Kate Welch is WotC's New D&D Designer

Mistwell said:

Naw Morrus just doesn't report on most of their hires and departures (because I assume others are not letting him know and he can't be trolling LinkedIn every day for this sort of stuff). I've said before my glance at linkedin hires shows they've basically doubled their staff since the launch of D&D but for some reason that gets ignored and people continue to make the claim that D&D is working on a "skeleton crew".

Now maybe my count is wrong. I am not being precise with it, drilling down on each person and title. But, it's looked that way to me for a while. This is not a "senior" position we're talking about with Kate Welch. It's just another lower level position - one of over a dozen (of various tasks and titles) I think that WOTC has either assigned over or borrowed over from the Magic side of things, the Hasbro side of things. or new hired.

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Parmandur said:

Actually, that's not the case here: she was brought on to be in a similar role to Crawford and Perkins: Mearls made a big deal on social media about hiring a new book lead, they broke WotC HR system with applicants. She will be responsible for being lead on a book every year, which is a major impact on 5E. Good for her.

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Mistwell said:

She does not have the title level of Crawford, who is "D&D Lead Designer and Managing Editor". Her title is I believe "Designer, D&D Team". I don't know about Perkins, but she is not at the level of Crawford. I don't even think she's one below the level of Crawford, I think she's two below him on that org chart. Mearls did not make a "big deal" about it in my opinion, he just made a mention of it and others made a big deal out of it. This is a fairly low level design job. What's all the hubbub about?

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robus said:

So they don’t make choices for their characters? I would posit that not role-playing is impossible in a role-playing game

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Sorcerers Apprentice said:

Wrong again! They do of course make choices, but every choice is is grounded in tactical or metagame concerns, no decision is character driven. You might as well call playing Monopoly to be roleplaying.

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Parmandur said:

Again, look at the job rec: she'll be the project lead on a book every year, writing, designing and coordinating other resources. This is not a low level job.

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Mistwell said:

In terms of the design team, it really is low level. Are you still claiming she is equal ("similar role") to Crawford, or have you punted on that claim?

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Parmandur said:

She is responsible for overseeing a book a year: design-wise, that's not low level at all. I'm not going to argue on the org chart, but do note that it has been changed recently with Mearl's promotion.

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Mistwell said:

If it's not low level, then name one person below her on the design team. I am pretty sure the answer is "there is nobody". She is the lowest level of the design team. I mean are you arguing she has more responsibilities than some people on the design team of another company like Paizo or prior iterations of WOTC for prior editions or something? Because in terms of WOTC right now, this isn't a subjective question. As far as I know she is, literally, the lowest person on the totem poll for the design team.

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