WotC James Wyatt is on the Dungeons & Dragons Team Again

[Mistwell]

I have very little love for 4e after what they did to Tieflings.

Any recommendations on which books I should check out?

Open Grave, Manual of the Planes, The Plane Above, The Plane Below, Hammerfast, Underdark, Demonomicon, Gloomwrought, those are all good.

 

[darjr]

I didn't listen to the whole thing, so I'll believe you.

That's exciting, love a good box set. Anecdotally, my local Target moves both the Starter Set and Essentials Kit like crazy.

I bet target is the instigator for more boxes

 

[Parmandur]

I bet target is the instigator for more boxes

It seems probable: they have a robust board game section, and there are going to be communities across the country Target is going to be the sole place to pick up tabletop games.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I have very little love for 4e after what they did to Tieflings.

Any recommendations on which books I should check out?

what is apparently wrong with tieflings?

 

[tetrasodium]

wonder if

what is apparently wrong with tieflings?

Knowing what tieflings were pre-4e will help. This was the planewalkerhandbook tiefling

Spoiler

 

[Von Corellon]

I love his work, had him sign Eberron novels at GenCon. I remember him working on his blog from Starbucks in the hotel the morning after 4e was announced. Fun Authors Alley that year with Eberron novel writers Matt Forbeck, James Wyatt, Keith Baker, and Don Bassingthwaite. That‘s when Jason Bulmahn was still lending his pen to Wizards on the Eberron: Secrets of Xen’drik book (no James in that but he developed the world with Bill Slavicsek and Keith). Aye!

 

[cbwjm]

what is apparently wrong with tieflings?

The homogenised the look of them by making them infernal only, I think specifically Asmodeus tieflings. They have created some additional bloodlines but they're all infernal, at least those that made it into an official product as I don't believe the abyssal tieflings made it in. Before that, they were all different, they just had something fiendish in their bloodline so you could have one which had the physical characteristics of a vrock or pit fiend or even something indistinguishable.

I do kind of get why they made them more uniform, they wanted a way to integrate them more fully into 4e as a main race and so gave them this great history as members of what is now a fallen empire. A lot of us though, prefer the older 2e style descended from anything tiefling.

 

[Sonny]

I love his work, had him sign Eberron novels at GenCon. I remember him working on his blog from Starbucks in the hotel the morning after 4e was announced. Fun Authors Alley that year with Eberron novel writers Matt Forbeck, James Wyatt, Keith Baker, and Don Bassingthwaite. That‘s when Jason Bulmahn was still lending his pen to Wizards on the Eberron: Secrets of Xen’drik book (no James in that but he developed the world with Bill Slavicsek and Keith). Aye!

The funny thing about Eberron in 3.5 was that I thought it looked terrible when they were showing previews. And then when I borrowed it from a friend, the setting just "clicked" for me and became one of my favorites.

Anything James does is a-ok with me. I really hope if there's a Planescape setting book or Manual of the Planes type supplement he works on it.

 

[darjr]

[WotC] James Wyatt transfers from D&D to M:TG | Dungeons & Dragons / Fantasy D20 Spotlight

For this time in this millennium, WotC will not have James Wyatt working on D&D. It's been announced that James is transferring to the M:TG division as part of their creative/world-building division...

forum.rpg.net

That has a link back to here to a news article, that doesn't work anymore.

 

[darjr]

Here is the bit from the old news post.

James Wyatt Leaves D&D Team


James Wyatt has left the D&D team to work on Magic: the Gathering (still at WotC). He says:
A big change happened this week! After 14-1/2 years at Wizards of the Coast, I have moved from the Dungeons & Dragons team to work on Magic: The Gathering as part of the creative/story team.
I'm tremendously excited about the opportunity for me to put my creative energy in new directions, even as I continue working to get the D&D Dungeon Master's Guide finished up. World-building, fiction writing, collaborative creative brainstorming—these are the things I love to do, and I'll be doing a lot of all three in the years ahead! I think you'll start to see the fruits of those labors as soon as this summer—I'll keep you posted.

Rob Schwalb left for Monte Cook Games a couple of months back, and Bruce Cordell did the same in August last year. Chris Dupois is at WotC still, but worki g on the Kaijudo game, and Tom Olsen and Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes are, like James Wyatt, on M:tG. Bart Carroll is also no longer working directly on D&D. (thinks to those who filled me in on those details!)

Staff indicated that.

there were about 15 people working on D&D -- "The team as a whole has about fifteen people. About half that are actually working on the RPG right now. The other half are working on other D&D stuff like Neverwinter, iOS games, licensing, or board games." As far as I can make out (and this may not wholly accurate) that puts the current list at something like this. I may have some job titles slightly off, or be missing a couple.