizards.com. 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. 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. 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.

External links

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