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Rob Heinsoo was WotC‘ most talented RPG designer, next to Jonathan Tweet who left WotC the year before. After having co-designed with Tweet the best produced and best designed WotC game of all times - Dreamblade -, Heinsoo went on to design two games for WotC by himself – Inn Fighting and Three Dragon Ante. When WotC decided to publish a 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, Heinsoo was promoted to the status of Lead Designer - a promotion which both surprised him and delighted him as a “childhood dream come true”, to use his words at 4E’s release day in London where he was personally present to demo some games for us. His reflections on and demands towards a new edition of D&D, which he characteristically voiced on such occasions, were later published by WotC on their website, and remain the single most important read for anyone wishing to understand the goals driving the game’s design.
A beautiful estimate of Heinsoo’s daring attitude towards Fourth Edition was given by his co-designers Andy Collins and James Wyatt in an interview in Kobold Quarterly (Summer 2008 issue, page 32):
Quote:
Kobold Quarterly: What are the particular strengths of the individual members of the R&D team? Describe each other in simple terms as the “number cruncher” guy or the “world and imagery” guy. Andy Collins: Rob is our Mad Genius, James is the Storyteller, and I’m the Stat Junkie. Rob’s definitely the mad genius of the group, particularly when it comes to mechanical design. We explored countless crazy ideas of Rob’s over the past three years, and some of them actually worked! ... James Wyatt: Rob was the game designer on the team. He pushed our boundaries, made us consider some crazy ideas, and led us down a path of design that was different than anything I’d experienced before—much more akin to the kind of design that happens when you’re working on a TCG or an entirely new game than to “writing D&D stuff.”
For all the appreciation, Heinsoo’s position at WotC was never a stable one - perhaps unsurprising, given the stark tones in which his colleagues paint his chaotic work ethos here. Already in 2007 Heinsoo himself observes that his colleagues have overtaken him in his role as a creative leader: "Here’s an odd thing about the team. I ran [the earliest stages of 4E's design in 2005-2006]. But as I write this, a bit more than a year later, both Mike [Mearls] and Andy [Collins] have emerged as leaders." (Wizards presents: Races and Classes, page 10) WotC keeps the appearances of the original role distribution in the design team until 4E’s release, but by October 2008 a lead position in their RPG department is advertised as open. Owing to a number of factors, the position never gets filled, and instead a provisional solution becomes a finalized one: Heinsoo is demoted as lead designer, and WotC’ own Mike Mearls steps into his shoes.
As Heinsoo observes back then, the change of role makes him feel more comfortable about his own work. Unfortunately, his fans get to notice very little of that regained comfort, and Heinsoo’s name becomes increasingly sparse on Fourth Edition products. While he appears on the cover of the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, which boasts one of the best new core classes of the game (the Swordmage), his contribution to the far more decisive Player's Handbook 2 is hardly noticeable. His fans put great hope in the release of Primal Power, announced for months with his name on the cover. When that book came out last month with, again, Mearls’ name in place of his, the parallels to designers having been laid off by WotC before, and having equal limited public spot light in the months immediately prior to their departure, became impossible to ignore. Last night, EnWorld confirmed that Heinsoo has left WotC, this officially ending his tenure of working on their games for the time being.
If Jonathan Tweets was the flag ship figure of D&D’s Third Edition, Heinsoo’s was the same for Fourth. Without Heinsoo, Fourth Edition would have looked vastly different. It probably would have been more in keeping with the game’s traditions, would have been “more D&D”, so to speak, but it would also have been a significantly weaker game. More than anyone else, Heinsoo gave Fourth Edition the imprint of the new and unorthodox, and lent it a huge measure of independence and idiosyncracy amongst the many proud editions of D&D.
Heinsoo’s loss for D&D is a painful one. We can only wish, on his behalf as much as ours, that the gaming industry will continue to be blessed by his creativity. And we can only thank him for giving us countless hours of joy with his games thus far.
Thank you, Rob Heinsoo.
Author Rob Heinsoo signs his childhood dream.
The signature is that of a child.
Last edited by Windjammer; 5th December 2009 at 11:31 AM..
We first met and talked to Rob Heinsoo at DDXP 2008, who gave a lot of great background on why 4e is the way it is and what it's like to work on such a major reinvention. One of the parts I still remember is how they had talked about doing fixed damage for attacks that hit, but it would have meant doing damage to the polyhedral dice industry and so they decided against it
When we interviewed him a second time at GenCon 2008, he turned the tables and started interviewing US about how the website is going, if 4e has affected our stats, and so on. He was really, really excited about how the game was received.
Anyway, I know he's a great game designer, so hopefully it'll be easy for him to bounc back quick and find another job, and I wish him all the luck in the world.
__________________ Dave Chalker, Editor in Chief of Critical-Hits.com, Freelance Game Developer.
Rob you'll be missed. While I do prefer Mearls as the head of 4th, I think that the game 3 Dragon Ante is a work of sheer genius. Rob, you will be sorely missed because of things like that: the quirky ideas that no one else would even consider, but that work in a glorious surprise of shouts and late late nights spent swearing at the person who played the Druid. Your work is superb, sir. Superb.
I've been a player of this game since its earliest days. As I grew older (and grayer), I also grew more involved in my own profession. Less and less time was available for D&D.
Each Edition came ... and went. I found things to enjoy in every Edition and played a reasonable amount of each, depending always on what was happening in my own career.
By the time 3rd Edition began to grow feeble and 4th Edition started creeping up the Far Horizon, I was working 60+ hour work-weeks. Frankly, my work was always on my mind. [It still is.]
And yet even I noticed the work of Rob Heinsoo. <Insert a BIG thumb's up smiley here!>
Dare to be different? You bet!! He kept our favorite hobby from growing stale, and for this he deserves the heartfelt thanks of each and every one of us.
Best wishes to you, Mr. Heinsoo, whatever direction your professional life now takes. You've got a lot of fans cheering you on ...
Without Heinsoo, Fourth Edition would have looked vastly different. It probably would have been more in keeping with the game’s traditions, would have been “more D&D”, so to speak, but it would also have been a significantly weaker game.
I wish him the best with his career, but I have to disagree that 4e would have been a "weaker game" if it had been more D&D instead of the current anti-simulationist ... object of my disinterest.
Dare to be different? You bet!! He kept our favorite hobby from growing stale, and for this he deserves the heartfelt thanks of each and every one of us.
Best wishes to you, Mr. Heinsoo, whatever direction your professional life now takes. You've got a lot of fans cheering you on ...
Indeed. I already have a library full of 1st-3rd edition books I can read/use whenever I want - thanks for making 4th edition something new and exciting.
__________________ "This skull is wreathed in fire and holds knowledge about many things—mostly flammable things."
So Rob is the guy that WotC can blame when I don't buy ant 4E books?
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shemeska
"Besides, the longer I sit here and deal with you, the longer you keep me off the streets where I'd be doing things like making puppies cry, devouring the souls of the weak and all sorts of icky things I do so well if I put myself to it."
(And while I'm posting here - my OP forgot to mention that Heinsoo led the design for both Monster Manual 2 and Adventurer's Vault 2. I didn't want to give the impression he wasn't doing much for 4E after its release.)
I also met Rob at D&DXP in 2008. He was generous with his time and told great behind the scenes stories of both 4Es development and playing in Jonathan Tweets 3E game. It was also clear that he was both really, really into it, and yet had a very different take on things.
4E has rituals, use them, they're magic; Want to see the greatest thing you will ever see? then click; You can use “Earth” as a D&D setting; Origins of The Rouse; (look for it) The Rouse responds; (look for it) One can appreciate both old and new D&D.
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4E has rituals, use them, they're magic;
Want to see the greatest thing you will ever see? then 
You can use “Earth” as a D&D 
The Rouse 
One can appreciate both old and new D&D.
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