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

doctorbadwolf said:

What. Make this make sense.

Mardi Gras? You dislike Cajuns or something?

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Thats the conclusion you drew?

What's hard about this to make sense?

its not hard.

I dont play D&D to explore the American South. Theres better games to do that. Thats far outside the Art identity of D&D.

AstroCat said:

If you don't like how wotc "d&d" is now, then multiple that times a zillion and that is what is coming up. We'll just have to see if it's a good RoI or not. For me, wotc "d&d" doesn't even barely exist for me anymore. Which is a radical change compared to how I supported 5e financially when it first came out in 2014. We've completely moved on to other systems that capture what we enjoy in D&D, it seems to me they are narrowing their appeal and focus, not broadening it. But I believe in reality that was the goal all along, we'll just have to see if that "support" remains into the upcoming years... will be interesting to watch from afar.

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Yeah I have to agree. I still play 5e mostly because of D&D Beyond and its easier for my daughter and her friends to recognize the tropes. Its a good system but the art direction for 2024 went off the rails.

Seeing how one of the new creators of the bullpen rewrote Calimshan to be a magetech hackjob when Eberron is already the house for that gives me very little hope they will stick with the D&D identity. Fortunately Ed Grenwood and co are writing more appropriate spource books for the Forgotten Realms on DMs guild.

Corporate will always chase the trends and will give little regard whether those changes are appropriate for D&D or not.

doctorbadwolf said:

But that is my point. The game has literally always catered to you. It is not a rejection of you for it to now also cater to other people.

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Yes corporate will always chase the money. But D&D specifically is quite loud about rejecting the gamers it catered to.

They tell us having races of alignment is the wrong way to play.

They tell us half races were the wrong way to play.

They tell us dungeon crawling needs to change because it was... colonialism?

Sorry its quite obvious that big tent no longer wants traditional D&D play. And frankly alot of those ideas especially the colonialism is a serious stretch

Fortunately I run a library game, an RPG club after school club in an urban district and I have so far been successful in steering those to see what the rejected idea of D&D is really about and how good it is.

If one of the DMs I guide in the RPG club wanted to run the cooking modules or the more modern things in Radiant Citadel I'd tell them to go for it. We have access to D&D Beyond anything on there is accessible with club budget. But im not a salesperson for WOTC, im not going to suggest it because its not the direction I want to go in.

Mournblade94 said:

I dont play D&D to explore the American South. Theres better games to do that. Thats far outside the Art identity of D&D.

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That's right.

Dungeons & Dragons is about exploring dungeons in a world ravaged by dragon lords where everyone is a high level wizard who's had a romantic relationship with the goddess of magic in the past while on a ring-shaped city in the center of the multiverse while flying a magic carpet between ships soaring through astral space on their way to a harsh desert world devastated by magic and the don't-call-it-technomagical civilization devastated by the Last War and various intrusions from the Magic the Gathering multiverse while Dark Powers imprison the multiverse's worst villains in domains designed by terrible therapists.

We don't want to muddy D&D's focus, after all.

Mournblade94 said:

Seeing how one of the new creators of the bullpen rewrote Calimshan to be a magetech hackjob when Eberron is already the house for that gives me very little hope they will stick with the D&D identity.

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Have you read more than a single paragraph describing Calimsham's approach to capturing the Golden Age of Baghdad under the influence of genies written by someone who is both an expert in Middle Eastern Cultures and RPGs?

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

That's right.

Dungeons & Dragons is about exploring dungeons in a world ravaged by dragon lords where everyone is a high level wizard who's had a romantic relationship with the goddess of magic in the past while on a ring-shaped city in the center of the multiverse while flying a magic carpet between ships soaring through astral space on their way to a harsh desert world devastated by magic and the don't-call-it-technomagical civilization devastated by the Last War and various intrusions from the Magic the Gathering multiverse while Dark Powers imprison the multiverse's worst villains in domains designed by terrible therapists.

We don't want to muddy D&D's focus, after all.

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I don't buy or use any of the Magic the Gathering supplements like Ravinica or Strixhaven. I literally just found out what Silvery Barbs were yesterday when a player asked to use it. The exception is Theros I bought for my daughter because she loves Greek Mythology. But Theros was wanting on that end.

I don't play Eberron or allow any of the rules from there in my game. I bought the original book and it wasn't what I want in fantasy.

Never Liked AD&D Spelljammer. I had Star Frontiers. And the new Spell Jammer just ripped off Star Frontier Races especially the Yazirians (Hadozee).

Planescape was sold to me on its aesthetic alone. They did an excellent job with that setting, even the new version is quite good.

I am very careful where I vote with my wallet.

bedir than said:

Have you read more than a single paragraph describing Calimsham's approach to capturing the Golden Age of Baghdad under the influence of genies written by someone who is both an expert in Middle Eastern Cultures and RPGs?

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I read the entire section. THe golden age of Baghdad didn't have robots. Why is it if someone says they don't like something or thing it was changed poorly its assumed the material wasn't read? Original Calimshan was ALREADY the golden age of Baghdad. That was its point.

Maybe since they're writing in a shared world with history they should have stuck closer to what was established. It would be a great setting on its own, not one with decades of play history. Also Calimshan is no more than middle east than Moonshaes are Ireland. I don't hear people ever complaining that the Moonshaes aren't written by Celtic Scholars or Irish scholars, nor do I hear people complaining when Bards aren't portrayed culturally accurate, like seems to happen anytime someone talks about a non western setting.

Is someone seriously suggesting that Carnival, something celebrated in several countries for centuries, is somehow a creation or limited only to the American South?

Artamo said:

Is someone seriously suggesting that Carnival, something celebrated in several countries for centuries, is somehow a creation or limited only to the American South?

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Naw, Carnival is Rio de Janeiro. Mardi Gras is New Orleans.

Marc17 said:

Naw, Carnival is Rio de Janeiro. Mardi Gras is New Orleans.

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Carnival is a festival dating back literally centuries. In New Orleans, it’s called Mardi Gras, but it’s still Carnival. They are both celebrating before Lent. And it’s celebrated in lot more places than just New Orleans and Rio - masks, colorful costumes, the whole shebang.