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!

 

[Burnside]

I'd add that this position has seen a lot of churn lately - I think there have been three different people in that spot in the past 4 years.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

She took a VP level role less than 18 months ago. Generally speaking, something has gone wrong if a VP leaves their new role in less than 2-3 years.

Some companies give away VP titles like candy, so caveats apply, but if this role was a senior as it sounds ("Head of D&D!"), it is unusual that she would leave that post so quickly.

Not really that unusual. She took the job, something she had not been thinking about career-wise. Didn't like it, so left. There are lots of explanations here that don't involve jamming a tin foil hat on one's head. Consider all options, but Occam's Razor, etc.

 

[Emerikol]

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.

I hate to agree with Umbran but when he is right, he is right. My job lengths have been 3, 5, 8, 10 years.

 

[TwoSix]

Not really that unusual. She took the job, something she had not been thinking about career-wise. Didn't like it, so left. There are lots of explanations here that don't involve jamming a tin foil hat on one's head. Consider all options, but Occam's Razor, etc.

When a fair number of people with high-level positions all leave a company in a relatively short time frame, I think it's fair to say that the Occam's Razor position is "Something is going on there".

Tumult and chaos causing a lot of staff turnover isn't conspiratorial thinking; it's the norm at an awful lot of companies.

 

[AlViking]

When a fair number of people with high-level positions all leave a company in a relatively short time frame, I think it's fair to say that the Occam's Razor position is "Something is going on there".

Tumult and chaos causing a lot of staff turnover isn't conspiratorial thinking; it's the norm at an awful lot of companies.

Yes, something is going on. Like they just made the first major release in a decade and realize that it may be another decade before they can ever work on something like this for another decade and they've all been there for a reasonable amount of time. That or aliens. You know what? I've been watching The History channel, it's probably aliens.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Yes, something is going on. Like they just made the first major release in a decade and realize that it may be another decade before they can ever work on something like this for another decade and they've all been there for a reasonable amount of time. That or aliens. You know what? I've been watching The History channel, it's probably aliens.

Exactly. @TwoSix , this is what I would consider the Occam's Razor position. Doesn't mean that other explanations aren't possible or even plausible, but this would be the most likely in my opinion.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Quite frankly, I don't care why any of them left. Cause trying to figure out why does not change anything.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Quite frankly, I don't care why any of them left. Cause trying to figure out why does not change anything.

And even that assumes what's happening at WotC even matters to you. How many people on this thread even play 5.5? I'm sure it's not everyone.

 

[AlViking]

Exactly. @TwoSix , this is what I would consider the Occam's Razor position. Doesn't mean that other explanations aren't possible or even plausible, but this would be the most likely in my opinion.

Exactly. Probably aliens.

 

[Parmandur]

When a fair number of people with high-level positions all leave a company in a relatively short time frame, I think it's fair to say that the Occam's Razor position is "Something is going on there".

Tumult and chaos causing a lot of staff turnover isn't conspiratorial thinking; it's the norm at an awful lot of companies.

Honestly, Occam's Razo for Perkins and Crawford is that they had maxed out what they could get from retiring at Hasbro and wanted to change things up (Perkins has openly been ralking about retiring almost the entire lifetine of 5E), and for Lanzillo that a killer opportunity came up.