If you played Dungeons & Dragons during the early years of fifth edition and ever took the time to look at the credits section for the adventure books, you may have noticed a weird detail. Some of these products were designed by publishers and studios outside of Wizards of the Coast, including 5e’s first campaign supplement, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, designed by Kobold Press. Princes of the Apocalypse was designed by Sasquatch Game Studio. Both Out of the Abyss and the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide were designed by Green Ronin Publishing. This outsourcing practice was abandoned starting in 2016 when Wizards began designing all D&D products in-house, but it seems this may no longer be the case.
A job post on LinkedIn, spotted by Dungeons & Dragons Fanatics, shows that Wizards of the Coast is looking to recruit a TRPG Publishing Lead for D&D, whose responsibilities include being “the creative lead for externally developed D&D content, including adventures, campaign materials, guides, and artwork.” This seems to imply that Wizards’ plans for the future of D&D include a return to the outsourcing model that kickstarted 5e. While a line in a job description can hardly be considered confirmation of a company strategy, this detail is still relevant if seen in the context of the recent moves made at Wizards.
After Mike Mearls, Christopher Perkins, and Jeremy Crawford (the designers who established the brand’s success during the 5th edition era) all left the company in recent years, D&D found itself facing an identity crisis. The major 5th edition update in 2024, now officially called 5.5e, struggled to chart a new course for “the world’s most popular TTRPG.” In July 2025, Wizards of the Coast’s senior VP for digital games, Dan Ayoub, took charge of D&D, which is now run under a full franchise model. Ayoub put renewed focus on the game’s community and started to mend some fences with fans who still have not forgiven the big Open Game License scandal, when Wizards attempted to overhaul its Open Game License in a way that would have restricted third-party publishers and allowed the company to profit from and have greater control over fan-made content. The move prompted widespread backlash and led to a full reversal. Three years later, Wizards is looking at third-party publishers differently.
Justice Arman, a former independent game designer who worked on several IPs and authored popular D&D books such as Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse, has been promoted to Game Design Director for D&D. Arman knows the world of TTRPG publishing outside of Wizards very well, having worked with third-party publishers including Critical Role, MCDM, and Beadle & Grimm’s. Moreover, D&D Beyond has recently started to include third-party content on its platform, showcasing products from “rival” publishers such as Chaosium and Paizo. Overall, it looks like Wizards of the Coast is now actively trying to include them in the D&D infrastructure.
It’s thus reasonable to expect a return to books designed and developed by third-party companies but published by Wizards of the Coast, as was the case in 2015 and 2016. The OGL scandal clearly soured these relationships. Just like the fans and players, third-party publishers saw Wizards of the Coast’s behavior as a betrayal of trust. Things are looking better now, and this could be the next step in Ayoub’s plan to restore the brand’s image. Or perhaps, the D&D team at Wizards simply doesn’t have enough resources at the moment, and outsourcing is once again seen as a viable strategy to find and develop new talents.
In an interview with Polygon earlier this year, former D&D creative director Chris Perkins mentioned that, when developing the Rime of the Frostmaiden adventure, he hired freelance designers he’d never worked with before, essentially to test their skills in view of future in-house employment. While Perkins is no longer at Wizards, this strategy is still valid.
I’m not surprised that so many of the recent moves made by the D&D team seem to be looking back at the wildly successful early days of 5e. Wizards of the Coast may be looking backward for answers, but the results don’t have to feel that way. If the company can rebuild trust with the creators it once alienated, this new wave of externally developed D&D content could end up being the most interesting thing the game has in store in the near future.
