WotC Is Hiring A New D&D Game Designer

Want a job designing Dungeons & Dragons products for WotC? They're hiring! A new job opportunity has been posted on Hasbro's jobs website. "This position creates D&D products, such as a book updating a setting to 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons. It is responsible for leading one product at a time, while providing feedback on other products in production. The person in this role is responsible for the final product, and must oversee and coordinate the work of designers, writers, and editors to combine individual contributions into a cohesive whole. This position is also responsible for ensuring that the product is consistent with D&D game mechanics and that new game material is properly playtested."

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The job is based near Seattle, at WotC's main offices. Click here to check it out.

It's interesting that the task of "a book updating a setting to 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons" is specifically called out in the introduction.

 

[DEFCON 1]

And with the backing of Hasbro, D&D could do it even bigger with computer games, comics, novels, movies and who knows what else?

WotC already did that with Eberron. They even promoted Eberron to the point that their first foray into MMOs was to set it in Eberron.

But did doing that raise the profile of either WotC or Eberron? Nope. In fact, Eberron is still quite a ways down percentage-wise on setting popularity. So the MMO (and the novels and whatnot) did not expand Eberron *or* D&D all that much. So why would you think that a whole new setting that they'd use for all their products would somehow build it up to surpass the Forgotten Realms or the homebrewed settings that a good percentage of the gaming populace create?

I feel like D&D's major enemy right now is the smallness of their designers' and developers' thinking. Plan bigger. Think bigger. Write bigger. Try to return to the fore-front of games in something more than just sales and name recognition.

And what exactly else is there to become "the best of" besides sales and name recognition? What are they currently NOT that they really SHOULD BE, of which actually matters whatsoever?

I mean yeah... you could easily say "Dungeons & Dragons is way, way, down the list when it comes to Innovation In Roleplaying." Yep. That's true. Every edition past the very first games did not "innovate" very far past what they already were. There have been many other game systems with truly unique systems that expanded out what RPGs could be.

And that has gotten those companies of those innovative game systems what exactly? Fan support and the ability to continue producing material.

In other words... "sales and name recognition".

To think that there's anything else a game company (of any size) wants besides sales and name cognition (which of course leads to popularity and thus more sales)... is really kind of silly. They want to keep their lights on, their doors open, interact with their fans, and play games. Which is no different than what WotC does right now. So to think they are taking the wrong approach to gaining what every game company wants because they use the Forgotten Realms to their advantage and don't waste time, energy, and money to "innovate" things by coming up with a whole new setting (which we already saw with Eberron in 3E and the Nentir Vale in 4E not actually accomplishing what you think they were supposed to)... is to have a fantasy idea of what is good for the game and good for them.

 

[AriochQ]

Rereading the description, it looks like this is a higher level position, so if I were guessing, I'd say between $50K and 70K, depending on credentials and experience. Just a guess anyway.

But I think the most important question is being overlooked. I.e., what is the setting? Darksun? Ebberon? Al Qaddim? SPELLJAMMER!!!!

You forgot Greyhawk!

 

[LordEntrails]

(ignore: already asked and answered)

 

[Von Ether]

I'm all for giving new blood a chance. After all, Eberron was a fan creation.

Baker already had a freelance history with Atlas games. I remember the occasional sour grapes forum posting that the Open Call had to be fixed if a semi/full pro had snagged it.

On that new blood comment, though. The co-writer for Critical Role's setting this year was an intern at Geek and Sundry who convinced Matthew Mercer to find a publisher.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Comfortable with algebra? That's a new one; there was no such requirement back when I applied for a similar position in the early 4E era. Would probably rule me out even if I were to apply again.

 

[Morrus]

On that new blood comment, though. The co-writer for Critical Role's setting this year was an intern at Geek and Sundry who convinced Matthew Mercer to find a publisher.

He was also the editor of EN5ider.

 

[Eis]

Comfortable with algebra? That's a new one; there was no such requirement back when I applied for a similar position in the early 4E era. Would probably rule me out even if I were to apply again.

depends on what that means exactly...maybe they just don't want you leaving the room if someone else is using algebra

 

[Schmoe]

You forgot Greyhawk!

Those bastards, they killed Greyhawk!

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

But I think the most important question is being overlooked. I.e., what is the setting? Darksun? Ebberon? Al Qaddim? SPELLJAMMER!!!!

But which of their settings would need the most mechanical work to update to require a position like this, while also still being popular enough to be worth updating and publishing? Is some of this mechanical updating tied to fluff updating, like adding playable races to settings where they did not previously exist? Considering all the other playtesting they have been doing that has not made it into a book yet, my first guess is still Planescape.

 

[cbwjm]

On the one hand, I'd love to give this job a try. on the other hand, I have no experience in this kind of position and would have no idea what I'm doing and would likely mess it up. Of course, I wouldn't even have a chance to mess it up since my lack of experience wouldn't get me through to the first round of interviews.