Monte Cook is returning to Wizards of the Coast to work on Dungeons and Dragons, the company announced today.  Cook was instrumental in the creation of D&D 3.0 and the Planescape setting during his previous tenure at the company. More recently , he created the mammoth Ptolus sourcebook, based on D&D 3.5 (which is coming back into print from DriveThruRPG, see “RPG Masterwork Returns”).  Cook will be working with the D&D research and development team.

As recently as a few weeks ago, Cook was talking about publishing new RPG material under his Malhavoc Press umbrella, so this must have been a fairly recent move.

Wizards of the Coast cut some long-time D&D staffers in June (see “Layoffs Hit Wotc’s D&D Team”), but WotC CEO Greg Leeds told ICv2 that the move was not indicative of reduced staffing on the brand, but was instead a reflection of “adjusting and tweaking our organization” (see “Interview with WotC CEO Greg Leeds, Part 2”).