WotC D&D Hiring New Game Designer Months After Firing Many

The job pays from $86-145k and is for an experienced game designer—presumably much like one of those they let go a few months ago!

Wizards of the Coast hiring Game Designer - D&D in Renton, WA | LinkedIn

Posted 9:33:54 AM. At Wizards of the Coast, we connect people around the world through play and imagination. From our…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.

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Notably, one of those let go in December in Hasbro’s company-wide cost-cutting cull of over 1,000 jobs was D&D designer Dan Dillon. Dillon posted on Twitter—“Well. There it is. D&D is hiring a game designer, 8 months later. Was it worth it, you soulless f*****g cowards? Did you save enough money?”

 

[OptionalRule]

They mean the job pays $86k. Pay ranges are BS.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

He’s got a new job.

Right. Before posting this. Being branded a hot head and slagging previous employers... not the best career move.

 

[jerryrice4949]

Talk about career suicide! That's a social media post that might follow that fella around for a while. Posting in anger... no good comes of that. Sort of like being out after 2 am... it might feel good in the moment, but you'll be paying the piper later.

Having been a part of many layoffs throughout my career, on both sides of the aisle, I think what's happened at WotC is one of:

1. They laid off folks eight months ago because of a larger corporate need. Those closer to the design team knew they needed them, and that they were quality designers, but there were bigger fish to fry at the corporate level to make those layoffs make sense. Doesn't mean that the corporate requirement made sense... it just means that the management overseeing the designers had no choice in the matter. Having said that, the likelihood that the corporate requirement had benefits to the company that outweighed the costs of letting good people go is high. Folks have a habit of dismissing those that take actions they are angry with as stupid and uninformed. That can be the case, but that is a very dangerous assumption to make.
2. Maybe there were actually problems with those let go! Not a nice thing to think about, and honestly pretty unlikely, but it's definitely a possibility.
3. Option 1 occurred. But... a new project(s) since came up that was too good to let pass by, and a larger design team was required.

My opinion (based on my history with these things) is that number three occurred. But who knows.

Whatever happened, not a thing to get upset about.

100%. I have been at several companies where every department had to cut 5%. It didn’t make sense but every area has to feel the ‘pain.’ Then usually about a year later they realized well that didn’t make sense to cut across the board. Some departments and staff are more critical than others.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Not in this case, because pretty much every single other company in the TT RPG industry at least quietly agrees with him, or disagrees but understands the sentiment, and he's already been fired from WotC. WotC, especially in terms of their corporate behaviour, are not exactly popular with other TT RPG companies, are they? Even those most closely linked to WotC in that they produce 3PP stuff compatible with D&D will well-remember how WotC basically tried to completely screw them what, significantly less than a year ago?

You're thinking as if the TT RPG industry was full of companies of similar-ish sizes and behaviours to WotC, which one might move between, which is true of most office-centric industries, but absolutely not this one. This one has one absolutely huge company who employs a relatively tiny number of RPG designers (like, probably not significantly more than say, Paizo, maybe even fewer!).

So yeah, no. All he's doing is ensure WotC won't re-hire him, and I presume he wouldn't want to be re-hired by them.

Point taken re: the structure of this 'industry' and this person's future employment. That said, the persona you present when posting publicly like that though... sort of screams 'I am difficult to work with'. Bad move, regardless of the industry you're in.

 

[jerryrice4949]

Point taken re: the structure of this 'industry' and this person's future employment. That said, the persona you present when posting publicly like that though... sort of screams 'I am difficult to work with'. Bad move, regardless of the industry you're in.

Agree. Posts like that never help career prospects. And for all those saying he has a job. Just because someone has a job doesn’t mean it is the one they want long term.

 

[Parmandur]

The 2024 PHB credits Crawford as leader designer and Perkins, Ben Petrisor, F. Wesley Schneider, Ray Winninger (which is funny, cus he left WotC in 2022), and James Wyatt as designers. Crawford, Makenzie De Armas, and Ben Petrisor are listed as rules developers specifically.

All of then still work at WotC. Dillon was the only designer proper who was laid off, as I recall.

 

[Velderan]

Point taken re: the structure of this 'industry' and this person's future employment. That said, the persona you present when posting publicly like that though... sort of screams 'I am difficult to work with'. Bad move, regardless of the industry you're in.

It's a small enough industry that anyone considering hiring him likely knows someone who has actually worked with him to see what kind of a team player he actually is. For larger career fields, absolutely agree that is the kind of stuff that might haunt you down the road.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

They mean the job pays $86k. Pay ranges are BS.

Speaking as someone who has posted pay ranges when hiring, they are not BS. If you are of reasonable experience and show adequate proficiency, you'll get middle range. If you are a junior, but show promise, you might get hired near the middle of the range too. If you are an experienced superstar, you'll get the max... we don't want you going somewhere else.

More typically though, no wide pay ranges. For example: we want a senior. The industry pays seniors in this small range. That's where we pay.

 

[Scribe]

Ex-D&D staffer Dan Dillon posted on Twitter—“Well. There it is. D&D is hiring a game designer, 8 months later. Was it worth it, you soulless f*****g cowards? Did you save enough money?”

Sure it was, the savings boosted their stock price, and the windfall probably made Cocks hundreds of thousands if not more.

"But but lots of people would go back to work for them!"

Yeah, because people need to eat and pay rent.

 

[Morrus]

Right. Before posting this. Being branded a hot head and slagging previous employers... not the best career move.

OK.

Point taken re: the structure of this 'industry' and this person's future employment. That said, the persona you present when posting publicly like that though... sort of screams 'I am difficult to work with'. Bad move, regardless of the industry you're in.

I think there is something to be said for speaking up, and actively normalising “sit down and keep quiet” can be problematic. People shouldn’t be intimidated into silence when wronged (as a general principle—not this specifically). While you might be right and it might be damaging for somebody to stand up for themselves, it shouldn't be, and normalising that is a problem in my mind. It would be nice to see a cultural shift there and that begins in small moments like this conversation.