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.

 

[Scribe]

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.

Other than her, what about the rest of the table?

Trying to determine just how brutally out of touch I am now.

 

[Imaro]

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

How popular are these really? Like how often are they played in comparison to other games at conventions, have AP's made for them or make a splash in google trends?

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

Who said it did...

 

[Retreater]

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.

Yeah. I think something akin to Daggerheart with the D&D brand attached would be closer to what people actually want from D&D, not tracking arrows, counting squares, trudging through low levels fighting rats, meaningless character death, etc.
I think if many people knew there were other games, they wouldn't prefer D&D.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

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.

Time for a Single Store Anecdote!

At my FLGS, we've sold... 25x Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. Compare that to 47x Candlekeep Mysteries, , 40x Ghosts of Saltmarsh, 38x Tales from the Yawning Portal, and 24x Keys from the Golden Vault. I'll point out that these are LIFETIME Sales, and Yawning Portal has nearly TEN years on Radiant Citadel (though it was before they printed Exclusive Covers, so that would explain why it loses out to Candlekeep and Ghosts of Saltmarsh).

Golden Vault is only a year younger, so the most apt comparison puts it at... about right. It's selling fine.

(Honestly, I'm surprised by Candlekeep, which I think isn't great, having suffered from over-stuffing. Each adventure would have been better if they'd been given more space to breathe.)

 

[BrokenTwin]

How popular are these really? Like how often are they played in comparison to other games at conventions, have AP's made for them or make a splash in google trends?

Not commenting on their popularity, but the very nature of the games make creating anything similar to D&D/PF adventures functionally impossible. You COULD, but it would go against the literal design of the systems in question.

 

[Imaro]

Yeah. I think something akin to Daggerheart with the D&D brand attached would be closer to what people actually want from D&D, not tracking arrows, counting squares, trudging through low levels fighting rats, meaningless character death, etc.
I think if many people knew there were other games, they wouldn't prefer D&D.

I think it could have an audience (probably not as big as 5e but sizeabe) and it would definitely risk loosing less of it's market share than a purely narrative D&D would... but I think it's a faulty premise to believe that if many people knew there were other games they wouldn't prefer D&D. This site alone has a sizeable number of gamers who are aware other games exist...and yet the majority prefers D&D... with the vast majority preferring (for whatever reasons) to play 5e.

 

[Imaro]

Not commenting on their popularity, but the very nature of the games make creating anything similar to D&D/PF adventures functionally impossible. You COULD, but it would go against the literal design of the systems in question.

I think Daggerheart and even 13th Age are games that straddle the line...and I believe there have to be others... that said I just don't think these (or even more narrative games) are what most people want to play. 13th Age has gotten very little fanfare for it's new edition. Honestly I think more people want a little more game in their rpg than most purely narrative games offer.

 

[mearls]

When adventure books are badly written, the writers tend to be the reason.

Scheduling, coordination, and communication crush talent when it comes to why products turn out the way they do. The boring stuff determines success.

 

[Parmandur]

The boring stuff determines success

Pretty much true in all aspects of life.

 

[dave2008]

What I want is a bold, new direction that is likely impossible under the corporate structure of Hasbro. Let these new designers make their game. We've had the D&D of Mike Mearls for 12 years. We've had Jonathan Tweet's for 26 years. We've had Gygax and Arneson's for 50+ years. And we'll still have all those even if a new generation tries to shake things up. But on the other side of the coin, if we don't let the game evolve, we'll be stuck with only those old versions forever.
I don't want another Radiant Citadel. I want a 6E.

Not likely to see 6e for some time. That doesn't mean there can't be a new direction / new ideas that are introduced. In fact, it is very common before an edition change.