Christopher Perkins (born February 29, 1968) is a Canadian American game designer and editor who is known for his work on

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

's ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

. He retired from Wizards of the Coast in 2025. He then became the Creative Director of

Darrington Press Darrington Press is the tabletop game imprint for Critical Role Productions which launched in October 2020. Jeremy Crawford is the Game Director and Chris Perkins is the Creative Director, with Matthew Mercer as the creative advisor. The publ ...

in June 2025.

Career

Under the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

"Christopher Zarathustra", Perkins got his career start in 1988 writing the adventure "Wards of Witching Ways" for ''

Dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably derives more from the Renaissance period. An oubliette (fr ...

'' magazine #11. He later officially started working for

in 1997, beginning as the editor for ''Dungeon''. A few years later, he was promoted to editor-in-chief of Wizards periodicals. Perkins later became the senior producer for ''

'', leading the team of designers, developers, and editors who make products for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. Perkins was the story manager for ''Dungeons & Dragons'' in 2007 before the release of the game's fourth edition. Perkins was working on the '' Star Wars Saga Edition'' while ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fourth edition was being developed, and ideas were exchanged freely between Perkins and the fourth edition team. He was also on the SCRAMJET team, led by Richard Baker, and including

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the Neoclassicism, neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to ...

Matthew Sernett Matthew Lee Sernett is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Matt Sernett was part of the SCRAMJET team, led by Richard Baker, with designers James Wyatt, Ed Stark, Michele Carter, Stacy Longstreet, and Chris ...

Ed Stark Ed Stark is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Ed Stark began his career at West End Games, where he wrote for the ''TORG'' and ''Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Star Wars'' lines. He was the main developer b ...

, Michele Carter, and Stacy Longstreet; this team updated the setting and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' as the fourth edition was being developed. Perkins wrote a blog, "The Dungeon Master Experience", on the Wizards of the Coast website for over two years, where he shared tricks and advice about the challenge of "dungeon mastering" a campaign through the lens of his homebrew world, Iomandra. However, in the penultimate posting of March 2013, he announced the following posting would be the last "at least for a while", whereupon the blog became inactive. Perkins was the Lead Story Designer for the adventure module '' Curse of Strahd'', released in 2016, which added

Ravenloft Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a '' pocket dimension'' or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of land piece ...

to the 5th edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. In 2018, Perkins was the senior story designer for ''Dungeons & Dragons''. In a 2024 interview, he highlighted that as the Game Architect for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' brand his "primary responsibility is to manage the team of designers and editors" who make the tabletop game products along with supporting "other D&D teams as well as business partners". In October 2024, Perkins stated that "although I made substantial contributions to the ''Monster Manual'' (2025) and the next D&D starter set, the ''Dungeon Master's Guide'' (2024) is the last official D&D book in which I'm credited as a product lead". He later clarified that his position at Wizards of the Coast has shifted from Game Design Architect to Creative Director. In April 2025, Perkins announced his retirement after working for "28 years" at Wizards of the Coast. In June 2025, it was announced that both Perkins and Jeremy Crawford would be joining Critical Role Productions tabletop game imprint

. Perkins became the company's Creative Director while Crawford became the Game Director which matches their former roles at Wizards of the Coast. Perkins stated, "I was committed to staying with Wizards until after ''D&Ds 50th anniversary, which gave me lots of time to work on succession planning and exit strategies. What brought me out of retirement was the chance to work with Jeremy and the brilliant folks at Critical Role on things that have a lasting, positive impact on the world".

Actual play

Perkins was the longtime Dungeon Master for the Acquisitions Incorporated ''Dungeons & Dragons'' games at the

Penny Arcade Expo PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, and Melbourne. Previously, it was also held in San Anton ...

(PAX), until PAX Unplugged 2018. The games began in 2008 with the 4th edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' before switching to the 5th edition following the release of the new edition. From 2016 to 2019, Perkins was the Dungeon Master in the

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show '' Dice, Camera, Action'', which was a

livestream Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming media, streaming of video or Digital audio, audio in real-time communication, real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature ...

play-through of ''Dungeons & Dragons''' latest story lines. He has also guest starred twice on the ''Dungeons & Dragons''-based show, ''

Critical Role ''Critical Role'' is an American web series in which a group of professional voice actors play ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The show started streaming partway through the cast's first campaign in March 2015. Campaign one ended in October 2017 aft ...

''.

Personal life

In his free time, Perkins runs a ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign set in his homebrew world of Iomandra.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Chris 1968 births Actual play performers Canadian emigrants to the United States Designers from Seattle Dungeons & Dragons game designers Living people Place of birth missing (living people)