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."

 

[Jeff Albertson]

I was not thrilled with the initial hire, or the contributions/work since, but I wish her well.

 

[wicked cool]

I had watched some Kate welch videos/streams such as Divinity etc and I 100% disagree with her. This has been the easiest version to learn to play/ find players (maybe a little harder right now with Covid). I have also never seen WOTC more friendlier/accessible. Im an older gamer (1st edition ) and I have also never seen this game more mainstream. You have pax, twitter, youtube etc to learn how to play. You have critical role (season 2 on the players side how it goes from silly to serious in many ways is classic for me).

WOTC partners/affiliates have embraced the miniatures side of gaming with their own line of very nice warlock tiles/3d buildings (I never thought in 40 years this would happen) plus we are get miniatures never represented before and product is coming out faster than ever

Sure could they improve and make the home site more user friendly and easier to navigate howver I just visited it and its easier to navigate than every other game site I visit plus its easier to navigate than Hulu

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I suspect Kate Welch is far too young to remember those 1st edition days.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No, he has a chance. He just needs to keep Shield ready, and more importantly hide behind the meat shields in the party A first level magic user was good for a one shot spell (hopefully Sleep) and being a pack mule; no armor = ability to carry a lot of stuff. This assumes they were a smart magic user... I still remember one who pulled out his dagger and went for it. It was painful, but short...

If he knew Sleep or Magic Missile or Burning Hands or, well, anything useful. Chance to Know Spell Percentage!

Otherwise, you had a torchbearer who wanted a full share of the treasure or a delusional magic-user who either didn't know how useless they were in a dungeon going anyway, or terminally depressed bad student at Magic-User School who was committing death by kobold.

It was a very silly system and one that subsequent editions of the game rightly dropped.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

edit Thieves were not much tougher and leather armor wasn't much protection. Come to think of it, no one was safe No maximum on hit dice. My house rule was half or better or re-roll at 1st level. I was a compassionate DM

Thieves were all guaranteed to know how to stab, at least!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I had watched some Kate welch videos/streams such as Divinity etc and I 100% disagree with her. This has been the easiest version to learn to play/ find players (maybe a little harder right now with Covid). I have also never seen WOTC more friendlier/accessible. Im an older gamer (1st edition ) and I have also never seen this game more mainstream. You have pax, twitter, youtube etc to learn how to play. You have critical role (season 2 on the players side how it goes from silly to serious in many ways is classic for me).

The "easiest yet" doesn't necessarily equate to "easy."

If I gave you a cupcake and a snickerdoodle, the snickerdoodle would be the spicier of the two, but only someone who couldn't handle any spiciness at all would consider it truly spicy.

And if D&D designers stopped trying to further improve the game, we'd all still be rolling 1d6 for all weapon damage and there'd only be two character classes.

 

[Nikosandros]

If he knew Sleep or Magic Missile or Burning Hands or, well, anything useful. Chance to Know Spell Percentage!

Initial spells are not subject to the chance to know roll.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And if D&D designers stopped trying to further improve the game, we'd all still be rolling 1d6 for all weapon damage and there'd only be two character classes.

And if D&D designers did not understand that some changes where not improvements, D&D would have ended with 4e.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And if D&D designers did not understand that some changes where not improvements, D&D would have ended with 4e.

Making D&D easier for new players doesn't necessarily require rules changes, though. You have been firmly against the very idea of making it easier for more groups to join. Why?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Initial spells are not subject to the chance to know roll.

Maybe. That's how my initial DMs did it back in the AD&D days. I know there was a chart we eventually found that had a limited pool of spells to roll on for a first level character, but I don't recall that being in the AD&D PHB.

My AD&D books are all packed away at the moment, so I can't look and see.