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

Navarro was an Diana Jones Emerging Talent Award Winner.
taylor navarro.jpg


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.
 
Click to expand...

log in or register to remove this ad

Christian Hoffer
Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer is a veteran tabletop journalist and Forever DM. His non-tabletop hobbies include Pokemon, Ohio sports, and building miniatures.

log in or register to remove this ad

Paul Farquhar said:
Sure, I’ve never really understood why people care about canon. I’m using a setting to support my game of D&D, I want it to be interesting and relevant to my players, not be unchanged from something written decades ago for D&D games that ended decades ago.
Click to expand...
Varies, but some folks read RPG books as fiction in itself. Having a story you've been reading - possibly for decades - get retconned can be quite obnoxious as it breaks the flow of the story and worls you've spent a long time learning. Enough changes and a story you've been invested in is now just random nonsense that can all change again with the next book. This hits even when changes are good.

Maybe Lord of the Rings would be better if Gollum turned into a badass bone dragon and Gandalf was a warlock princess and Gimley used dual crossbows and Frodo won the hearts of the orcs in a dance off and they paraded him to Mount Doom singing "Where there's a waltz there's a way" but at a certain point you're losing the folks who fell in love with the original.
 

Incenjucar said:
Varies, but some folks read RPG books as fiction in itself. Having a story you've been reading - possibly for decades - get retconned can be quite obnoxious as it breaks the flow of the story and worls you've spent a long time learning. Enough changes and a story you've been invested in is now just random nonsense that can all change again with the next book. This hits even when changes are good.

Maybe Lord of the Rings would be better if Gollum turned into a badass bone dragon and Gandalf was a warlock princess and Gimley used dual crossbows and Frodo won the hearts of the orcs in a dance off and they paraded him to Mount Doom singing "Where there's a waltz there's a way" but at a certain point you're losing the folks who fell in love with the original.
Click to expand...
DC Comics: Hold my beer
 


Incenjucar said:
Varies, but some folks read RPG books as fiction in itself. Having a story you've been reading - possibly for decades - get retconned can be quite obnoxious as it breaks the flow of the story and worls you've spent a long time learning. Enough changes and a story you've been invested in is now just random nonsense that can all change again with the next book. This hits even when changes are good.
Click to expand...
But that's using something for a purpose it was not intended for. If you use something incorrectly, it's you fault if it breaks, not the manufacturers.
 

Paul Farquhar said:
But that's using something for a purpose it was not intended for. If you use something incorrectly, it's you fault if it breaks, not the manufacturers.
Click to expand...
While I would believe it about WotC products, and especially 5E, I don't think most RPGs are designed with the intent of the game world being incohesive and disposable.

Dragonlance basically drags you through a novel series.

Regardless of intent, people will feel the way they feel.
 
Last edited:

Paul Farquhar said:
But that's using something for a purpose it was not intended for. If you use something incorrectly, it's you fault if it breaks, not the manufacturers.
Click to expand...
I think where the lines get blurred is when they do novels as well for a setting, like the hundreds of forgotten realms and dragonlance novels. Those are intended for people to enjoy the stories and continuity as stories follow on from each other.
Ultimately I came into Forgotten Realms from the novels first, which does colour my view of the spell plague changes.
 

gban007 said:
I think where the lines get blurred is when they do novels as well for a setting, like the hundreds of forgotten realms and dragonlance novels. Those are intended for people to enjoy the stories and continuity as stories follow on from each other.
Ultimately I came into Forgotten Realms from the novels first, which does colour my view of the spell plague changes.
Click to expand...
The novels were a mistake and a dead end that WotC is not going down. Trying to force people to buy terrible slop in order to keep up with canon was both deeply immoral, and eventually self-defeating as the massive weight of canon became too much for anyone to keep track of. However settings may have been misused in the past WotC has no reason to go down that damaging path, and is only using the settings for their proper purpose, to support playing D&D.
 

Paul Farquhar said:
The novels were a mistake and a dead end that WotC is not going down. Trying to force people to buy terrible slop in order to keep up with canon was both deeply immoral, and eventually self-defeating as the massive weight of canon became too much for anyone to keep track of. However settings may have been misused in the past WotC has no reason to go down that damaging path, and is only using the settings for their proper purpose, to support playing D&D.
Click to expand...
I don't think gaming-based novels is inherently a bad idea. They can often provide a lot more flavor for a setting and an insight into how things work in practice in a way that's hard to do in a facts-based sourcebook.

The issue is using novels to drive setting metaplot. But the problem there is the metaplot itself, not the novels.
 

I would dare to say the "good" novels are when the readers after want to create their own fanfiction.

Hasbro wants D&D to be a multigenre franchise and this means to sell different types of titles or products, including novels and comics. And the goal of the novels is to earn brand power.

In the age of internet with the fandom wikis the metaplot isn't so useful to sell more.

If easter-eggs are wellcome in action-live Fallout teleserie, why not in this show?

* Aasimar characters should be possible, because we aren't talking about an animatronic doll or CGI like the dragonbors, tabaxis or other furries.
 

Similar Threads

Christian Hoffer
Leon Barillaro Joins Wizards of the Coast as D&D Designer
7 8 9 10 11
Replies
105
Views
21K
Umbran
Umbran
Christian Hoffer
James Haeck Joins Wizards of the Coast as Senior D&D Designer
4 5 6 7 8
Replies
73
Views
21K
Morrus
Morrus
bedir than
Wizards Hires Erin Roberts as Game Designer for D&D
4 5 6 7 8
Replies
79
Views
18K
doctorbadwolf
doctorbadwolf
bedir than
WotC Shawn Merwin joins Wizards as contract game designer
2 3 4
Replies
33
Views
3K
Parmandur
Parmandur
Christian Hoffer
Justice Ramin Arman Promoted to Game Design Director of Dungeons & Dragons
6 7 8 9 10
Replies
92
Views
22K
Paul Farquhar
Paul Farquhar

Recent & Upcoming Releases

Related Articles

Remove ads

Recent & Upcoming Releases

Remove ads

Top