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.

 

[Charlaquin]

Im a Social Democrat irl. I'll leave it there. I prefer more gritty ascetic generally. BG3, Darksun. New FR and Eberron product i liked them as well.

Its not a major problem in the Citadel. I bought the adventure as it was cheap and I can mine it. Theres always a few decent adventures in anthologies.

I'll probably use the Citadel as a higher level bastion or location and villains lair.

So, no specific objections to describing the society of the radiant citadel as a social democracy after all then?

 

[Zardnaar]

So, no specific objections to describing the society of the radiant citadel as a social democracy after all then?

Its not described like that in a book a d someone mentioned an UBI. That's not a SD trait.

I can't remember if its in the book or that posters opinion do cant comment.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There are a number of factors shaping the society of Radiant Citadel:

• It is post-scarcity. Everything the population needs is provided by magic.
• It has a low population. There is no need for centralised government, bureaucracy, complex legal codes or police forces when everyone knows everyone else.
• It has a shared religion that offers direct personal access to the deities. Who, being non-human, are disinclined to tell people how they should live or engage in petty power struggles amongst themselves.

But I think the important thing is that grimdark has become a tired old cliché. It takes boldness and imagination to imagine that other options can exist. Not that the societies presented in the adventures are perfect. For example Akharin Sangar is a religious dictatorship that suppresses artistic freedom for the good of the people.

But if all you do with adventure books is leaf through them looking for cool maps that could be used for something else then it's not got much to offer.

 

[Zardnaar]

Cool maps are plan B. Useful DM stuff is also up there. SKT and PtA are even bigger duds adventure wise. Useful for maps and NPCs. Chuck in Icewind Dale into that category.

 

[EthanSental]

I was going to reply about not well regarded by whom if Amazon reviews if over 1.3k have it at 4.7…like all the Wotc adventure anthologies but I think I’d rather click the unwatchable button on this thread going forward, less taxing on my Will save

 

[Parmandur]

But if all you do with adventure books is leaf through them looking for cool maps that could be used for something else then it's not got much to offer.

I mean, if you take that approach, I think it has much to offer as any other long books of Adventure material.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I mean, if you take that approach, I think it has much to offer as any other long books of Adventure material.

Not really, most of the maps are real world inspired - a hut, a cave, etc. It doesn’t have much in the way of complex dungeons. Or eye candy, since the maps aren’t coloured.

 

[Charlaquin]

There are a number of factors shaping the society of Radiant Citadel:

• It is post-scarcity. Everything the population needs is provided by magic.

Not true. Universal basic income is provided and magical healing is available and priced according to one’s needs, but both of these things imply there is still a functioning market economy and fiscal inequality. The state’s own reserve is also said to be maintained by taxes and “heavy” tariffs. So not post-scarcity at all.

• It has a low population. There is no need for centralised government, bureaucracy, complex legal codes or police forces when everyone knows everyone else.

There are headed sections dedicated to describing its government, which is public and participatory but still run by a centralized body, and its police force. Yeah, it’s a small community, but it still has these things.

• It has a shared religion that offers direct personal access to the deities. Who, being non-human, are disinclined to tell people how they should live or engage in petty power struggles amongst themselves.

That part is accurate.

 

[Charlaquin]

Its not described like that in a book

All of the traits of the society I described that it had in common with social democracies were paraphrased, but directly from the book.

a d someone mentioned an UBI. That's not a SD trait.

Uhh… it’s not a trait universal to social democracies, but it is a social policy that a socially democratic society could have.

I can't remember if its in the book or that posters opinion do cant comment.

It doesn’t use that phrase, no.

 

[MacDhomnuill]

There are a number of factors shaping the society of Radiant Citadel:

• It is post-scarcity. Everything the population needs is provided by magic.
• It has a low population. There is no need for centralised government, bureaucracy, complex legal codes or police forces when everyone knows everyone else.
• It has a shared religion that offers direct personal access to the deities. Who, being non-human, are disinclined to tell people how they should live or engage in petty power struggles amongst themselves.

But I think the important thing is that grimdark has become a tired old cliché. It takes boldness and imagination to imagine that other options can exist. Not that the societies presented in the adventures are perfect. For example Akharin Sangar is a religious dictatorship that suppresses artistic freedom for the good of the people.

But if all you do with adventure books is leaf through them looking for cool maps that could be used for something else then it's not got much to offer.

I can’t agree more on the whole grim dark thing. I am so tired of Settings being Grimm dark. I actually went back and rewrote my 70,000 word draft novel because I wanted to be more hopeful because Grimm dark is just dumb. A grim dark society doesn’t function at all unless it is literally at its end and it’s the apocalypse.