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.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You're not...unless the definition of objectively has changed


Ben Riggs cited that the 4e phb sold "far" less over its lifetime than the 3e phb did...thats not a failure based on expectations thats a failure based on measurements of adoption.

And DDI more than made up for it.

And even if it hadn't, even if we ignore ddi (and we rationally cannot), so what? To have failed, it would have had to sell so poorly that it wasnt sustainable as a product line in tbe hands of a reasonable owner. It sold well, phb and supplements, plenty well enough for a reasonable brand owner to turn a profit and keep making more of it. That by itself precludes any notion of having "failed", and then we add in ddi which made phb level money on it's own!

 

[Imaro]

And DDI more than made up for it.

You know this how exactly?

And even if it hadn't, even if we ignore ddi (and we rationally cannot), so what? To have failed, it would have had to sell so poorly that it wasnt sustainable as a product line in tbe hands of a reasonable owner. It sold well, phb and supplements, plenty well enough for a reasonable brand owner to turn a profit and keep making more of it. That by itself precludes any notion of having "failed", and then we add in ddi which made phb level money on it's own!

Oh ok you're defining success as sold less than the preceding edition...But did sell something...Well you win then... I guess.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You know this how exactly?

Oh ok you're defining success as sold less than the preceding edition...But did sell something...Well you win then... I guess.

Nah if you cant engage wituout twisting my words...we are done for real.

 

[Imaro]

Nah if you cant engage wituout twisting my words...we are done for real.

Not twisting...paraphrasing but if you cant provide any real proof to back up your claims...like I said when you first engaged with me then yeah... you should bow out. Laugh emojis only go so far without substance... Not even worth it...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Cartography auto correct. No idea who did the maps buy over had full colour since 2001 or so.

Doesn't even look retro.

A lot of people objected to the colour maps and asked for black and white ones. I assume because they were playing old style and drawing the maps on graph paper as they went along. They don’t look as pretty but they are easier to copy by hand.

The modern monochrome maps don’t look like the old ones because that print technique, where you cut away a film, has been completely replaced by digital.

 

[Zardnaar]

A lot of people objected to the colour maps and asked for black and white ones. I assume because they were playing old style and drawing the maps on graph paper as they went along. They don’t look as pretty but they are easier to copy by hand.

The modern monochrome maps don’t look like the old ones because that print technique, where you cut away a film, has been completely replaced by digital.

I dont mind black and art. The sepi/monochrome ones eh. Iirc DotMM went heavy on them. Didn't buy the Waterdeep books cheers ENworld.

 

[Parmandur]

A lot of people objected to the colour maps and asked for black and white ones. I assume because they were playing old style and drawing the maps on graph paper as they went along. They don’t look as pretty but they are easier to copy by hand.

The modern monochrome maps don’t look like the old ones because that print technique, where you cut away a film, has been completely replaced by digital.

The black and white maps are also less cluttered with specific details, so easier to mentally repurpose.

Also, the old blue tone maps were a copy protection technjque: 70s era Xerox machines could not pick up that blue color.

 

[bedir than]

Yeah, so we're to the point where someone is suggesting Mike Schley is a bad cartographer because they hate a book that the writer who recently was hired didn't write.

 

[Imaro]

You know... I want to apologize for dragging this thread into edition war territory...it really was not my intention nor the point of what I was posting. I got a little heated and shouldn't have engaged...but I did, sorry all.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, so we're to the point where someone is suggesting Mike Schley is a bad cartographer because they hate a book that the writer who recently was hired didn't write.

Nice strawman. It was talking about a specific book. Didn't know who did the interior sepia maps didnt care. Didn't think it was very good and one can compare it with contemporary books.

As stated elsewhere they've hired some good people snd theres been a drastic uptick in quality recently. 7 releases so no duds.

They made a lot of dreck 2020-23 or so however. A large quantity of the well regarded 5E stuff came out in around 3 year span for comparison.


Last years been a solid run 2017-20 was also decent at least until Icewind Dale landed.

Not sure about you but I like quality product. Ive bought more comparatively lately than late 2020-23 where I was skipping a lot of books.

Buy much yourself or just strawman ENworld?



Direct comparison what im specifically talking about. Top GV bottom RC. 6 months apart one looks like 2023 the other 2017.

I dont care if you agree with me or not but knock the strawmanning off.