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.

 

[Reynard]

I feel like this "it wouldn't be D&D anymore" has come up in several "how would you make 6E" discussions and the like and my opinion on the matter differ somewhat. I would claim that it would be D&D as long as the place the D&D brand on the cover. D&D has never been the best ttrpg in the world, only the most popular. It's all about brand recognition and a more story focused D&D would remain D&D and the forums would have people praising the new mechanics and old curmudgeons like me would complain like we tend to do. And people would say, "This is not D&D!" but they would mean, "This is not the kind of ttrpg experience that I have come to relate to the brand D&D." But people would buy it because they know D&D and those other games aren't D&D. They haven't been featured on tv-shows or let's plays. And WotC and Hasbro would be laughing all the way to the bank.

But that's just my opinion.

I theorize that if Daggerheart had ben D&D 6E instead, it would have done just fine.

 

[Imaro]

I feel like this "it wouldn't be D&D anymore" has come up in several "how would you make 6E" discussions and the like and my opinion on the matter differ somewhat. I would claim that it would be D&D as long as the place the D&D brand on the cover. D&D has never been the best ttrpg in the world, only the most popular. It's all about brand recognition and a more story focused D&D would remain D&D and the forums would have people praising the new mechanics and old curmudgeons like me would complain like we tend to do. And people would say, "This is not D&D!" but they would mean, "This is not the kind of ttrpg experience that I have come to relate to the brand D&D." But people would buy it because they know D&D and those other games aren't D&D. They haven't been featured on tv-shows or let's plays. And WotC and Hasbro would be laughing all the way to the bank.

But that's just my opinion.

So is the takeaway here they could slap D&D on any game system and its fans would still buy it? Im not sure history really peoves this assertion as true...at least for some part of the fan base.

Also, I got to ask since we are declaring D&D as definitively not the best ttrpg (something I really wish people would stop doing since for some part of the rpg market it clearly is)... what is the best ttrpg in the world?

This post is in the context of fans purchasing it, Im pretty sure that if D&D dropped the d20 system and instead adopted the PBtA system, principles, playbooks, etc. A sizeable portion of the fan base would not in fact purchase it.

 

[Imaro]

I theorize that if Daggerheart had ben D&D 6E instead, it would have done just fine.

Fine being defined as??

 

[Reynard]

So is the takeaway here they could slap D&D on any game system and its fans would still buy it? Im not sure history really peoves this assertion as true...at least for some part of the fan base.

Also, I got to ask since we are declaring D&D as definitively not the best ttrpg (something I really wish people would stop doing since for some part of the rpg market it clearly is)... what is the best ttrpg in the world?

This post is in the context of fans purchasing it, Im pretty sure that if D&D dropped the d20 system and instead adopted the PBtA system, principles, playbooks, etc. A sizeable portion of the fan base would not in fact purchase it.

We are in an interesting era in which the most ardent and conservative (as it relates to rules and D&Disms) fans have outsized influence. This is partly due to the nature of social media, but it is mostly due to the existence of true alternatives. There have been alternative choices in TTRPGs since very shortly after the introduction of OD&D of course, but since the original OGL up to the present, someone besides the IP owner can create a totally viable D&D alternative to appeal to those change-averse fans. Pathfinder is the obvious example, but there are others, including some popular OSR games.

So we are stuck with a WotC who is going to be risk averse because they know folks can just walk and still be playing "D&D." And because the only thing that matters is quarterly profits, it is impossible to let those people have their fit and go away.

So we are stuck with what will probably be ever worse iterations of a dusty ruleset that doesn't actually serve the changing player base.

 

[Imaro]

And while D&D 4e was D&D for a lot of people, apparently it wasn't D&D enough for WotC/Hasbro or it didn't attract enough people to continue it being D&D. Thus D&D 5e was made, which imho is a lot of backpedaling on a lot of fronts for WotC/Hasbro. I even suspect that WotC/Hasbro was reluctant to call 5e 2024 a 6th edition, because it would create the dangers of a new edition with little of the benefits. Thus the current state of weird D&Dness that's marked by a year instead of an edition version...

Thats the rub though... by the time they got ready to release 5e, by all accounts D&D was DoA, 5e was supposed to basically be a farewell edition and Im sorry but the game being in that state was on 4e. Not going to get into the why's or whether they were right... bottom line was it didn't perform well enough and it almost killed D&D as a brand and as a published game.

My thoughts on '24... they did the right thing. I can still use 95% of my previously purchased books, I have upgrades to the rules and general guidelines on how to use them together. It baffles me that giving me this value proposition has somehow been spun into a negative. This is exactly what I want... not to have to purchase and learn a new D&D every 5 to 10 years... thats what I explore other games for. Let D&D become a staple, a household game and gor something different...actually buy something different.

 

[Kromanjon]

So is the takeaway here they could slap D&D on any game system and its fans would still buy it? Im not sure history really peoves this assertion as true...at least for some part of the fan base.

Yes. In a way. Fans, I'm not so sure as they tend to stick with the edition they love. Some still play Basic as you surely know. However anyone who hears about D&D would still by the books that say D&D on the cover.

Also, I got to ask since we are declaring D&D as definitively not the best ttrpg (something I really wish people would stop doing since for some part of the rpg market it clearly is)... what is the best ttrpg in the world?

I apologize about my way of putting this. I don't think any game is "the best". To me ttrpgs are like boardgames. Some might be really good but I still don't want to play them all the time. Games are good in different ways at different times depending on who I'm playing with, when we're playing, how much time we have and what mood we're in.

This post is in the context of fans purchasing it, Im pretty sure that if D&D dropped the d20 system and instead adopted the PBtA system, principles, playbooks, etc. A sizeable portion of the fan base would not in fact purchase it.

Well, we're all just speculating here. Wizards will never release D&D using the PBtA rules so I'll guess we'll never know.

Fine being defined as??

With the D&D brand and the Critical Role team behind it it would sell as good, or even better, than 5E. (Still speculating since this is in a alternate universe).

 

[Imaro]

So we are stuck with what will probably be ever worse iterations of a dusty ruleset that doesn't actually serve the changing player base.

What is the evidence that it isnt serving the playerbase? This sounds more like it isnt serving your particular preferences.

Edit: Also to be clear there are actually players of the game, myself included, who think '24 is better... not perfect but definitely better which is something iterating as opposed to changing a ruleset allows a dev team to do.

 

[Reynard]

Let D&D become a staple, a household game and gor something different...actually buy something different.

Then why change it at all? Why do half an edition? It doesn't make any sense if the goal is to make D&D a "staple." It is an attempt to have one's cake and eat it too.

 

[Reynard]

What is the evidence that it isnt serving the playerbase? This sounds more like it isnt serving your particular preferences.

The people joining the hobby today are not the same generation as those that joined the hobby a decade ago, nor are the forces drawing them into the hobby the same.

Edit: Also to be clear there are actually players of the game, myself included, who think '24 is better... not perfect but definitely better which is something iterating as opposed to changing a ruleset allows a dev team to do.

It is not good.

 

[HatWearingFool]

The people joining the hobby today are not the same generation as those that joined the hobby a decade ago, nor are the forces drawing them into the hobby the same.

It is not good.

It seems like the primary driver of new players was Stranger Things. And weirdly it presented a very old school play style, but that didn’t seem to be a problem for people who got 5e when they bought books….

I don’t know how reconcile that but it is interesting.

Definitely, all the kids that signed up for D&D club at my kid’s school did so because of Stranger Things not Critical Role.

Personally I think Critical Role has had its cultural moment. It’ll keep going for a long time but I don’t think it’s drawing lot of new people into the hobby. And I don’t know if it’s portrayal of how ttrpg’s run at the table is doing the hobby many favours.