WotC James Wyatt is on the Dungeons & Dragons Team Again

[Parmandur]

After he finished writing the 5E Dungeon Master's Guide in 2015, James Wyatt transferred internally to the Magic: the Gathering team. It seems that he is back on the D&D design team now:


[Edited out HTML from post; note that the boards don't support HTML posts - Morrus]

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Also looks like Mike Mearls is off the team again...

 

[darjr]

Such a good thing, James is great! I wonder if it means more or less magic D&D crossovers?

 

[Dausuul]

Reviewing Wyatt's work... he's done a lot of stuff on D&D going back to 2001, but his largest contributions were in the 4E era. He was part of the core development team that created 4E, and played a big role in the sweeping overhaul of D&D lore that produced the World Axis cosmology (among other things).

I had mixed feelings about 4E mechanically, but there were a number of things it did well that I wish 5E did a little better. And on the lore front, I consider 4E to be an unqualified success--ironic, given that one of the knocks against 4E was how it disconnected lore from mechanics! They created this amazing evocative world (far better than the Great Wheel IMO), and then they put it into a system that held it at arm's length and treated it as disposable flavor text.

I'd love to see all that 4E lore revived and given a 5E treatment, perhaps as a stand-alone setting book. That probably isn't what Wyatt is working on, but if it is, I'll buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[Bravesteel25]

That's a good thing in my book!

 

[tetrasodium]

Reviewing Wyatt's work... he's done a lot of stuff on D&D going back to 2001, but his largest contributions were in the 4E era. He was part of the core development team that created 4E, and played a big role in the sweeping overhaul of D&D lore that produced the World Axis cosmology (among other things).

I had mixed feelings about 4E mechanically, but there were a number of things it did well that I wish 5E did a little better. And on the lore front, I consider 4E to be an unqualified success--ironic, given that one of the knocks against 4E was how it made lore take a back seat to mechanics! But the World Axis was a huge improvement on the Great Wheel IMO.

I'd love to see all that 4E lore revived and given a 5E treatment, perhaps as a stand-alone setting book. That probably isn't what Wyatt is working on, but if it is, I'll buy that in a heartbeat.

If I'm not mistakenhe had a lot of influence in 3.5 eberron too. His return is probably a good thing
edit: James Wyatt is not Wayne Reynolds so probably not so much art influence. I had my eberron>mtg>d&d names mixed

 

[Parmandur]

Reviewing Wyatt's work... he's done a lot of stuff on D&D going back to 2001, but his largest contributions were in the 4E era. He was part of the core development team that created 4E, and played a big role in the sweeping overhaul of D&D lore that produced the World Axis cosmology (among other things).

I had mixed feelings about 4E mechanically, but there were a number of things it did well that I wish 5E did a little better. And on the lore front, I consider 4E to be an unqualified success--ironic, given that one of the knocks against 4E was how it made lore take a back seat to mechanics! But the World Axis was a huge improvement on the Great Wheel IMO.

I'd love to see all that 4E lore revived and given a 5E treatment, perhaps as a stand-alone setting book. That probably isn't what Wyatt is working on, but if it is, I'll buy that in a heartbeat.

He was also part of the 5E design team, and was the main writer on the DMG. He also did the Lore Bible that underscored the 5E Monster Manual.

 

[Parmandur]

If I'm not mistaken his art had a lot of influence in 3.5 eberron too. His return is probably a good thing

You are not mistaken: he was part of the 5E Eberron book team, as well, which was billed as the original 3.5 Eberron gang getting back together (Keith Baker, James Wyatt and Chris Perkins).

 

[tetrasodium]

You are not mistaken: he was part of the 5E Eberron book team, as well, which was billed as the original 3.5 Eberron gang getting back together (Keith Baker, James Wyatt and Chris Perkins).

Yea Keith seems to mention him a lot talking about those days so I dunno if it's more than justhis art & to what degree

 

[Parmandur]

Also looks like Mike Mearls is off the team again...

Mike Mearls was not credited in any way in either Icewind Dale or Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, either. He had a credit near the bottom of the list for "D&D IP Development" in Theros, but that's the last time his name came up for the TTRPG.