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."

 

[matskralc]

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.

There are board games that have tutorial modes that gradually introduce more rules on top of what has been covered so as not to overwhelm the new player with everything all at once. There's little reason that a TTRPG couldn't adopt a similar model.

 

[Jack Hooligan]

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.

I'm sorry this was experienced, but that's a people problem. How can WotC fix this and enforce pleasantries?
I mean, you can find bastards on the basketball court. Does that mean 'basketball' has a poor user experience?

 

[Jack Hooligan]

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.

agreed, but "the new user experience for Dungeons & Dragons is piss poor"? Really? piss-poor?

Anyway, enjoy the weekend, y'all!

 

[R_J_K75]

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

D&D, even 5E is a complicated game. Could the core books be laid out better, absolutely but its never going to be a game that one can pick up and play in 15 minutes. How exactly would you suggest they make it more accessible to players?

 

[matskralc]

I'm sorry this was experienced, but that's a people problem. How can WotC fix this and enforce pleasantries?
I mean, you can find bastards on the basketball court. Does that mean basketball has a poor user experience?

Well, you fix it by making it easier to learn the game without having to go to a gaming store to find a veteran that's willing to teach you.

agreed, but "the new user experience for Dungeons & Dragons is piss poor"? Really? piss-poor?

Yeah I can agree that that phrasing is overstating the point. I don't think the new user experience is anything to brag about, but I'd much rather be a new player today than a new player back when I was a new player!

 

[Charlaquin]

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,

I definitely don’t think it’s a rules issue, but a presentation issue. The 5e rules are quite easy to learn, but they are presented in a way that makes them seem much harder to learn than they actually are. It has taken me years to get my partner to feel comfortable enough with D&D that they’re willing to play it with a group of other people, and frankly I owe that mostly to Critical Role. And even now they’re convinced they suck at the game.

It can be hard to step outside of our perspectives as long-time fans, but D&D is an extremely intimidating game for a lot of people, and it doesn’t do a good job of making itself approachable. The essentials box is a little better than the Starter Set, which is much better than just starting with the core rule books or even the basic rules. But it’s still a difficult starting user experience. It’s a shame WotC is losing someone who recognizes that and was working to try and address the problem.

and theres more her leaving than we'll ever know.

Undoubtedly.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I hope that she's allowed to continue to play in their streamed games. I like Kate and when I do watch the Acquisitions Inc stuff, she's always fun and engaging.

And while I understand how some people are questioning the decision, I feel like perhaps they're looking at it from the wrong angle. I mean.....yes, she's leaving a job in uncertain times. That may seem odd to us because we don't have all the details, and we likely won't get all the details. But look at it this way.....whatever her reasons, they were strong enough for her to leave even now, during uncertain times. I think that says something. She obviously feels strongly enough to make that decision, which she admits was incredibly hard.

As for D&D and the new user experience.....it's been very poor for a long time, and they obviously want to improve things. They wouldn't continue to make Starter Sets tied to other properties and so on if they didn't want to make the game more accessible. Kate seems to think that even stronger steps could be taken. Given the current climate and the number of people that seem to be discovering the game for the first time, I don't see what's controversial about her saying that welcoming those new folks and making things accessible to them should be a primary focus for WotC. Seems pretty fundamental.

Getting caught up on the exact words she used in conversation instead of just her intent seems a bit silly, but well....internet.

 

[R_J_K75]

I'm sorry this was experienced, but that's a people problem. How can WotC fix this and enforce pleasantries?
I mean, you can find bastards on the basketball court. Does that mean 'basketball' has a poor user experience?

Seeing as in we're still trying to figure out exactly what "poor user experience" means so I'm just speculating.

 

[Marandahir]

QUOTE="R_J_K75, post: 8076716, member: 6921294"]
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.
[/QUOTE]

4 - you've forgotten the Stranger Things Starter Set (same options as the Starter Set, but different adventure, and fun little references to the show).

D&D, even 5E is a complicated game. Could the core books be laid out better, absolutely but its never going to be a game that one can pick up and play in 15 minutes. How exactly would you suggest they make it more accessible to players?

The Basic Rules could be set up more like Essentials Kit, for one.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

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

I think some people think that a game which is more accessible and user friendly is a game that lacks depth and crunch. I dont agree, myself.

Accessible doesnt not mean rule-lite. 5e plays really well once you get the rules, but there's few things that could improve the game for new users. A good first step would be to embrace the fact that much of the new players and the new fanbase is restricted to 40-something players who played the game from its first iteration.

• Streamlining the language, making rules that are intuitive in a natural language (no 35 different uses of the word ''level'' for example),
• making sure the rules are simple to grasp and make sense (stealth and surprise, anyone?),
• popular archetypes and game elements from different media readily available for players (simple crafting system, vampires and lycans rules, beast companions, called shots etc),
• using modern references (monk and barbarian based on the 80' movies? LotR elves and rangers?),
• being clear about the kind of fantasy represented by the rules
• Have basic rules for Dming in the ''main book''. Have the players learn about dming while reading about the players options, dont make them buy a whole other book just for the one that will ''play the bad guys''. The Dm is also a player.