Jess Lanzillo Departs Wizards of the Coast

Another high profile name is departing Wizards of the Coast. Over the weekend, Jess Lanzillo announced she was departing Wizards of the Coast. Lanzillo was the VP of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, a position that she held since February 2024. Lanzillo did not provide details about her next role.

During her tenure overseeing the D&D franchise, Lanzillo oversaw the launch of D&D's revised Fifth Edition as well as pushing it into a new direction. Several longtime leaders of the D&D team - Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins - also departed under her tenure. Recently, Wizards of the Coast posted two high-profile development roles seemingly to replace the pair.

Lanzillo's full post can be found below:

After eight years at Wizards of the Coast, I have made the totally reasonable decision to leave a job where I got paid to argue about whether fictional lizard people can have tails. (Of course they can.)

My trajectory at Wizards has been wonderfully unhinged: leading creative during an absolutely wild ride with Magic: The Gathering, doing business things as Chief of Staff, and finally, getting to be the VP of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise — which is either the best job title ever invented or proof that late-stage capitalism has finally achieved absolute absurdity. Take that, liberal arts naysayers!

Wizards turns imaginary worlds into real communities, which sounds fake but is actually the most satisfying work in the world. To everyone who let me champion this mission while constantly asking "can you add more glowies?" — you are perfect and I love you.

I've been ridiculously fortunate for these eight years, and now I'm lucky enough to, yet again, get to choose my own plot twist. The best part about having super specific creative obsessions is that occasionally the universe decides to reward you for them. More soon!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Not just "at WotC". This is how work and life goes.

Folks, in the modern era, working in the same place for eight years is a good solid long haul. Lots of things change in eight years, both in one's personal life and professional goals.

There's nothing strange in someone leaving a job after eight years, after the close of a major project.

Eight years is the second longest I've worked anywhere. I'm currently at 13 years at my current job and I am itching to get out the door and make a change, assuming the stars align around my youngest's school calendar.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

For the most part, office jobs run into a few issues that hamper longevity:

1. Pay increases for current employees do not keep up with increasing wages for new hires
2. Opportunities for advancement are slim - especially if the org chart is very flat - and get slimmer as upper management tends to be hired from outside
3. If a workplace is very hierarchical, the upper echelons involve less doing important work and more kissing the CEO's a**
4. If you do manage to rise high enough to be close to the C-Suite, you're the person most likely to be thrown under the bus when the C-Suite idiots make a decision that impacts your department, doubly so if they're not the person who originally hired you

Thus, "promotion shopping" is common in office jobs, and even lateral moves are common when a person thinks they can have better opportunities elsewhere.

There's a slight issue that WotC is the biggest and best paying company in the tabletop RPG space. So if you want to advance your career by switching jobs you need to move to another industry.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's a slight issue that WotC is the biggest and best paying company in the tabletop RPG space. So if you want to advance your career by switching jobs you need to move to another industry.

Or go somewhere that you get better/any profit sharing. (Does WotC give top execs profit sharing?)

 

[GMMichael]

That song by Queen may be running on a loop at WoTC.

Let the Bodies Hit the Floor?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

 

[talien]

Not just "at WotC". This is how work and life goes.

Folks, in the modern era, working in the same place for eight years is a good solid long haul. Lots of things change in eight years, both in one's personal life and professional goals.

There's nothing strange in someone leaving a job after eight years, after the close of a major project.

This. As a corpo myself for 20+...I've now seen people leave, come back, and have entire career cycles AGAIN. It happens and unfortunately it happens in waves.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Eight years is the second longest I've worked anywhere. I'm currently at 13 years at my current job and I am itching to get out the door and make a change, assuming the stars align around my youngest's school calendar.

I've owned my Comic & Game store for 31 years and I'm soooooo happy to have had the privilege to have had no boss during all that time. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am, what with all the current (and past) shenanigans, but I really, really am.

Us retailers are often accused of resisting change. While that might be true to a certain extent, I would argue that we LIKE change, it's just that we only want CHANGE FOR THE BETTER - it's a thing that can be so rare, we'd often rather not risk it. (Case in point: All the stuff with Diamond Distributors...)

 

[LordEntrails]

I guess what I'm wondering is why is this so strange in the RPG industry?

It's not. People just like to read the tea leaves and predict doom.

That's normal too.

 

[GMMichael]

Okay, I'll make a suggestion from the correct band: I Want to Break Free.

 

[AlViking]

That song by Queen may be running on a loop at WoTC.

You mean Another one Rides the Bus? Oh wait ... wrong artist