“Last week I decided that I would leave my contract position with Wizards of the Coast. I am no longer working on Dungeons & Dragons, although I may provide occasional consultation in the future. My decision is one based on differences of opinion with the company. However, I want to take this time to stress that my differences were not with my fellow designers, Rob Schwalb and Bruce Cordell. I enjoyed every moment of working with them over the past year. I have faith that they’ll create a fun game. I’m rooting for them.”
“Due to my non-disclosure agreement, as well as a desire to keep things on a professional level, I have no intention of going into further detail at this time. (Mostly, I just hate drama, and would rather talk about more interesting things.)”
“As for what I’ll be turning to next, I hope you’ll stay tuned. I plan on having an interesting announcement in that regard in the near future.”
As I’ve already reported, here was senior manager of the Dungeons & Dragons research and design team and team leader of D&D Next, Mike Mearls’s reaction:
“I am surprised, and frankly saddened, by Monte’s decision to leave the D&D Next design team. I’d like to thank him for his contribution, and we all wish him well.”
Sources have indicated to me, the reason for Cook leaving mainly stemmed from his vision of what the next edition of D&D would be turning out to be rather set in stone. This inflexibility led to conflict with individuals outside of Cook’s team as well as some higher ups overseeing the project. Granted, this is all hearsay and no one is on record on that account as of yet. Plus, never having met Monte Cook – who by all indications is a very intelligent, professional, and friendly person – I’m not looking to smear his name in any way but simply share what I’ve heard. Yet, I could certainly understand if he was possibly a little overzealous in moving D&D in a direction back toward 3rd edition, since he played such an instrumental role in that design. Naturally that could have left him less open to keeping aspects of 4th edition, sailing into uncharted waters, or keen on the current “crowdsource” design Wizards is currently touting for D&D Next.
