WotC Ray Winninger Steps Back From WotC

Former leader of the D&D team Ray Winninger has announced his departure from WotC, having "accomplished the ambitious goals we set". Dan Rawson was announced the new head of D&D earlier this month, leading many to speculate about Winninger's departure.

"Sorry for the radio silence; I'm in the midst of a SORELY needed Long Rest. I have indeed left WotC, having accomplished the ambitious goals we set when I took over the D&D team.

Shepherding D&D was an honor and a privilege, but I'm looking forward to slowing down and getting back to a list of personal design projects. (Gamers, you haven't seen the last of me!) Most of all, I look forward to following D&D as a fan again.

Proud of the team I left behind; D&D is in very good hands: @JeremyECrawford, @ChrisPerkinsDnD, @DroidsForSale, @dtovar77, Liz Schuh, Kate Irwin, Trish Yochum, @aquelajames, @FWesSchneider, @MakenzieLaneDA, @amandahamon, Emi Tanji, Bree Heiss, @doctorcomics. @justicearman

@RPGRonLundeen, @BillBenham2, Rob Hawkey, Ben Petrisor, @Dan_Dillon_1, @EytanBernstein, Adrian Ng, Janica Carter, @chrislindsay, @TrystanFalcone, @mattchucole, Bob Jordan, @christulach, Natalie Egan, Hilary Ross, Carl Sibley. Thanks for being such great adventuring companions."

 

[Morrus]

Another thread of doom and gloom.

What, on the internet? Unpossible!

 

[Stormonu]

Yeah, Dungeon Masterpiece did a piece on this (albeit with regard to the announced VTT) which touched on a lot of the same points.

Sounds like a lot of "you're having fun wrong"

 

[Zaukrie]

I loved his work in the old magazines. If he does that, I'm backing just to thank him more directly.

 

[Zaukrie]

What, on the internet? Unpossible!

Hard to believe they'd repeat the same stuff over and over. True.

 

[EthanSental]

I don’t know people Twitter handles but was Mike Mearls mentioned in Rays message or I’m out of touch with Mearls not even doing dnd related projects/jobs at WOTC?

 

[Dungeonosophy]

As someone who resolutely remains a luddite when it comes to TTRPGs and continues to find them a respite from screen-time, I think that will be the time that I off-board ... but I am probably in the minority.

Im with you. I’ve only played D&D once on a screen (when I DMed for MystaraCon). 90% of the reason I play D&D is for face-to-face, living, breathing social interaction, which involves journeying to an actual house, and soaking up the enlivening experience.

I have no beef with the new leadership, and I wish them the best. Yet I do note similar gestures in the past: Gleemax and 4e D&D digital. Where the impetus was to push the D&D community into a locked in, paid subscription-based, ‘corporatized’ digital mentality.

Honestly, I think the still-overly-complex rules of 5e push in that direction as well. Since things are so complicated, ya almost gotta have a mobile app to keep track of it. (Speaking as a DM who grew up on BECMI D&D.)

PS: Best wishes to Ray. Looking forward to your ‘amateur’ D&D writings in the future!

 

[Stormonu]

Honestly, I think the still-overly-complex rules of 5e push in that direction as well. Since things are so complicated, ya almost gotta have a mobile app to keep track of it. (Speaking as a DM who grew up on BECMI D&D.)

I wouldn't say complicated, but there just so much stuff. Dozens of subclasses, feats and races. Hundreds of spells, magic items and monsters. Flipping through half a dozen books to find something isn't fun, and the database aspect of the current Beyond has helped me both as DM and player fantastically.

I haven't quite acclimated to VTT's, still prefer to do live play. But even then, I'm using battlemats, dwarven forge, D&D tiles and gobs of minis - and have been since the 80's. A VTT wraps it all up in a nice little one-stop package, but it works best if you put the up-front work to have it ready before you game. I suspect we'll still see many people will continue to play it at a kitchen table in TotM or with physical counters moreso than a VTT, even if they use a phone instead of a paper sheet and books to look up their rules or track a character.

 

[Alzrius]

Sounds like a lot of "you're having fun wrong"

I don't know how you could come to that conclusion after listening to the video, as it points out that a VTT is necessarily more limited than an analogue tabletop game, and that if the VTT is popular it runs the risk of excluding the features that a VTT can't reproduce from what new players (for whom it's an entry point) think of when they think of D&D.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I don’t know people Twitter handles but was Mike Mearls mentioned in Rays message or I’m out of touch with Mearls not even doing dnd related projects/jobs at WOTC?

Mearls has not been part of the D&D team for about 2 years

Yeah, Dungeon Masterpiece did a piece on this (albeit with regard to the announced VTT) which touched on a lot of the same points.

It’s a shame I think most of his opinions here are garbage I don’t agree with, particularly lots of the online play stuff.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I don't know how you could come to that conclusion after listening to the video, as it points out that a VTT is necessarily more limited than an analogue tabletop game, and that if the VTT is popular it runs the risk of excluding the features that a VTT can't reproduce from what new players (for whom it's an entry point) think of when they think of D&D.

The thing is he is wrong.