Celeste Conowitch hired by Wizards of the Coast as Senior Game Developer for Dungeons & Dragons

TTRPG designer Celeste Conowitch has joined the Dungeons & Dragons design team. Conowitch announced on her social media that she had joined Wizards of the Coast as a Senior Game Developer. Conowitch previously worked for Kobold Press as a senior game designer and was the lead game designer of Tales of the Valiant, a 5E spinoff billed as an alternative to Dungeons & Dragons in the aftermath of the Open Game license debacle. Conowitch has credits in most Kobold Press books dating back to 2022 and previously worked on Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

Wizards of the Coast has been building up its D&D design team, hiring names like James Haeck and Erin Roberts among others. Justice Arman serves as the game design director of the group, with the design team ultimately reporting to Dan Ayoub, who leads the Dungeons & Dragons franchise.

While Dungeons & Dragons has seen growth on its design team, the overall group took a hit yesterday when community manager LaTia Jacquise was let go as part of wider Hasbro layoffs.

 

[Marc Radle]

Is there a "Conowitch Let Go from Kobold Press" thread that I missed?

Celeste wasn’t let go
She simply had a great job opportunity and decided to pursue it!

 

[delericho]

Looking at the list of titles she's contributed to (well, the one's I've read/used), that seems like a really solid addition to the D&D team. And a really good career move for Celeste, too. So congratulations all around, I think.

 

[serch]

Conowitch sounds a lot like Kronowitch so she is obviously well qualified

 

[tetrasodium]

I don't really know much about her or her work (and didn't really look) but feel like I remember seeing her give an interview or something on a YouTube podcast kinda thing at some point that went well.
Look forward to seeing more from her down the line as she settles into the new role

 

[EthanSental]

Fantastic hire as I enjoyed her Kobold press work….looking forward to her influence at D&D now.

And another poster early in this thread I don’t mind hitting Ignore on….we can all try a little harder to be civil and decent to each other instead of typing out crud and hitting send.

 

[Umbran]

I hope the revolving WotC door doesn't hit her too soon.

I think some of our expectations of how long a person holds a particular job no longer match reality. Being at one place for many years isn't all that common in the 21st century.

In my world, changing jobs every 2 to 4 years is about normal. What you are calling a "revolving door" seems to be current corporate norm.

 

[Vexorg]

She supposedly made some Twitter posts that were not particularly diplomatic.

Like this one

This was 6 years ago, though. Maybe she feels differently today.

 

[GMMichael]

She supposedly made some Twitter posts that were particularly diplomatic.

Like this oneView attachment 449589

This was 6 years ago, though. Maybe she feels differently today.

That doesn't seem much different to me than saying "the man."

But it wasn't my tweet, so who knows.

 

[Silam]

To be fair, there is nothing inherently wrong about "refusing to let {any group} ruin the things I love."

But the open question is how?

If the way in which one refuses to let a group ruin things is to exclude them at every opportunity, then that’s probably not great. If it’s a more balanced approach, it may be totally fine.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes! No point in preemptively panicking.

 

[Gradine]

Conowitch sounds a lot like Kronowitch so she is obviously well qualified