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.

 

[bedir than]

It is not good.

Not that Amazon ratings are the sole measure of good, but the 2014 PHB holds a 4.9 while the 2024 is at 4.8 with active trolls doing their best to use ratings as their culture war bullpit.

 

[Imaro]

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.

The core rules can be the same while making small iterative changes... most games and videogames do this through print runs and patches/dlc... why shouldn't D&D adopt this model?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

but that didn’t seem to be a problem for people who got 5e

5e is more old school than 3e or 4e.

 

[Imaro]

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.

Riiiighht....but where is your evidence?

It is not good.

Yeah and some people dont think DH is good which you and I both enjoy...but unless you're moving beyond personal preference and stating its objectively bad... I dont get the point of either of these replies...

 

[Retreater]

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.

I think that we can look at 4E as being an example of a change too far - at least for many fans.

But let's consider a few points:
1) 4E came out in 2008. And while I don't have the numbers, I'd suggest that it was trying to cater to an audience that hadn't grown in decades. Today's 2024 5E revision is trying to satisfy a group of players, the majority of whom have been in the hobby fewer than 5 years.
2) 4E added complication, crunch, slowing down combats to a frustrating crawl. I propose speeding up and simplifying the game.
3) 5E has lost the pulse of fantasy media. Watch any recent fantasy, and you're not going to see anything resembling low-level D&D (The Mighty Nein, Honor Among Thieves). The designers need to recalibrate what the expectations of the class fantasy is. (Why am I playing this character?)
4) To appeal to modern fantasy, they need to remove arbitrary character death. They should look to the mechanics of Daggerheart or Fabula Ultima.
5) They should get away from precise measurements and use narrative terms for distance and time. If they are going to suggest theatre of the mind, they should make tools to facilitate that.

As it is, 5E is a system on life support. It was designed to appeal to the grognards of 2014. Precious little innovation has occurred on a system that could've been considered retro even a decade ago.

Since you asked what is the best ttrpg in the world, I actually have some answers for you...

Better tactical combat, build options - Pathfinder 2E
Better narrative flow - Dungeon World
A good blend of narrative and build options - Daggerheart
Better exploration mechanics - The One Ring

D&D tries to be a panacea for the entirety of gaming and ends up doing nothing well. It should pick a lane and try to improve its delivery. Like, let Pathfinder handle the crunch, and give more tools to make a better narrative game where players can explore character arcs, build immersive campaigns, create unique character-defining abilities so they could envision their characters in a show like the Mighty Nein, skip past the "rats in the cellars" levels 1-3, assume shorter campaigns that match your research.

D&D knows how people play and doesn't give their players the tools to actually do anything about it. They're too hamstrung by tradition and corporate interests to create a game that doesn't feel like it belongs in 1999.

 

[Reynard]

Riiiighht....but where is your evidence?

It is 10 years later. I mean...?

Yeah and some people dont think DH is good which you and I both enjoy...but unless you're moving beyond personal preference and stating its objectively bad... I dont get the point of either of these replies...

What part of this discussion isn't about personal preference and/or opinions. We do not need to start every post with "THE BELOW IS THE OPINION OF [USER] ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT AN OBJECTIVE TRUTH." You feel perfectly comfortably throwing around your opinions with a bold sense of certainty, why are you demanding everyone else add a disclaimer?

 

[dave2008]

deleted - never mind, I want to move myself out of this discussion

 

[Imaro]

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.

I think it's reconcilable by the fact that Stranger Things played pretty fast and loose with the D&D rules they actually presented to the audience... at one point Sorcerer is mentioned as a class in the game which didn't even exist in D&D during the 80's. In fact I'd argue that Stranger Things... outside from rolling a d20 and moving miniatures didn't get into the minutiae of gameplay at all. Their playstyle was very sit around the table roll a d20, move some miniatures and fight iconic monsters... all of which can be done in 5e. What we didn't see was a meatgrinder, life is cheap, PC's dying left and right, gotcha traps game which is what old school is kind of known for.

 

[Imaro]

It is 10 years later. I mean...?

What part of this

So no evidence....

isn't about personal preference and/or opinions. We do not need to start every post with "THE BELOW IS THE OPINION OF [USER] ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT AN OBJECTIVE TRUTH." You feel perfectly comfortably throwing around your opinions with a bold sense of certainty, why are you demanding everyone else add a disclaimer?

I've been very careful to call out my opinion as such not just state it as fact but you do you.

 

[Imaro]

I think that we can look at 4E as being an example of a change too far - at least for many fans.

But let's consider a few points:
1) 4E came out in 2008. And while I don't have the numbers, I'd suggest that it was trying to cater to an audience that hadn't grown in decades. Today's 2024 5E revision is trying to satisfy a group of players, the majority of whom have been in the hobby fewer than 5 years.
2) 4E added complication, crunch, slowing down combats to a frustrating crawl. I propose speeding up and simplifying the game.
3) 5E has lost the pulse of fantasy media. Watch any recent fantasy, and you're not going to see anything resembling low-level D&D (The Mighty Nein, Honor Among Thieves). The designers need to recalibrate what the expectations of the class fantasy is. (Why am I playing this character?)
4) To appeal to modern fantasy, they need to remove arbitrary character death. They should look to the mechanics of Daggerheart or Fabula Ultima.
5) They should get away from precise measurements and use narrative terms for distance and time. If they are going to suggest theatre of the mind, they should make tools to facilitate that.

Already said I wasn't getting into the how's and why's of 4e not being successful. Just showing that for whatever reason(s) applying a... The fans will buy any game with D&D slapped on it mentality... may not be the best strategy for WotC.

As it is, 5E is a system on life support. It was designed to appeal to the grognards of 2014. Precious little innovation has occurred on a system that could've been considered retro even a decade ago.

I guess life support is defined as being the largest and best selling ttrpg currently... ok strange definition but ok.

Since you asked what is the best ttrpg in the world, I actually have some answers for you...

Better tactical combat, build options - Pathfinder 2E
Better narrative flow - Dungeon World
A good blend of narrative and build options - Daggerheart
Better exploration mechanics - The One Ring

So none of these are actually the best in the world... just better(for however you are choosing to define that word) at specific aspects and I'd argue worse at certain aspects of play. But what if I want a game that does most of these fairly well but isn't horrible at any of them either...

D&D tries to be a panacea for the entirety of gaming and ends up doing nothing well. It should pick a lane and try to improve its delivery. Like, let Pathfinder handle the crunch, and give more tools to make a better narrative game where players can explore character arcs, build immersive campaigns, create unique character-defining abilities so they could envision their characters in a show like the Mighty Nein, skip past the "rats in the cellars" levels 1-3, assume shorter campaigns that match your research.

Wrong D&D is the best for many because it doesn't pick a particular lane but instead is decent to very good in many aspects and runs the gamut depending on how you choose to run it of many playstyles. Furthermore it's created a vast ecosystem where if I do want a better take in a certain aspect there's a 99% chance some 3pp has provided it. You want D&D to be a specific thing that caters to you (which is really weird to me since DH already exists) but there's no evidence whatsoever this is what the majority of D&D players want.

D&D knows how people play and doesn't give their players the tools to actually do anything about it. They're too hamstrung by tradition and corporate interests to create a game that doesn't feel like it belongs in 1999.

Uhm... tons of people are playing and having a great time with D&D... If you don't or can't I'm truly sorry for you and the others who can't but assuming you're the majority is a big mistake.