D&D 5E Kate Welch on Leaving WotC

Kate Welch left Wizards of the Coast a few days ago, on August 16th. Soon after, she talked a little about it in a live-stream.

She started work at WotC as a game designer back in February 2018, and has contributed to various products since then, such as Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Descent into Avernus, as well as being a participant in WotC's livestreams. In December 2019, her job changed to that of 'senior user experience designer'.

"I mentioned yesterday that I have some big news that I wouldn't be able to share until today.

The big news that I have to share with you today is that I ... this is difficult, but ... I quit my job at Wizards of the Coast. I no longer work at Wizards. Today was my last day. I haven't said it out loud yet so it's pretty major. I know... it's a big change. It's been scary, I have been there for almost three years, not that long, you know, as far as jobs go, and for a while there I really was having a good time. It's just not... it wasn't the right fit for me any more.

So, yeah, I don't really know what's next. I got no big plans. It's a big deal, big deal .... and I wanted to talk to you all about it because you're, as I've mentioned before, a source of great joy for me. One of the things that has been tough reckoning with this is that I've defined myself by Dungeons & Dragons for so long and I really wanted to be a part of continuing to make D&D successful and to grow it, to have some focus especially on new user experience, I think that the new user experience for Dungeons & Dragons is piss poor, and I've said that while employed and also after quitting.

But I've always wanted to be a part of getting D&D into the hands of more people and helping them understand what a life-changing game it is, and I hope I still get the chance to do that. But as of today I'm unemployed, and I also wanted to be upfront about it because I have this great fear that because Dungeons & Dragons has been part of my identity, professionally for the last three years almost, I was worried that a lot of you'll would not want to follow me any more because I'm not at Wizards, and there's definitely some glamourous aspects to being at Wizards."

She went on to talk about the future, and her hopes that she'll still be be able to work with WotC.

"I'm excited about continuing to play D&D, and hopefully Wizards will still want me to appear on their shows and stuff, we'll see, I have no idea. But one thing that I'm really excited about is that now I can play other TTRPGs. There's a policy that when you're a Wizards employee you can't stream other tabletop games. So there was a Call of Cthulhu game that we did with the C-team but we had to get very special permission for it, they were like OK but this is only a one time thing. I get it, you know, it's endorsing the competition or whatever, but I'm super excited to be able to have more freedom about the kinds of stuff that I'm getting involved with."

 

[Erdric Dragin]

I think D&D, at least the spirit of it, began tanking when it kept pushing more and more to a "pick up and play experience." Sure it's popular now, but at what cost? It lost a ton of what made it grand. It only kept enough nostalgia to make people be more acceptable, but let's be real, the Golden Age and Silver Ages of D&D were 2e and 3e. Now we're in the Tincup Casual Age of D&D.

 

[Hatmatter]

I think D&D, at least the spirit of it, began tanking when it kept pushing more and more to a "pick up and play experience." Sure it's popular now, but at what cost? It lost a ton of what made it grand. It only kept enough nostalgia to make people be more acceptable, but let's be real, the Golden Age and Silver Ages of D&D were 2e and 3e. Now we're in the Tincup Casual Age of D&D.

With all do respect, I have been playing since 1980 and I do not feel that way at all. Remarkably, through the Internet, almost all of the content for D&D (and many other rpgs) is available and I think the books Wizards of the Coast has been producing these past six years are wonderful.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Wow, message board peeps can be pretty blasé and invalidating. It's a big deal to speak up while embedded in a corporatist environment (i.e. Americanist Earth), and to move on. In the Americanist Way (a.k.a. Corporatist Way), everything in life is tied to the Big Job, and worship of the Employer (which is French for 'User'). So anytime anyone speaks with their individual integrity from out of that milieu, it's a big deal, worth listening to, and acknowledging.

Even if I don't know exactly what "new user" travails were going on behind the scenes, I'd be glad to know more, and what went down, and exactly how Kate Welch would envision a better way.

Even better...how about a Kickstarter where Kate W. publishes her own iteration of D&D/OGL?

I witness her courage. I'd like to see more of that.

 

[Parmandur]

I think D&D, at least the spirit of it, began tanking when it kept pushing more and more to a "pick up and play experience." Sure it's popular now, but at what cost? It lost a ton of what made it grand. It only kept enough nostalgia to make people be more acceptable, but let's be real, the Golden Age and Silver Ages of D&D were 2e and 3e. Now we're in the Tincup Casual Age of D&D.

Living in the Golden Age now, baby.

 

[Zardnaar]

With all do respect, I have been playing since 1980 and I do not feel that way at all. Remarkably, through the Internet, almost all of the content for D&D (and many other rpgs) is available and I think the books Wizards of the Coast has been producing these past six years are wonderful.

Core materials pretty good,

Living in the Golden Age now, baby.

Not creatively us what I think the post was about.

Alot of rehash and tribute to type stuff, not much that's new or pushing the boundaries.

I think that's what they were meaning.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's a lot of people in this thread who don't seem to be aware, willingly or otherwise, of what anyone other than WotC and maybe one or two other RPG companies are doing.

Even if you don't buy, those folks should trawl Kickstarter and DriveThruRPG and Noble Knight. @Parmandur is right: We are unquestionably in the New Golden Age of RPGs. You're not required to play anything other than D&D forever and ever, amen, but I guarantee you there's other games out there and even systemless supplemental material you'd find thrilling.

 

[Parmandur]

Not creatively us what I think the post was about.

Alot of rehash and tribute to type stuff, not much that's new or pushing the boundaries.

Based on what I have seen of older stuff from a variety of sources, both WotC and the industry at large are killing it like never before. No end of options out there.

WotC has a historic brand to cater to, but Welch herself is a good example of working callbacks to older material into something new and exciting in the products which she developed.

 

[Horwath]

We could just call them "1st Circle, 3rd Circle, 5th Circle, 7th Circle, 9th Circle, 11th Circle, 13th Circle, 15th Circle, and 17th Circle".

that's all fine a well, but what happened with the 2nd circle, 4th circle, etc..?

 

[OblivionDrive]

I think D&D, at least the spirit of it, began tanking when it kept pushing more and more to a "pick up and play experience." Sure it's popular now, but at what cost? It lost a ton of what made it grand. It only kept enough nostalgia to make people be more acceptable, but let's be real, the Golden Age and Silver Ages of D&D were 2e and 3e. Now we're in the Tincup Casual Age of D&D.

Yep - yet another player who started in the mid-80s with 1E here to chime in that I could not agree LESS with this sentiment.

Good lord... if there's one thing I'm NOT nostalgic for, it's going back to those older rules sets.

Do I look back fondly on that time in my life? Yes, of course I do. Do I MUCH prefer playing 5E these days? Also yes.

Like, I miss my old Atari 800 computer with a 300 baud modem too, but I'm not exactly aching to try to take it online again either.

 

[jerryrice4949]

Yep - yet another player who started in the mid-80s with 1E here to chime in that I could not agree LESS with this sentiment.

Good lord... if there's one thing I'm NOT nostalgic for, it's going back to those older rules sets.

Do I look back fondly on that time in my life? Yes, of course I do. Do I MUCH prefer playing 5E these days? Also yes.

Like, I miss my old Atari 800 computer with a 300 baud modem too, but I'm not exactly aching to try to take it online again either.

I also started play in the 80s. I still enjoy 1st and 2nd edition rules. There were a lot of strong points. Though as a whole I prefer 5th edition rules yet I actually like a lot of the classic modules more than current adventure paths. But I am super excited for September’s release.