James Wyatt regarding his new job...

[weem]

Just now posted on his wotc blog...

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In his blog yesterday, Chris Perkins described the changes that were implemented in our department last week. I figured I'd take this opportunity to write a little bit more about what my new job is and what that means for me.

My new title is Creative Manager, which is actually the title that Chris held previously, but the job is not the same. Mine is a new position within the structure of the new half of the department, and in some ways it's still sort of nebulous. Ultimately, though, it's all about the story of D&D, in all the incarnations of D&D. I manage a team of creative geniuses (well, right now it's just me and Bruce Cordell, but expansion is planned) whose job it is, largely, to come up with cool new ideas. We're supposed to think up new stuff, flesh it out to the extent that particular idea requires, and then hand it off to other teams—Mike's RPG group, the board game folks, the D&D Insider studio, or whoever—to implement.

We're going to be doing most of our work very far in advance of products actually being announced, so pretty much everything we do is top secret. However, I think I can give two sort of generic examples.

We've already announced the D&D Gamma World game, and suggested that we're probably going to do more of these self-contained "genre" games. In the future, my team will be pretty heavily involved in fleshing out the story background of those games, freeing up the design team to concentrate on the game design. In fact, it's my hope that we can do some intensive brainstorming and come up with a whole bunch of ideas for future genre games. When the RPG team sits down to plan the next one, they'll have a whole file of fleshed-out ideas to draw from, and they can pick the one that's right for that year.

At sort of the other extreme, Bill recently called me in to help him come up with a name for an unannounced board game. We came up with a great name, and along the way came up with some amount of story that explains the name—and, to some extent, explains the whole game. As that game gets a little farther along, someone on my team (maybe me) will write some text to make sure that story is communicated in the rulebook. That's a pretty minor task and not something that requires a whole lot of big-picture, strategic thinking, but it's a clear place where having one team that's responsible for the story of the game is going to be really good—for us, for the game, and for our customers.

My influence is not going to disappear from the D&D RPG—not by any stretch. If nothing else, I have a standing lunch date with Mike Mearls every week, and we're not going to stop bouncing ideas around just because our jobs have changed. But more importantly, you should expect to see the influence of me and my team in any place where the story of the D&D worlds is reflected in the RPG. Campaign settings, super adventures, and setting books (like Plane Above or Underdark) are among the most important kinds of products I'll be involved in, but that's not all.

I'm hugely excited about this new position and what it means for all of D&D. I feel like the whole new business side of D&D R&D is an investment in the future, and I'm positive that it's going to pay off in really exciting ways. I can't wait until I get to unveil some of them to you!

I hope that helps clarify a bit more of what's going on, and particularly any confusion that might have arisen because of my taking over Chris's job title.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Wow. Sounds to me like James is in charge of the team that gets to do all the most fun parts of game design.

Kudos to him.

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

In the spirit of reading too much into things...if WotC keeps this structure for the next few years, then James' group will be pre-positioned to perform top secret development of 5th edition...

 

[TerraDave]

Interesting, though its not quite what perkins said. Which is also interesting.

Also, while interesting, I wonder if this should be merged with one of the other threads, these are proliferating.

 

[xechnao]

If I get this right it is sort of similar to the development of 2e's settings.

 

[DaveMage]

I guess we'll see the power of the D&D name as these other non-RPG products are released. Unless, of course, the idea is to drive sales of the RPG via these other products. Or they'll feed off each other.

Or, it could lead to more brand confusion: it's a board game! No, it's a fantasy RPG! No, it's sci fi RPG! Wait, it's a game about things we can't talk about right now!

 

[Michael Silverbane]

In the spirit of reading too much into things...if WotC keeps this structure for the next few years, then James' group will be pre-positioned to perform top secret development of 5th edition...

Also, he could be pre-positioned to perform development on Top Secret.

 

[Scribble]

Wow. Sounds to me like James is in charge of the team that gets to do all the most fun parts of game design.

Kudos to him.

I think it's a really cool idea actually...

I know in the past there have been game designers that put out products where I would read the flavor and think dude so awesome- but then the rules would drive me nuts, or vice versa.

 

[Rechan]

I know in the past there have been game designers that put out products where I would read the flavor and think dude so awesome- but then the rules would drive me nuts, or vice versa.

That pretty much sums up my relationship with many setting/system books.

 

[Klaus]

Wow. Sounds to me like James is in charge of the team that gets to do all the most fun parts of game design.

Kudos to him.

No kiddin'!

Can one play on both teams?