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."

 

[Micah Sweet]

To add an extra bit to my previous post...

I could actually say that right now, the Basic rules are in fact almost pointless. What purpose do they have? The game offered by Basic is essentially the same game offered by the PHB.

The main extra thing that the PHB offers in terms of gameplay is feats, which increase the complexity of characters during gameplay, but are optional even for PHB characters. Multiclassing minimally increase the complexity during play (some combos do it), otherwise it mainly increases complexity during character creation. Then obviously the PHB gives you more choices at character creation but again that's not necessarily affecting gameplay complexity (although some of those choices are instrinsecally more complex than those in Basic).

The fact that Basic gives you less choices than PHB is certainly a good thing! But they could think of an even simpler option that strips the game down to the bare minimum without changing the rules, only by lowering the amount of choices during gameplay even more. All for the purpose of cutting down the page count in a truly "start here" kind of guide for new users.

For example, a few things that could be done in "Starter Rules" (below Basic):

1- present only the truly essential combat actions: Attack, Cast a Spell, Use an Object/Ability (maybe also Disengage)

Beginners are not as petty as experienced gamers! If you tell a beginner that in this game they can do one of 3 things, they will stick to those for a while. Experienced games will start complaining why they cannot do something else. Attacking and spellcasting (+ movement) are by far the most common actions taken. Keep "Use an Object" in there for healing potions.

Even though OAs are a complication to the combat gameplay, I would keep it in Starter Rules in order not to alter the fundamental mechanics of movement in 5e combat.

2- limit everything to e.g. 5th level (or even lower)

The point is that we lack a truly lowest-barrier way into the game for new users, but after a while they won't be "new" anymore, and can explore other books. Few levels means to dramatically cut down the size of the guide so that it would not be intimidating.

3- offer character "starting packages"

One of the most blocking point to new users, is choosing spells. You must offer a new user the option of playing a Wizard or another spellcaster. Telling a beginner "you're not good enough to play a spellcaster" is frankly quite a stupid approach. But then you can't show them a list of 15-20 spells and tell them they have to choose 5. This is easy for someone who already plays RPG but a new user can get analysis-paralysis and be afraid of making a mistake.

So a "Starter Rules" would better have at least 1 sample "starting package" that includes iconic spells known/prepared, as well as equipment already chosen, and of course fixed ability scores.

I always thought the point of the Basic rules was that it was a free way to distribute the core of the game to people who would otherwise avoid it due the price point.

 

[jayoungr]

3- offer character "starting packages"

One of the most blocking point to new users, is choosing spells.

The "Quick Build" sections in the PHB include level 1 spells for all caster classes.

The "Two page workbook that becomes a character sheet including explaing your powers and character advancement" playbooks from Powered by The Apocalypse style games is something to consider.

This is basically what the pre-generated characters in the Starter Set do, as well as the free downloadable pregens from the WotC site. The latter, in particular, are structured less like a character sheet and more like a playbook.

 

[Hatmatter]

The "Quick Build" sections in the PHB include level 1 spells for all caster classes.


This is basically what the pre-generated characters in the Starter Set do, as well as the free downloadable pregens from the WotC site. The latter, in particular, are structured less like a character sheet and more like a workbook.

These are good reminders, Jayoungr; there is so much material out there, it is easy to forget about both the "Quick Build" tips in the PHB and the pre-generated character sheets available through the website.

 

[Maxperson]

What can I say? For me, it doesn't just sound like fewer steps--it actually is fewer steps. I'm not saying you're wrong, but let's at least acknowledge that apparently different layout options work for different people, and no matter which one WotC chooses, it's going to be the wrong one for some players. Which means that there's no single objectively best option.

I can see both sides of this. When I'm looking up what Shapechange does, it's far easier for me to just go to "S" and find it, so purely alphabetical is better. However, if I'm making a 7th level NPC and I need to choose 3rd level spells, It's far easier for me to go to a 3rd level section and look through that, than to look at a 3rd level list and then look all of them up in a purely alphabetical order.

Both methods have advantages and disadvantages, so really it's just a matter of preference. Overall, I'd say that I prefer the purely alphabetical look-up. There the initial hassle that I mentioned, but after that I spend far more time looking up exactly how my spells work than I do picking initial groups of spells. The spells are already organized by level on my sheet, so I don't need to do that again.

 

[Azzy]

I don't think the basic rules are intended to be an onboarding thing - they primarily establish what's in the OGL and thus permissible for 3P content.

Actually, there are things in the SRD that are not in the Basic rules. So, that's it's not to establish that.

The Basic rules are, in my opinion, there to give a prospective player a free resource to consider and understand before purchasing a product and then deciding it's not for them.

Bringing up the Basic rules, does make a great point. That would be a perfect place to make a noob-friendly introduction to the rules in the spirit of the old Basic boxed sets.

 

[Azzy]

Thanks for your response on this. Could you elaborate on why you hated it before and what you liked about the alphabetical organization?

Sure. When looking up spells, you first had to find the setion for the relevant spell, and then look for the spell in alphabetical order. (There's also the fact that, in those editions, spells were also seperated by class, so you would first have look for the class' spell section first, then look for the spell's level, then look for the spell alphabetically. 5e, however, would get around that issaue, at least.) Having the spells all listed alphabetically skips a step in that process (two steps from the previos editions). 3e also had the benefit, as pointed out by a previous poster, of having short spell summaries in the class' spell list (5e should really adopt that method).

 

[Azzy]

I think R_Chance has a point though... 320 pages cannot be called "easy".

I think most of those 320 pages are a red herring, though. A lot of that isn't necessary to learn or read first to play the actual game (llike the multiple races, classes, backgrounds, spells, feats, much of the equipment section, and the appendicies). Actual character creation rules and the core game rules don't actually take up that many pages. Better explaining the concept of various options in character creation could help (like explaining skills and such) before going on a deep dive of all the options. The extant introduction (pp. 5-8) and summary of character creation (pp. 11-15) isn't bad, but could do better the concepts and elements of the game that players should know about before launching a new player in to character creation. A glossary of terms in the introduction would also be handy.

 

[Li Shenron]

I always thought the point of the Basic rules was that it was a free way to distribute the core of the game to people who would otherwise avoid it due the price point.

Yes, that's basically what is left for it.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think most of those 320 pages are a red herring, though. A lot of that isn't necessary to learn or read first to play the actual game

That's why I said that a Starter Rules primer could be 20 pages.

The problem is that the game is presenting newcomers with 320 (or 180) pages of stuff. Even telling them "here's 180 pages, but you only need 20" still means they have to read 180 in order to figure out which are the 20 they really need.

 

[Azzy]

The problem is that the game is presenting newcomers with 320 (or 180) pages of stuff. Even telling them "here's 180 pages, but you only need 20" still means they have to read 180 in order to figure out which are the 20 they really need.

It's like you ignored the part of my post that you snipped.