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.

 

[Alzrius]

There are sadly a lot of people who see a successful woman and go out of their way to discredit them. I think that's just as likely as her making the post.

I think that if you want to assert that something sinister is potentially happening, it's on you to show how that's the case. Otherwise you're just derailing the discussion with conspiracy theories.

Even if she did, it's not particularly meaningful to me.

In which case I expect you won't have much more to say about the topic.

 

[AlViking]

A cynical take (not mine, I don’t have an opinion) would be that WotC hired her specifically to shoot down Tales of the Valiant. First, because that product would lose its lead designer so it may be less well staffed at least temporarily, and secondly because TotV fans may want to give vanilla D&D a(nother) chance if they see her contributing to it.

I can’t say if that is the intention, and whether it is or not, I can’t say if that will be the end result. But I could see pros and cons if this is what happened. A less fractured community has positives. Competition also has positives though.

We’ll see…

Considering that it's already been published I don't see how anything could be shot down. I haven't ever gotten around to getting the books but they were well received.

 

[AlViking]

I think that if you want to assert that something sinister is potentially happening, it's on you to show how that's the case. Otherwise you're just derailing the discussion with conspiracy theories.

In which case I expect you won't have much more to say about the topic.

A screen print without further evidence is not proof. If she did write it, it's a one time post, we don't know the context, it was 6 years ago and she's entitled to her mildly offensive to some people opinion.

 

[Afroconan]

A cynical take (not mine, I don’t have an opinion) would be that WotC hired her specifically to shoot down Tales of the Valiant. First, because that product would lose its lead designer so it may be less well staffed at least temporarily, and secondly because TotV fans may want to give vanilla D&D a(nother) chance if they see her contributing to it.

I can’t say if that is the intention, and whether it is or not, I can’t say if that will be the end result. But I could see pros and cons if this is what happened. A less fractured community has positives. Competition also has positives though.

We’ll see…

Highly doubt it. ToV has its niche in the 5e community and they've been doing great thing in the space (and for it), but as with every other D&D-like I doubt it's popularity even registers on WotC's radar.

I believe WotC is just headhunting for experienced talent in the space after losing Perkins and Crawford and ramping up production with Ayoub.

If you are on the lookout, just on game design experience with D&D 5e alone, I don't think there's a big pool of candidates. Plus I think Celeste was already living in Seattle, which I'm sure is a big plus for both parties.

Edit: meant WotC's radar, not "the" radar.

 

[Alzrius]

A screen print without further evidence is not proof.

Unless you have some evidence that it's faked, then yes, we can take it at face value that she wrote that. How much weight you place on that is entirely up to you, but you can't expect an assertion that it's faked to be taken seriously if you can't demonstrate anything to that effect. Otherwise your assertion is cut down by Hitchens's razor.

If she did write it,

And there's nothing to suggest she didn't.

it's a one time post,

See above about how much weight you place on that being subjective.

we don't know the context,

Which makes it a little odd when you then say...

it was 6 years ago

...which is a statement of context.

and she's entitled to her mildly offensive to some people opinion.

No one suggested otherwise, making this a very odd digression on your part.

 

[Silam]

Considering that it's already been published I don't see how anything could be shot down. I haven't ever gotten around to getting the books but they were well received.

I’m not saying they’ll go on a censure crusade and burn the already published books, Fahrenheit 451-style

But just that a TTRPG system with no additional quests and supplements getting published eventually decays into a dead system.

Technically, the TotV stuff is probably compatible with WotC splatbooks for 5.5e and other 3PP books, but even then, WotC would win from such customer convergence.

 

[nyvinter]

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

Like this oneView attachment 449589

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

I think her policy is still sound. Why should she let them ruin it for her?

Bu if you think that's horrible you should definitively not look at the twitter feed of the person who did the video, as he posts far worse daily with no hint of introspection of his bigotries.

 

[billd91]

Unless you have some evidence that it's faked, then yes, we can take it at face value that she wrote that. How much weight you place on that is entirely up to you, but you can't expect an assertion that it's faked to be taken seriously if you can't demonstrate anything to that effect. Otherwise your assertion is cut down by Hitchens's razor.

Maybe?

 

[Alzrius]

The point isn't that fake quotes can't be made; it's that there's no evidence to suggest that actually happened in this instance.

Well said.

 

[Umbran]

It looks like a fantastic hire from someone with crapton of experience and love of the game, and a fellow DM.

I did ask my friendly AI to do a deep dig into the character attack, and...

Mod note:

...and EN World is not interested in a generative AI's take on the matter. The site is for humans to discuss, not for humans to review machine "opinions" on the matter. Please don't include such material in posts. Thanks.