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.

 

[mamba]

Sounds like it perfectly nailed the feel of D&D then.

and I do not like it for much the same reasons I can do without levels 11 to 20 I guess

 

[Reynard]

Everyone I know thought it was “good”; heck many said they got teary eyed…

They also each had things they wished it did better.

But it seems to have stuck the landing in my circles

And I don't know a single person it thought it was good. No accounting for taste.

 

[TwoSix]

Sure, the world was ending. But also, we’ve gone from a single demogorgon being a season-long threat, to there immediately being an army of them, to now Mike Wheeler’s mom who has never seen one before can effectively fight one off with a broken wine bottle and a can-do attitude. And also-also, Hopper can apparently murder federal agents by the dozen with impunity, and not only face no legal repercussions but be offered a chief of police position in another state.

Not being overly concerned with that kind of "logical stuff" is very much part of the '80s media the show is emulating.

 

[HatWearingFool]

Sure, the world was ending. But also, we’ve gone from a single demogorgon being a season-long threat, to there immediately being an army of them, to now Mike Wheeler’s mom who has never seen one before can effectively fight one off with a broken wine bottle and a can-do attitude. And also-also, Hopper can apparently murder federal agents by the dozen with impunity, and not only face no legal repercussions but be offered a chief of police position in another state.

Again this sounds so much like D&D… they nailed the vibe more than I thought

 

[Charlaquin]

No, but it could still have been, you know, good.

Not under Netflix it couldn’t. They have a “second screen” policy, which basically says all their shows have to be able to be understood by a hypothetical viewer who has it on in the background while doing something else on their laptop or phone or whatever. They have internal writing guidelines about how often they have to re-iterate what’s currently going on so that people only half-listening don’t get too confused. Which is why the idea that they would have a secret final episode to reward the viewers paying attention to those subtle clues hidden in background details was so laughable.

 

[Zardnaar]

It was one of my favourite as well. To me the second season was by far the weakest.

I’d go 4,3 & 1,5,2 for my ranking but 2 was waaaay behind the others for me. I almost stopped watching after the second season.

I liked the Mall season and the Russian guy who died. Whatever season that was.
I don't really remember S2 much.

Due to length irl its disjointed for me and i never rewatched. Not sure if I will.

 

[Reynard]

Not under Netflix it couldn’t. They have a “second screen” policy, which basically says all their shows have to be able to be understood by a hypothetical viewer who has it on in the background while doing something else on their laptop or phone or whatever. They have internal writing guidelines about how often they have to re-iterate what’s currently going on so that people only half-listening don’t get too confused. Which is why the idea that they would have a secret final episode to reward the viewers paying attention to those subtle clues hidden in background details was so laughable.

Smartphones and big tech will be the end of art.

 

[TwoSix]

Again this sounds so much like D&D… they nailed the vibe more than I thought

Exactly. In terms of how important "logical plot" is, the show is somewhere between a typical D&D session and an episode of the A-Team.

 

[mamba]

That is season 4.

huh, I stick with 3, season 4 to me is the Hellfire club, that was good, guess I lumped Russians in the mall together with Hopper in Russia. Still do not like that Hopper thread though, regardless of which season it is in

 

[Charlaquin]

Not being overly concerned with that kind of "logical stuff" is very much part of the '80s media the show is emulating.

It’s not about the logic, it’s about the narrative tension. I mean, there were critiques of plot holes out there on the internet too, but I don’t really care about that. Plot exists in service of themes, and the show dropped the ball on the thematic level.

Season 1 was great cinema, but that’s because it was aping great cinema. The further they’ve gotten from that, and the deeper into the 80s filmic lexicon barrel they’ve had to reach for things to pastiche, the weaker the show has gotten. But, like I said, it’s inoffensive and entertaining enough for what it is. Disappointing, but not surprising, that they peaked so early and never managed to reach that height again.