D&D 5E Kate Welch on Leaving WotC

Kate Welch left Wizards of the Coast a few days ago, on August 16th. Soon after, she talked a little about it in a live-stream.

She started work at WotC as a game designer back in February 2018, and has contributed to various products since then, such as Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Descent into Avernus, as well as being a participant in WotC's livestreams. In December 2019, her job changed to that of 'senior user experience designer'.

"I mentioned yesterday that I have some big news that I wouldn't be able to share until today.

The big news that I have to share with you today is that I ... this is difficult, but ... I quit my job at Wizards of the Coast. I no longer work at Wizards. Today was my last day. I haven't said it out loud yet so it's pretty major. I know... it's a big change. It's been scary, I have been there for almost three years, not that long, you know, as far as jobs go, and for a while there I really was having a good time. It's just not... it wasn't the right fit for me any more.

So, yeah, I don't really know what's next. I got no big plans. It's a big deal, big deal .... and I wanted to talk to you all about it because you're, as I've mentioned before, a source of great joy for me. One of the things that has been tough reckoning with this is that I've defined myself by Dungeons & Dragons for so long and I really wanted to be a part of continuing to make D&D successful and to grow it, to have some focus especially on new user experience, I think that the new user experience for Dungeons & Dragons is piss poor, and I've said that while employed and also after quitting.

But I've always wanted to be a part of getting D&D into the hands of more people and helping them understand what a life-changing game it is, and I hope I still get the chance to do that. But as of today I'm unemployed, and I also wanted to be upfront about it because I have this great fear that because Dungeons & Dragons has been part of my identity, professionally for the last three years almost, I was worried that a lot of you'll would not want to follow me any more because I'm not at Wizards, and there's definitely some glamourous aspects to being at Wizards."

She went on to talk about the future, and her hopes that she'll still be be able to work with WotC.

"I'm excited about continuing to play D&D, and hopefully Wizards will still want me to appear on their shows and stuff, we'll see, I have no idea. But one thing that I'm really excited about is that now I can play other TTRPGs. There's a policy that when you're a Wizards employee you can't stream other tabletop games. So there was a Call of Cthulhu game that we did with the C-team but we had to get very special permission for it, they were like OK but this is only a one time thing. I get it, you know, it's endorsing the competition or whatever, but I'm super excited to be able to have more freedom about the kinds of stuff that I'm getting involved with."

 

[R_J_K75]

I think what ChaosOS is saying, there is some really unintuitive legacy things that are confusing to people making D&D a game you need to be shown before you can play it. It is harder to simply grab the box with you and your friends all being newbs and learn how to play.

Or that is my understanding of it.

(5E is way better for this than previous editions though)

There are 3 basic stripped down starter sets. The Starter box, the Essentials box and Rick and Morty. How many more do they need? With all the live streams, starter sets and picking up the game should easier than ever these days. I don't think this actually rules based, and theres more her leaving than we'll ever know.

 

[John R Davis]

The new user comment is really wierd and IMO incorrect

Nobody goes cold into anything. You find your football team, your fondness for a certain food, TV programme and every other recreational pursuit via " an older cousin" type

Strange decision indeed

 

[matskralc]

There are 3 basic stripped down starter sets. The Starter box, the Essentials box and Rick and Morty. How many more do they need? With all the live streams, starter sets and picking up the game should easier than ever these days. I don't think this actually rules based, and theres more her leaving than we'll ever know.

Yeah, exactly. The brand new player is overwhelmed with options before they even start playing by making them figure out which starter set they should get.

 

[R_J_K75]

she's not interested in putting in the work to learn D&D.

Probably just not the game for her then if shes not interested in putting in the work to learn the game.

But for somebody walking in blind, there is a lot to grok and the game tends to throw everything at a new player at once (think of all the different parts of the game that you touch before the game even starts just by creating a wizard with a familiar). There really isn't a good "tutorial" mode that isn't "play with somebody who's played before".

Id believe that a large percentage of new games have a DM that has some experience. Its up to the DM to start small with a group of new players and introduce rules over time, not all at once. Although I believe that as a player, if you're going to play you should at least read the PHB, or at least the portion that's relevant to your character. Some of the responsibility of the new user experience needs to fall on the DM and Players, you cant blame WotC for that.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Probably just not the game for her then if shes not interested in putting in the work to learn the game.



Id believe that a large percentage of new games have a DM that has some experience. Its up to the DM to start small with a group of new players and introduce rules over time, not all at once. Although I believe that as a player, if you're going to play you should at least read the PHB, or at least the portion that's relevant to your character. Some of the responsibility of the new user experience needs to fall on the DM and Players, you cant blame WotC for that.

I think we're all too accustomed to D&D to understand that for most people, a game that requires you to learn the rules in 3 large hardcover books seems unusual to people as compared to a board game with a 5-page rule pamphlet (which is still too much for some people).

 

[Jack Hooligan]

You're not a new player, though. All those new players that you're playing with have you to lean on and guide them through learning the game.

Eh, I'm not sure. I've run the game, but they were able to make characters and understand the rules through the Essentials box they picked up at Target. That box does a great job of guiding a new player through the rules and character creation, what with its suggested character builds. I had to guide little.

I'm not sure about the poster's comment of how new users are 'treated'. what does that mean?

Either way, having others teach rules isn't confined to D&D/RPGs there's a huge industry of 'how to play' videos online for boardgames. It seems people just like to be taught, or do all these games have poor new user experiences as well?

I dunno, I wish her the best. Don't know her outside of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which I think is great, so her talents will be missed. I just feel like this statement about new users, as I understand it, is a bit of unnecessary mud slinging. D&D's current new user approach is far more accessible than it's ever been, from what I can tell. Can it be improved? I suppose, but I fear this is a case of letting 'perfect be the enemy of good' or something.

D&D has come a long way.

 

[matskralc]

Probably just not the game for her then if shes not interested in putting in the work to learn the game.

That's exactly the point, though. It shouldn't be "work" to learn the game. Knowing her as I do and the games that we do play, I think she would like the game. But when she sees me doing DM prep, she asks me about my "homework".

Id believe that a large percentage of new games have a DM that has some experience. Its up to the DM to start small with a group of new players and introduce rules over time, not all at once. Although I believe that as a player, if you're going to play you should at least read the PHB, or at least the portion that's relevant to your character. Some of the responsibility of the new user experience needs to fall on the DM and Players, you cant blame WotC for that.

Relying on your users to teach your users limits your growth. Nobody has to teach anybody how to play Animal Crossing or Super Mario Odyssey. You pick up the game and it teaches you how to play it while you play it. I know this because she's got a billion bells and 100%ed Mario without me telling her a thing.

D&D doesn't do that very well for its new users. There's a lot of reading, muddling through things, flipping to this page, flipping to that page, "wait, what's that word mean", trial-and-error, and stuff that all act as a loose barrier to entry. If a n00b doesn't know somebody who plays and is willing to teach them, then they're liable to get frustrated and give up. Or, more likely, not even try in the first place.

I'm puzzled as to why there would be any resistance towards making the game more accessible to new players.

 

[Jack Hooligan]

But videogames can handhold, show, and guide where as RPGs and Boardgames do not have that AI entity to help out. It's the same thing as having someone else show you the way.

As I mentioned, 'How to Play' videos are huge and I know many gamers who learn the board game they bought through videos and not through reading the rulebook.

If learning tabletop games is a problem, it's not a problem confined to just D&D.

 

[matskralc]

I just feel like this statement about new users, as I understand it, is a bit of unnecessary mud slinging. D&D's current new user approach is far more accessible than it's ever been, from what I can tell. Can it be improved? I suppose, but I fear this is a case of letting 'perfect be the enemy of good' or something.

D&D has come a long way.

You're definitely right that it's come a long way. The starter sets, the sample builds in the PHBs, those are big improvements from the way many of us had to learn to play the game.

While we don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good, we don't want "well, it's better than it used to be" to be the enemy of "but it can be better", either.

 

[R_J_K75]

I'm not sure about the posters comment of how new users are 'treated'. what does that mean?

There is a game store around the corner from my house and my neighbors younger brother started playing there. As far as I know because he was new to the game and just learning he was treated really poorly, and no effort was made to help him learn the game. So much that he quit playing there and found another game at another store not too far away but quit that one as well due to problems getting there every week. Some people treat as a Good Old Boys club, if youre not one of them your not welcome.