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."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What if someone tries to learn to play the trombone without a teacher?

Are they selling trombones in Target for people to teach themselves at home?

Why are you so invested in D&D not being easier for people to learn?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The funny thing is that if you break down each class into a booklet, those big books get much smaller.

One of the great innovations from the Apocalypse World games is the playbook style of play, where your character sheet is 99 percent of the rules you need to access as a player. (Also seen in the OSR game Beyond the Wall.)

There's a few newbie friendly D&D character sheets that try that, but it doesn't quite work.

 

[Marandahir]

Are they selling trombones in Target for people to teach themselves at home?

Why are you so invested in D&D not being easier for people to learn?

Agreed.

Every musical instrument store I've ever been to also offers music lessons.

Sure, mom and pop Tabletop Gaming stores host D&D AL games, but this is a wide market game that people can buy off Amazon (a best seller, I might add).

 

[Cadence]

The funny thing is that if you break down each class into a booklet, those big books get much smaller.

Especially if they only go three levels or so...

 

[Cadence]

Why are you so invested in D&D not being easier for people to learn?

It feels like there are different reactions depending on if the proposed easiness comes from drastically remaking the game rules itself and the types of products produced for experienced players, or if it comes from having an intro book (or intro box, booklets and/or on-line tutorial) that actually teaches people how to play in a competent manner. I have a hard time understanding why anyone wouldn't be for the latter!

 

[Guest 6801328]

FFS it's not like you have to make D&D itself simpler/easier. The information just has to be presented differently.

 

[EpicureanDM]

Let's also not forget that Kate was hired by Nathan Stewart. And with him now gone from the direct lead of the D&D team to his full VP status over the WotC brand, perhaps she did not see eye-to-eye with new head Ray Winninger on how things should progress for new players? That's oftentimes a reason why people leave a job... the stylings of their new manager just doesn't click.

I'm surprised how often speculation like this focuses on the highest levels of the org. chart, on people who appear to be 2-3 levels of management higher than the unhappy employee. In ever corporate job I've had where I've been miserable, it's not because someone three levels up on the chart has taken a personal interest in making my day-to-day suck. It's usually my immediate supervisor who contributed most to my baseline misery.

 

[Plane Sailing]

To add a couple of thoughts from my experience on the ”new user” thing.

So I’ve played D&D for a long, long time. From 1975 or so until 2010, so I’ve been through everything from OD&D to 4e with every kind of house-ruled thingies in between. I bought the 5e rules when they came out, read them and thought ’this looks neat’ but didn’t have a regular group so didn’t play anything.

Fast forward until 2019. My daughter says “I’d like to pay a game of D&D“ and I say “sure, and pull out the 5e PHB. 3-4 dense pages for each of 9 races. 4-5 dense pages for each of 12 classes. I get completely bogged down trying to skim through to find the relevant information from all the text. She decides that she would like to be an elf Druid. We never got as far as rolling up a character.

I know how the game is supposed to be played, but the sheer volume of information bogged us down. If I’d been playing 5e regularly I would have internalised everything and could quickly wing it, but since I’d not even looked at the book for years I couldn’t do that.

I’m a smart guy, but the volume was daunting. I can think of half a dozen ways of improving the information layout (and I’m sure that starter sets had a lot of that - some people directed me to them later, for which I’m grateful). I had expected that introducing my daughter to 3e would have been easier...

Anyhow, I can see how someone who was at WotC could consider that it might be valuable to invest in a new user experience.

Cheers

 

[Cadence]

Fast forward until 2019. My daughter says “I’d like to pay a game of D&D“ and I say “sure, and pull out the 5e PHB. 3-4 dense pages for each of 9 races. 4-5 dense pages for each of 12 classes. I get completely bogged down trying to skim through to find the relevant information from all the text. She decides that she would like to be an elf Druid. We never got as far as rolling up a character.

I know how the game is supposed to be played, but the sheer volume of information bogged us down. If I’d been playing 5e regularly I would have internalised everything and could quickly wing it, but since I’d not even looked at the book for years I couldn’t do that.

I’m a smart guy, but the volume was daunting. I can think of half a dozen ways of improving the information layout (and I’m sure that starter sets had a lot of that - some people directed me to them later, for which I’m grateful). I had expected that introducing my daughter to 3e would have been easier...

I thought essentials would be basic enough too for my son, and was surprised how dense it still was (going up to level 6, and needing to get the archetypes in at level 3 doesn't help!). I wonder if they could just have a short book for each class that basically walked them through how a character would be made (but not giving them many choices) and how to play the game (like a choose your own adventure), and maybe have the things for 2nd level.

 

[Mort]

And having fewer is dumbing down.

Better presented does not mean fewer, it means better presented.

But it's irrelevant. New players don't need to know the rules to play D&D.

1. Why not? D&D isn't some mysterious activity one must be initiated into, it's a game. It has (mostly) straightforward uncomplicated rules. Presenting these rules in a way that is easier to grasp/understand is not a bad goal for a company hoping to make money off those rules.

2. You don't always have the luxery/luck of finding a good teacher. Often it's just a group of kids that get together and someone decides to DM. Making that kid's job easier isn't a bad goal.

3. Even if you do have an established group with an experienced DM, they're not necessarily teaching, their running a game. Books that present the rules better can help you be a better part of that game.

4. Books with better presentation can /will help older players not make the mistake of assuming they know 3e, 5e isn't that different, why bother reading the rules carefully! Way too many DMs make that mistake: heck, after 4 years of streaming, Matt Mercer (of critical role) still runs surprise rounds the 3e way instead of the 5e way.