WotC WotC Looking For A New D&D Producer?

Is this Mearl's position?

Doesn't sound like it. Sounds to me like Stewart is the head honcho of all things D&D within the Wizards corporation (the guy who has to go to all the full WotC meetings and run the business side of the D&D brand.) Mearls is in charge of the creative direction of all things D&D... not just the tabletop RPG, but the books, the video games, the board games, the other branded stuff, etc. He probably interacts with a lot of the outside partners of D&D to make sure they are up to speed on what the tabletop group is doing and making sure all those products interact together nicely. If it's a product with D&D slapped on the front, Mike is in charge.

This position sounds like its purely the RPG department of D&D. Making sure Perkins, Jeremy, Kate, et. al. get the RPG out on time with all the bells and whistles. As it said in the listing, it's for a "publishing executive"... so it's probably not a "game designer" job, it's making sure the actual books get made and published and put on the shelves once the designers and developers have created it. It might've been part of Mike and/or Nathan's jobs at one point, but it sounds like they are hiring someone whose sole job it'll be to get the RPG books published.

Here's how it works...

Executive Producer was Nathan Stewart's title when he first joined WOTC in 2012, with responsibilities similar to those outlined in the job description above. In 2016, Nathan became "Senior Director, Global Brand Marketing & Strategy", presumably with those responsibilities still attached to his role.

As of June this year, Nathan is now Vice President of the D&D Franchise, and presumably needs someone to do those parts of his old job. I believe this new role reports to him. Very few people in the ttrpg have that sort of experience, so I imagine they will most likely either promote from within or hire someone from the video game industry.

Wonder what they mean by "leads P&L." Last I checked, P&L was an abbreviation for "profit and loss." Will this person be in charge of accounting? Or is this an odd way of saying that they will be responsible for ensuring that the division they run turns a profit? (Which seems like it should go without saying, but maybe it's best to say it anyway.) Or is "leads P&L" some executive term of art?

Anyway, if the D&D team is staffing up, that's generally a good sign.

2nd on wondering what P&L refers to here. But hiring is generally better for the game's future support then the frequent Xmas layoffs in years past.

Dausuul said:

Wonder what they mean by "leads P&L." Last I checked, P&L was an abbreviation for "profit and loss." Will this person be in charge of accounting? Or is this an odd way of saying that they will be responsible for ensuring that the division they run turns a profit? (Which seems like it should go without saying, but maybe it's best to say it anyway.) Or is "leads P&L" some executive term of art?

Click to expand...

You're correct, P&L stands for "profit and loss." Profit is defined as revenue minus expenses, so the person who "runs P&L" is the person held responsible by those higher up for both increasing sales (revenue) and controlling costs (expenses). Or in other words, you're correct to say this person is responsible for ensuring that the division turns a profit.

As you can imagine, it's a very powerful position, since just about everything the company does has an impact on either revenue or expenses. At a small company, the CEO would be the person who runs P&L. At a larger company, it would be the head of a business unit, however the company decides to define the business unit -- in this case, the D&D TRPG.

Arma virumque said:

The person who "runs P&L" is the person held responsible by those higher up for both increasing sales (revenue) and controlling costs (expenses). Or in other words, you're correct to say this person is responsible for ensuring that the division turns a profit.

Click to expand...

Ah, got it. Thanks!

Yeah, I can't imagine how many gamers and small-time creators are applying for this position that's way high-level and will have a huge amount of analyzing dollars and cents, and selling financial projections for executives.

Not a fun job (IMHO), but a powerful role indeed.

What nathan, jeremy, Mike and Chris Perkins have done for D&D is truly incredible and awe inspiring!. They have brought back the game i have ever loved and turned it into a worldwide monster house game!