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.

 

[Yenrak]

I’m having trouble following this thread because I was reading it in the background while working. But from what I can tell the Radiant Citadel sucked because it took place in a Russian mall where a gay character worked in a store called Stranger Things and now we all have to play Daggerheart.

Did I get that right?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I mean, I think getting new blood onboard is kind of the point.

And I have nothing against that. I hope they all do great things.

I’ve just never heard of them at all, likely because I’m out of touch with new writers and designers in the 5E space, at least compared to how across the 3.xE space I was.

So it’s probably more of a reflection of me than anything else.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think a decade or so ago I generally was well enough informed that I’d at least heard of the people WotC or Paizo hired.

I might have known about them from a Dragon or Dungeon article, or work they’d done from a 3rd party company or another RPG, but at the very least it would be a name I’d heard before.

Now the names are completely new to me (and I tend to be great at remembering names, even ones I’ve only come across in passing). It’s likely that I’m no just longer across the 3rd party producers in the 5E space.

You clearly don't have my unhealthy habit of spending way too much time browsing Kickstarter and Indie Press Revolution.

 

[TwoSix]

I’m having trouble following this thread because I was reading it in the background while working. But from what I can tell the Radiant Citadel sucked because it took place in a Russian mall where a gay character worked in a store called Stranger Things and now we all have to play Daggerheart.

Did I get that right?

100%

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Look, we get that you like combat heavy grimdark. So do a bunch of other older players. But that’s not appealing to the younger (and female) players who WotC are trying to reach with these hires.

There are also some dark Radiant Citadel adventures. The Godsbreath adventure is a horror story that surprised me in how much it spooked my players. And it's not the only one.

And many more of the adventures are pretty dark when you pick at the scabs a bit. There's rebuilding after generations of slavery, refugees, old political tensions boiling over into violence, religious oppression, gender-based oppression, catastrophic environmental disasters, Animal Farm-style new elites replacing vanquished colonial powers and continuing to oppress the poor, etc.

I think that, in many cases, some of the bloggers and YouTubers with strong opinions about Radiant Citadel have mostly unspoken agendas that put them at odds with the book's overt mission to broaden the voices creating D&D adventures and embrace a wider audience as a result.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think a decade or so ago I generally was well enough informed that I’d at least heard of the people WotC or Paizo hired.

I might have known about them from a Dragon or Dungeon article, or work they’d done from a 3rd party company or another RPG, but at the very least it would be a name I’d heard before.

Now the names are completely new to me (and I tend to be great at remembering names, even ones I’ve only come across in passing). It’s likely that I’m no just longer across the 3rd party producers in the 5E space.

I think its because in the good old days you had Dragon or Dungeon. And the name was on the cover. Eg Gygax but later on Eric L Boyd or whomever and/or a foreward.

Dragon or Dungeon the names were on the contents page.

Monte and Mearls were active online. Mearls said no-one else wanted to.

Cook would write on Fragon in the lead up.

Personally I dont read the credits. I don't like Strixhaven or Descent into Avernus. No idea who to blame for them.

WotC also doesnt make great longer form adventures. Two good ones, starter sets and the anthologies are the good ones.

Paizo had a good run but even they couldn't do it consistently. Neither could Gygax.

Its a team effort now so its harder to narrow down writers you dont like. And since im not active on social media as such or read credits no idea who most of the newer hires are.

No Dragon or Dungeon no lore masters like Greenwood or Eric L Boyd from FR. No Dragon or Dungeon pipeline. Its diffused across 3rd party, DM Guild, freelancers, social media etc.

Ones you may have heard of worked on mediocre 5E adventures books (I blame WotC more for those).

 

[Zardnaar]

I’m having trouble following this thread because I was reading it in the background while working. But from what I can tell the Radiant Citadel sucked because it took place in a Russian mall where a gay character worked in a store called Stranger Things and now we all have to play Daggerheart.

Did I get that right?

By ENworld standards yes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, at that point we're simply using different definitions. I can put the D&D logo on a chess set, but that doesn't make it D&D.

Sixth edition confirmed! (Actually, that looks like early 3E era branding, so maybe it's 3.1 confirmed.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Then why change it at all? Why do half an edition?

Because there was no way WotC (or any other company that owned the brand) wasn't going to sell a commemorative edition for the 50th anniversary. And if you're going to go to all of the trouble of printing new covers, etc., you probably want those books to sell and the best way to do that is to update them.

And if your goal is to not give players the big obvious exit ramp they got with the 3E/4E transition, you make the two new editions as compatible as possible while still offering enough change to make most groups eventually buy the new books.

It is an attempt to have one's cake and eat it too.

I feel like that's the purpose of cake.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I think a decade or so ago I generally was well enough informed that I’d at least heard of the people WotC or Paizo hired.

I might have known about them from a Dragon or Dungeon article, or work they’d done from a 3rd party company or another RPG, but at the very least it would be a name I’d heard before.

Now the names are completely new to me (and I tend to be great at remembering names, even ones I’ve only come across in passing). It’s likely that I’m no just longer across the 3rd party producers in the 5E space.

Well, there IS quite a bit more of it than there once was, to be fair.