Taylor Navarro Joins Wizards of the Coast as D&D Designer

Wizards of the Coast has hired yet another D&D game designer - this time UK-based designer Taylor Navarro. Navarro announced that she was joining the D&D team this week on BlueSky. Navarro notably was a winner of the Diana Jones Emerging Designer Award back in 2024 and has worked for Ghostfire Gaming and Evil Hat in addition to working on several DMs Guild projects. Some of her most notable works was contributing to the DMs Guild publication Journeys Beyond the Radiant Citadel and publishing Not Yet: A Romantic Duet TTRPG.

Navarro is the fourth D&D game designer to join Wizards of the Coast in recent weeks, with James Haeck, Leon Barillaro, and Erin Roberts also announcing that they've joined D&D in a similar game designer capacity. Additionally, Justice Ramin Arman was promoted to Game Design Director of the group.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Romantasy (gamebook) confirmed.

I have a player who openly wants this content in our game. I have been considering Blue Rose 5E -- which is a different sort of romantic fantasy, confusingly -- but I'd love something that was explicitly about the contemporary romantasy vibe.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's not a socialist utopia and there is in fact adventure capable both in the Citadel itself (per the book) and obviously in the founding nations.

Look, we all know that both the League of Nations and later the United Nations solved all conflict between nation states and everything was perfect and conflict-free after that, right?

 

[Superchunk77]

Except that Radiant Citadel has tons of good reviews and sold well, so you are likely in the minority opinion, so it is reasonable to ask why you hold that opossing opinion.

Reviews are only as good as the reviewer, and are very subjective. I (like most others I imagine) find reviewers that I know I can trust to give honest reviews, and who's tastes align with my own. But it did not sell well.

Lol Star Trek is literally a post scarcity socialist utopia, and yet adventure occurs quite easily.

No, Star Trek's Earth (and it's federation of planets) is a socialist utopia. Almost all of their adventures occur out in deep space. That's very different from the adventures in this book which almost all take place in or around said utopia.

Radiant Citadel has plenty of reason and opportunity to adventure. Not your taste, fine, but acting like it is poorly written because you dont like settings where conflict doesnt come from the society being janky and bad is...not a super reasonable take.

It's reasonable to me. If I don't like a badly written product, when said writers move on to other products, it's reasonable to assume I won't like those either. That was my point in my original post.

 

[BrokenTwin]

No, Star Trek's Earth (and it's federation of planets) is a socialist utopia. Almost all of their adventures occur out in deep space. That's very different from the adventures in this book which almost all take place in or around said utopia.

I mean... regardless of how you feel about the book, this is just objectively wrong. It's a portal hub city, most of the adventures take place in the various worlds it connects to with little reference to the Citadel itself.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Reviews are only as good as the reviewer, and are very subjective. I (like most others I imagine) find reviewers that I know I can trust to give honest reviews, and who's tastes align with my own. But it did not sell well.

Eh, every indocator i ever saw said otherwise. But the rumor mill and the youtube hate brigades have claimed poor sales for every book that isnt classic psuedomedival style dnd.

No, Star Trek's Earth (and it's federation of planets) is a socialist utopia. Almost all of their adventures occur out in deep space. That's very different from the adventures in this book which almost all take place in or around said utopia.

As someone pointed out, this is false. Also quite a lot of Trek takes place in Federation space, with conflicts on Federation worlds, stations, or ships, and Earth itself has been the setting for many adventures.

It's reasonable to me. If I don't like a badly written product, when said writers move on to other products, it's reasonable to assume I won't like those either. That was my point in my original post.

Well, you dislike a well written product, but sure.

 

[nanteen]

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Wizards of the Coast has hired yet another D&D game designer - this time UK-based designer Taylor Navarro. Navarro announced that she was joining the D&D team this week on BlueSky. Navarro notably was a winner of the Diana Jones Emerging Designer Award back in 2024 and has worked for Ghostfire Gaming and Evil Hat in addition to working on several DMs Guild projects. Some of her most notable works was contributing to the DMs Guild publication Journeys Beyond the Radiant Citadel and publishing Not Yet: A Romantic Duet TTRPG.

Navarro is the fourth D&D game designer to join Wizards of the Coast in recent weeks, with James Haeck, Leon Barillaro, and Erin Roberts also announcing that they've joined D&D in a similar game designer capacity. Additionally, Justice Ramin Arman was promoted to Game Design Director of the group.

I guess we see in about 24 months if these hires were good for Dungeons and Dragons

 

[Gradine]

 

[Imaro]

Well, I'm not a talented designer and I'm probably too steeped in the traditions to be creative in that way. But I'd steer away from slow, tactical, crunch and go with fast, narrative, and cinematic game play. It seems pretty clear that no new players care about tracking arrows and mundane stuff like that - leave that to OSR and make a system that runs on vibes instead of rules.
I mean, assuming you want to remain relevant in five years.

Hmmm... yeah I'm not sure that's the way to go for relevancy, there are (as stated earlier in the thread) a ton of narrative games and honestly the only one that seems to have made a major splash is DH... which while a narrative leaning game... purposefully also straddles the line of tactical play and crunch. I'm trying to think of a hard or purely narrative game that has reached a noticeable level of mass (for the niche hobby we are in) appeal...are there any? My gut tells me it's still dominated by more trad/neo-trad offerings.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hmmm... yeah I'm not sure that's the way to go for relevancy, there are (as stated earlier in the thread) a ton of narrative games and honestly the only one that seems to have made a major splash is DH... which while a narrative leaning game... purposefully also straddles the line of tactical play and crunch. I'm trying to think of a hard or purely narrative game that has reached a noticeable level of mass (for the niche hobby we are in) appeal...are there any? My gut tells me it's still dominated by more trad/neo-trad offerings.

All of the Powered by the Apocalypse books? Blades in the Dark?

I don't think something needs to be Lasers & Feelings to be significantly more narrative in its approach than 5E D&D.

 

[Parmandur]

One assumes a major shift for the 2027 slate, right?

Probably more like 2028, but the main thing is Hasbto investing in game products.