Taylor Navarro Joins Wizards of the Coast as D&D Designer

dave2008 · 2026-01-28T16:33:14+0000

TwoSix said:
On the upside, when I see bad posting, that lets me know to avoid future posts!

So true! Something I need to take to heart!

mearls · 2026-01-28T16:52:42+0000

Charlaquin said:
I remember during the D&D Next playtest, there were a lot of folks hoping 5e would bring back the crunch. I remember complaints about things like Advantage/Disadvantage and the unification of proficiency bonus progression not leaving enough room for “fiddly little differences” that at least some people viewed as something 4e had been missing! Fortunately, @mearls knew what he was doing and dismissed those requests, to the betterment of the edition.

The difference between online discourse and the playtest results was mindboggling. I believe that people who are very online about TTRPGs are engaged in a different hobby compared to people who play weekly.

Imaro · 2026-01-28T16:57:36+0000

mearls said:
The difference between online discourse and the playtest results was mindboggling. I believe that people who are very online about TTRPGs are engaged in a different hobby compared to people who play weekly.

I'm curious do you think that those engaging in online discourse in general are a different beast than the average player? I ask this because what I often see here vs. what my mostly group of casual players presents to me about D&D and the wider hobby are often night and day.

HatWearingFool · 2026-01-28T17:01:30+0000

mearls said:
The difference between online discourse and the playtest results was mindboggling. I believe that people who are very online about TTRPGs are engaged in a different hobby compared to people who play weekly.

Not surprising at all. Just like people who are really into talking about cooking online are probably cooking in the kitchen a lot differently than most people.

Charlaquin · 2026-01-28T17:05:45+0000

mearls said:
The difference between online discourse and the playtest results was mindboggling. I believe that people who are very online about TTRPGs are engaged in a different hobby compared to people who play weekly.

Oh, 100%! The way I talk about D&D here and elsewhere on the internet is completely different from how I talk about it with my friends, family, and colleagues in person.

mearls · 2026-01-28T17:11:39+0000

Imaro said:
I'm curious do you think that those engaging in online discourse in general are a different beast than the average player? I ask this because what I often see here vs. what my mostly group of casual players presents to me about D&D and the wider hobby are often night and day.

I think they are very different.

I would characterize online discourse as very academic. It focuses on the rules text and procedure. It tends to cluster around how things should be, with a lot of weight put on a hypothetical ideal TTRPG design. They tend to fixate on corner cases and principles that they apply to games and use to judge them.

Play is a lot more practical. People want to pretend to be an elf. They care about the rules mostly in terms of how they define what their character can do. They care more about the rules provided enough structure to keep the game fair and comprehensible. They care a lot more about procedures than rules. They barely read the rulebooks and don't even notice if the DM is making up rules or improvising, as long as the DM isn't messing with their character.

A good example are rules for social interaction. I think online people really want a robust mini-game that requires little DM input and can model any social situation you throw at it. People actually playing TTRPGs are OK with speaking in character and either letting the DM decide what happens or rolling a single check to resolve everything. They don't care about covering every possibility. They just want to get on with the story.

bedir than · 2026-01-28T17:13:01+0000

mearls said:
The difference between online discourse and the playtest results was mindboggling. I believe that people who are very online about TTRPGs are engaged in a different hobby compared to people who play weekly.

If you ever have the time to more fully expand on this in a blog or video I'd be fascinated

mearls · 2026-01-28T17:28:25+0000

bedir than said:
If you ever have the time to more fully expand on this in a blog or video I'd be fascinated

I really need to do that! Some day...

Charlaquin · 2026-01-28T17:35:37+0000

mearls said:
I think they are very different.

I would characterize online discourse as very academic. It focuses on the rules text and procedure. It tends to cluster around how things should be, with a lot of weight put on a hypothetical ideal TTRPG design. They tend to fixate on corner cases and principles that they apply to games and use to judge them.

Play is a lot more practical. People want to pretend to be an elf. They care about the rules mostly in terms of how they define what their character can do. They care more about the rules provided enough structure to keep the game fair and comprehensible. They care a lot more about procedures than rules. They barely read the rulebooks and don't even notice if the DM is making up rules or improvising, as long as the DM isn't messing with their character.

A good example are rules for social interaction. I think online people really want a robust mini-game that requires little DM input and can model any social situation you throw at it. People actually playing TTRPGs are OK with speaking in character and either letting the DM decide what happens or rolling a single check to resolve everything. They don't care about covering every possibility. They just want to get on with the story.

There’s at least a small contingent online (which I count myself among) who very specifically do not want a robust social interaction minigame. Which I think is distinct from the actual play experience of the game in its own way. I think the average player is largely pretty indifferent to the existence of a social minigame. If one exists, they’ll engage with it, and if one doesn’t exist, they’ll just talk in character and roll dice when prompted to. Having strong feelings about whether such rules should exist and why or why not is a very academic point of contention.

Parmandur · 2026-01-28T17:45:43+0000

Reynard said:
Then why change it at all?

The major drivers seem to have been to move away from embarrassing cultural anachoniama still in 2014 (Race, etc), to update the art style to appeal to teens of the 20s instead of teens of the Teens, to account for all the Sage Advice input of a decade (Crawford said as much), and to make a DMG aimed at on boarding new DMs and to improve the books as a reference tool overall. As you say, the people starting in 2026 are a different generation than in 2014...heck, the target audience now include a people not born when the 2014 rules dropped. As such, they don't need anything new, it is all new.

Taylor Navarro Joins Wizards of the Coast as D&D Designer

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