Kate Welch is WotC's New D&D Designer

Looks like WoTc are just following their trend of employing those without experience. Reminds me of the whole N-Space, Sword Coast Legends fiasco. They hired a company that is mainly associated with mobile phone games to create a PC game.

Keep in mind that most of the “skeleton crew” perception originated from 2014 to early 2015, when they had all of 8 people working on the core design team, compared to Paizo’s (at the time) about 20 full-time staffers. (I don’t have the reference links, but I remember even Erik Mina chiming in with definitive info on Paizo’s full-time vs. freelance numbers). I know because I was one of ones to make the comparison of “half the size of Paizo’s team” at the time. They’ve grown greatly since then, and more power to them for doing so. With a little luck, it means that they’ll continue to increase their product flow a little bit into some different venues or media and keep the expansion of D&D humming along.

Corpsetaker said:

Looks like WoTc are just following their trend of employing those without experience. Reminds me of the whole N-Space, Sword Coast Legends fiasco. They hired a company that is mainly associated with mobile phone games to create a PC game.

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WotC didn't hire N-Space at all, N-Space came to WotC with money and a proposal, and WotC took a risk. Until such a time as Hasbro has their own studio again (which gave us Neverwinter Nights), established studios aren't going to pay WotC to make a game, so they have to pick and choose which risks to take when accepting other people's money for the license. Very different from hiring an experienced creative artist and project manager to manage creative projects.

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Corpsetaker said:

Looks like WoTc are just following their trend of employing those without experience. Reminds me of the whole N-Space, Sword Coast Legends fiasco. They hired a company that is mainly associated with mobile phone games to create a PC game.

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Yes, we all know you are bitterly resentful that 5e isn't optimized for powergamers, and think you would have done a much better job yourself. You've made that amply clear in just about every post you've made.

/yawn

On "skeleton crew" and 20 at Paizo vs. 8 at WoTC

More headcount does not definitely cause better products or even more products. It simply adds more people to meetings and may occasionally result in more products in a shorter timeframe.

Personally, I shudder when I see more than 3-5 serious products (re: not DM screens and such) on an annual release schedule. It just means less quality overall.

Kobold Boots said:

On "skeleton crew" and 20 at Paizo vs. 8 at WoTC

More headcount does not definitely cause better products or even more products. It simply adds more people to meetings and may occasionally result in more products in a shorter timeframe.

Personally, I shudder when I see more than 3-5 serious products (re: not DM screens and such) on an annual release schedule. It just means less quality overall.

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It's not the size of your staff, it's what you do with it.

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Kobold Boots said:

On "skeleton crew" and 20 at Paizo vs. 8 at WoTC

More headcount does not definitely cause better products or even more products. It simply adds more people to meetings and may occasionally result in more products in a shorter timeframe.

Personally, I shudder when I see more than 3-5 serious products (re: not DM screens and such) on an annual release schedule. It just means less quality overall.

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I’ll have to disagree on that second point - reference the production values and design of of something like Starfinder as compared to Xanathar’s or Tomb of Annihilation, both are quite good, and Paizo has already turned out two major rule books and half an adventure path in five month’s time. In my opinion Paizo’s production values are better (one particular crappy print run notwithstanding) in art, cohesion, layout, and reference aids, though.

As for the first point, I agree - size of team does not directly equate to quality, it comes down to team cohesion, strength of vision, and skill/talent of personnel. Wizards has regained their stride and recaptured the market, due in part to the quality of game that the Wizards team put together, but also due in part to people like Welch, Holkins & Krahulik, and Mercer’s Critical Role crew, and the whole RPG market has benefitted from it.

schnee said:

Dissenting opinion.

Nah, powergamers distort the game for everyone else in a negative way to a tremendous degree. They're also a distinct minority of the current audience. They're like the violent sociopath living in a warm, open, giving community that forces everyone else to lock their doors due to fear and intimidation. If anything, the game needs to dissuade them - there are way better systems for them *cough* Pathfinder *cough* and they belong with those systems instead.

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Oh no, we don't want them over at PF either....

Henry said:

I’ll have to disagree on that second point - reference the production values and design of of something like Starfinder as compared to Xanathar’s or Tomb of Annihilation, both are quite good, and Paizo has already turned out two major rule books and half an adventure path in five month’s time. In my opinion Paizo’s production values are better (one particular crappy print run notwithstanding) in art, cohesion, layout, and reference aids, though.

As for the first point, I agree - size of team does not directly equate to quality, it comes down to team cohesion, strength of vision, and skill/talent of personnel. Wizards has regained their stride and recaptured the market, due in part to the quality of game that the Wizards team put together, but also due in part to people like Welch, Holkins & Krahulik, and Mercer’s Critical Role crew, and the whole RPG market has benefitted from it.

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I don't disagree with anything you've written. However, I'll share a bit about me so you've got full meaning of the post of mine you've quoted.

"Production value" can mean different things, so I'll drill down a bit. There's content, and there's design. I'm big on anything that directly impacts gameplay and I'm not big on anything that's fluff. So unless "design" gets me a good map to play on or handouts that can create immersion etc, I'd rather pay for content and not bother with art.

My point on quality in my post was meant to reference content. I can definitely appreciate where you're coming from though.

Be well
KB

Azzy said:

Thank you for a reprehensible post.

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Today there are women marching and protesting on the streets. Posts like that are why these marches are still needed. I can’t imagine just how frustrated Kate has to be to constantly have people question her qualifications because she’s a woman, or because she’s beautiful. It would drive me to road rage levels myself if I had to deal with that.

And regarding the posts about her experience. There’s a lot of speculation going on by people who have never been part of a design team (in any co text, not just rpgs). I am a systems analyst for my day job, and I’ve also happened to designed several games.

I’m telling you, in no uncertain terms, that skill sets and processes from designing a software enhancement are transferable to designing RPGs. You identify the project. You identify the scope. You gather requirements. You build test cases and wire frames. The developers do mock ups. The testers write scripts for as many possible scenarios as they can test. Then they test them. Defects or processes not working as the client intends are sent back the devs. Finally the project gets sign off and then implementation.

Looking at her experience with GW2, I am 95% certain she has been involved in these types of processes.

So can we stop second guessing her ability? Especially if you’ve never done anything like this yourself?

I find it incredibly irritating. Armchair designers who love to complain about others often on processes they don’t understand while refusing to put their money where their mouth is.