James Haeck Joins Wizards of the Coast as Senior D&D Designer

James Haeck, one of the co-writers of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, has joined Wizards of the Coast as a senior D&D designer. Haeck announced the news on Eldritch Lorecast, a podcast hosted by Ghostfire Gaming. Haeck is a prolific D&D designer, having worked as a freelancer on multiple Wizards of the Coast titles. They were involved with several Critical Role projects, including acting as the lead designer of Call of the Netherdeep and co-writer for Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. Haeck also worked as the lead writer for D&D Beyond for several years, working on various editorial projects that appeared on the front page before the site was purchased by Wizards of the Coast.

Haeck joins a roster of recent promotions and hires at Wizards of the Coast, which includes Justice Ramin Arman who is now game design director for the D&D studio. Other notable names at Wizards include F. Wesley Schneider, Makenzie De Armas, James Wyatt, and Amanda Hamon.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I was wondering why I was receiving laugh emojis with my post... and now I realize that the two threads about Haeck appear to have been merged. And thus was what had originally been a post that was like fourth in the thread just to pass on a bit of info is now on page 3 of the merge, and now appearing as duplicate information after everyone from the other thread had already mentioned it. Oh well! Better that than to think a couple people actually found it purely funny that I was making sure someone's preferred pronouns were known.

 

[Lalato]

So what's the org chart look like? This is just the list from the OP. I have zero insight into any of this.

Justice Ramin Arman: Director of Game Design
Greg Bilsland: Executive Producer
F. Wesley Schneider: Principal Game Designer
James Wyatt: Principal Game Designer
James Haeck: Senior Game Designer
Makenzie De Armas: Senior Game Designer
Amanda Hamon: Senior Designer

 

[EthanSental]

Don’t forget Greg Bilsland at the top or near.

I’m enjoying the people being named to the team. Taking Chris, Mike, and Jeremy place with a talented team…looking forward to what’s coming the next couple of years.

 

[Superchunk77]

So what's the org chart look like? This is just the list from the OP. I have zero insight into any of this.

Justice Ramin Arman: Director of Game Design
F. Wesley Schneider: Principal Game Designer
James Wyatt: Principal Game Designer
James Haeck: Senior Game Designer
Makenzie De Armas: Senior Game Designer
Amanda Hamon: Senior Designer

Yikes.

 

[Lalato]

Don’t forget Greg Bilsland at the top or near.

I’m enjoying the people being named to the team. Taking Chris, Mike, and Jeremy place with a talented team…looking forward to what’s coming the next couple of years.

Added Greg to the list.

 

[Mark Craddock]

They gave me my first freelance gig for En5ider and were great to work with. I wish them nothing but the best.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I really liked Waterdeep: Books, I liked most of the BG: DiA, and James worked on I think all of the Exandria books. Wildemounte, Taldorei, Netherdeep, so that is alot of experience in settings.

I am satisfied with this choice.

 

[Snute]

Congratulations on the job, looking forward to their contribution. I liked Call of the Netherdeep but heavily disliked Descent into Avernus, and I don't know the rest of their work - however, as System Designer they are probably more involved on the rules side of things anyways.

 

[TiQuinn]

Edit: Nevermind. Not going to dignify it with a response to someone who just created an account to say that.

 

[TiQuinn]

So what's the org chart look like? This is just the list from the OP. I have zero insight into any of this.

Justice Ramin Arman: Director of Game Design
Greg Bilsland: Executive Producer
F. Wesley Schneider: Principal Game Designer
James Wyatt: Principal Game Designer
James Haeck: Senior Game Designer
Makenzie De Armas: Senior Game Designer
Amanda Hamon: Senior Designer

Lot of people with good experience on that list.