Rodney Thompson Leaves Wizards of the Coast

On one side -well, damn. I've always loved his work, especially back in the Star Wars saga days.

On the other side, i can't wait to see where he lands - I just hope he lands well.

 

[fjw70]

I will say that, as someone who enjoys both types of game. Rodney's talents will most certainly not be going to waste - the video game industry needs competent, creative talent with an eye for mechanical balance as much as any tabletop game publisher!

Any effort on video games is a waste to me.

Probably for the best. I have more RPGs than I can find time to play so I guess I don't need Rodney to create a cool new TTRPG.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Any effort on video games is a waste to me.

Probably for the best. I have more RPGs than I can find time to play so I guess I don't need Rodney to create a cool new TTRPG.

Hey, as long as Rodney's happy with the new gig that's what counts eh?

 

[spinozajack]

The video game industry doesn't quite have a single dominating player the way the tabletop industry does, but Bungie is very much in the WotC-tier, were we to compare the two. It's a household name for anyone who's picked up a controller in the last fifteen years and a very exciting career move for Rodney. I'm sure he will play a valuable role in Bungle's plans for world domination.

(I'm wondering if this is all Mike Mearls' doing. As an immense fan of their latest game, Destiny, he seems like the kind of guy to want to have a mole planted in Bungie headquarters.)

I will say that, as someone who enjoys both types of game. Rodney's talents will most certainly not be going to waste - the video game industry needs competent, creative talent with an eye for mechanical balance as much as any tabletop game publisher!

Bungie is definitely a big step up compared to working on a TTRGP, even one as well known as D&D. Big name videogames at this stage are bigger budget (in the tens and even hundreds of millions), and better produced than most Hollywood movies, with staff in the hundreds and more profits coming in and much higher stakes involved.

The success of 5th edition would clearly be a great thing to have on a resume, but what comes next for him is probably going to be a rude awakening, almost like a goldfish jumping out of his fish tank and into an ocean. The videogame industry at this point is so dominant, it's almost scary. But being part of a large team with pros in the field I'm sure he'll adjust, and have to learn perspectives that he might not otherwise be exposed to from table top stuff, like a tremendous focus on verisimilitude and realism, and the inability to fall back on appeals to literary abstraction to rationalize mechanics that don't correspond to player expectation. Stuff that looks weird can't be hidden, and stuff that feels wrong in playtesting simply gets cut. I wish it were that way in D&D. By the time it's published, it's too late.

Working on an MMO or even a regular console title, bugs can be patched and it's not the end of the world to re-balance stuff post-launch. Although players will be just as vocal and every bit as vicious (if not more) as they are on a D&D forum, that's for sure.

 

[Sunseeker]

I keep hearing that Rodney is a "game designer", can someone clarify to me what exactly he contributed? General game design elements? Seems sort of, wishy-washy of a description. I'm not suggesting he did nothing, I'd just like to have a better idea of what he did in order to better understand what will be lacking when he is gone.

 

[Parmandur]

I keep hearing that Rodney is a "game designer", can someone clarify to me what exactly he contributed? General game design elements? Seems sort of, wishy-washy of a description. I'm not suggesting he did nothing, I'd just like to have a better idea of what he did in order to better understand what will be lacking when he is gone.

He did a lot of the heavy lifting in writing the core books, I believe.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

He did a lot of the heavy lifting in writing the core books, I believe.

He also was fantastic during the playtest period especially when a certain someone would come out and say something dumb, Rodney would be there a couple of days later explaining what should have been said. I got to the point of simply ignoring the other person's columns completely and waiting for Rodney to say something instead.

His design credits also include the excellent Star Wars Saga (and some previous SW products) and Lords of Waterdeep. Not a bad resume at all!

 

[Iosue]

I keep hearing that Rodney is a "game designer", can someone clarify to me what exactly he contributed? General game design elements? Seems sort of, wishy-washy of a description. I'm not suggesting he did nothing, I'd just like to have a better idea of what he did in order to better understand what will be lacking when he is gone.

In the D&D Next design process, Mearls and Jeremy Crawford were the designers. They set the direction of the game, and devised objectives, which they would give to the development team. Thompson led the development team, which included Peter Lee, Robert Schwalb, Bruce Cordell, and others. The development team's job was to turn the design team's objectives into actual mechanics and rules.

For a very clear example of Thompson's contribution, at one point in the playtest characters had a Weapon Attack Bonus, which differed by class. Casters also had a Spellcasting Bonus, which again differed by class. Skill advancement occurred through scaling skill dice, which players would roll and add to their skill check. Rogues, though, needed something more to represent their skillfulness, so they had feats that gave them more skills, or advantage on skills, or a guaranteed roll of 10 on one of their skills, depending on the rogue scheme. The design team was also aware that saving throws needed some kind of scaling, so that higher level characters could get better at saves. (Mearls at one point suggested something like a half-level bonus to saves.) All of this was meant to work within bounded accuracy.

So, at one point in 2013, the design team gave Thompson, Lee, and Schwalb the assignment of going through the game and cleaning it up of all the various bonuses. Mearls noted that he expected they would make an incremental step forward. Instead Thompson and Co. came up with the proficiency bonus. One bonus for weapon attacks, spell attacks, spell save DCs, and saving throw advancement. It also cleaned up the Rogue class, because they could key off of it for Expertise (originally a +5 that turned into double proficiency). This was a huge jump forward that allowed the game to be what they aiming for.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Good luck, Rodney; I hope your new opportunity pays off. The WotC team is seriously diminished by his departure--to be honest, I'm more worried for *them* than I am for him!

 

[fjw70]

Hey, as long as Rodney's happy with the new gig that's what counts eh?

Wait, this isn't all about me?