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.

 

[Zardnaar]

...whenever i meet someone with an alliterative name, i presume that they're the secret identity of a mysterious superhero...

That or a D&D character.

 

[...m...]

...hang on: have you been in my trapper keeper?!.

 

[Dire Bare]

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.

As a white man myself, I am 100% okay with Conowitch's 2020 tweet. If she still feels the same way today, I get it.

As far as offensive tweets go, this is pretty mild stuff.

 

[abazaba]

I looked up her resume and its impressive.

Core Rulebooks & RPG Systems

• Tales of the Valiant: Player’s Guide 1-2 (Lead Designer, Kobold Press)
• Tales of the Valiant: Monster Vault 1-2 (Designer/Developer, Kobold Press)
• Tales of the Valiant: Game Master’s Guide (Designer/Developer, Kobold Press) [1, 2]

Campaign Settings & Sourcebooks

• Venture Maidens Campaign Guide (Author/Designer, 2CGaming)
• Book of Ebon Tides (Designer, Kobold Press)
• Campaign Builder: Dungeons & Ruins (Kobold Press)
• Campaign Builder: Castles & Crowns (Kobold Press)
• Tome of Heroes (Kobold Press)
• Vault of Magic (Kobold Press)
• Deep Magic Volume 1 (Kobold Press)
• Deep Magic Volume 2 (Senior Designer/Contributor, Kobold Press)
• Kingdoms & Warfare (Contributor, MCDM Productions)
• Epic Legacy Tome of Titans Vol. 1 (2CGaming)
• Warlock Grimoire 3 (Kobold Press)
• Scarred Lands: Vigil Watch (Onyx Path Publishing)
• Scarred Lands: Yugman's Guide to Ghelspad (Onyx Path Publishing) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Adventures & Modules

• Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (Co-author, Wizards of the Coast)
• Dream Eater (DDAL-EB-15) (Co-author with Will Doyle, Wizards of the Coast / DMs Guild)
• Caverns of the Spore Lord (Kobold Press)
• Labyrinth Adventures and Wordbook (Kobold Press)
• Blood Sea (Scarred Lands / Onyx Path Publishing) [1, 2, 3]

Bestiaries & Supplements

• Tome of Beasts 2 (Kobold Press)
• Tome of Beasts 3 (Kobold Press)
• Total Party Kill Bestiary Vol. 2 (2CGaming)
• Book of Blades (Author/Designer, Kobold Press / Open Design LLC)
• Play with Class [1, 2, 3]

Periodicals & Digital Short-Form Media

• Arcadia Magazine (Contributing Writer, MCDM Productions)
• Kobold Press Blog & Warlock Patreon (Frequent article and design contributions)
• Ghostfire Gaming (Freelance design articles and system contributions)
• Dungeon Masters Guild Community Anthologies (Design contributions for electrum, silver, mithral, gold, and platinum bestselling modules including Darkhold, Dino World, and Encounters in Theros).
  • Darkhold: Secrets of the Zhentarim (Lead Designer alongside Justice Arman, M.T. Black, Anthony Joyce, Jeremy Forbing, and Ed Greenwood) — A comprehensive 100+ page guidebook detailing the history, factions, spells, and character options for running evil-aligned or faction-heavy campaigns focused on the Black Network. [1, 2]
  • Mordenkainen's Tome of Marvelous Magic II (Co-author with M.T. Black) — A massive supplement expanding on magical items, artifacts, and whimsical options for 5th Edition D&D. [1]
• She's clearly got alot of experience with Systems, leadership, D&D settings, MtG to D&D crossover settings, and even more 3rd party settings so the depth and the experience is there. And she worked with Ed Greenwood on an FR project so that counts for alot.

That's quite an impressive list of achievements. I'm really interested in what she will do at WotC for D&D.

 

[Vexorg]

.

 

[aco175]

As a white man myself, I am 100% okay with Conowitch's 2020 tweet. If she still feels the same way today, I get it.

I'm not ok with it. The same as bashing on any group of people just for being in that group. We don't stand for it when someone mentions other groups, so why this one? It is all wrong.

 

[dave2008]

I'm not ok with it. The same as bashing on any group of people just for being in that group. We don't stand for it when someone mentions other groups, so why this one? It is all wrong.

Is there a different quote than the one posted above? I would not read that quote as bashing on a group.

On the other hand, it is absolutely OK (IMO) to bash on white men (I am one myself) as they hold all the power. It is ok to bash on those in authority when they abuse that authority and white men absolutely have. When mentioning "white men" in that quote she is evoking a group with authority and power, not a gender and skin color. She doesn't have an issue with men who are white, just "white men."

 

[aco175]

Is there a different quote than the one posted above? I would not read that quote as bashing on a group.

There were several other posts in the video that was taken down over a few years from 2019-2022 or 2023. I did not interpret them all to be is as generous a light as you take them. I'm not going to dig them up and post them since the video was taken down.

 

[overgeeked]

View attachment 449589

I mean. Sure. I’ll bite. Is agreeing with this somehow a hot take or against the forum’s rules?

 

[Mort]

Is there a different quote than the one posted above? I would not read that quote as bashing on a group.

On the other hand, it is absolutely OK (IMO) to bash on white men (I am one myself) as they hold all the power. It is ok to bash on those in authority when they abuse that authority and white men absolutely have. When mentioning "white men" in that quote she is evoking a group with authority and power, not a gender and skin color. She doesn't have an issue with men who are white, just "white men."

This.

She's punching up in this quote. The big problem is when people punch down - that's generally not ok.