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."

 

[Aaron L]

The game is called Dungeons & Dragons. In my opinion, if some people want to play Dragonmen and Dragonwomen, we should let them do it.

And I understand that, and if they are happy playing with that I am happy that they are happy. I am not about to tell anyone that they are playing the game wrong somehow if they are having fun. I, however, find blatant Dragon People as PCs to be incredibly gaudy and tacky, the same way I find settings that have children running around easily casting spells to be gaudy and tacky. It takes a wondrous, awe-inspiring, mystical thing and renders it common and mundane, spoiling its majesty. It was called Dungeons & Dragons because it was about exploring dungeons and slaying dragons, not playing dragons. The 1E DMG even had a short section on how to deal with players who want to play weird things like dragons, and how it makes the game weird.

If Dragonborn had been presented in the DMG as an exotic optional race for DMs to include if they felt so inclined, then I would have absolutely no problrm with them. However, they were instead included right in the PHB as a basic core element of the game, listed as being merely as "uncommon" as Half-Elves and Gnomes? That is really one of the main things that really irks me, because it gives people the expectation that they should be able to play one even after I have explained that they don't exist in my world, simply because they are listed in the PHB (which is a problem I have personally encountered.) Their inclusion as a playable race seriously weirds the feel of the game for me, as would including vampires as a playable race (which I understand is unfortunately going to be an option in the upcoming new Baldur's Gate game... sigh)

Exotic DMG optional race; fine-- core race presented in the PHB as being on par with Gnomes and Half-Elves; makes my teeth itch.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

And I understand that, and if they are happy playing with that I am happy that they are happy. I am not about to tell anyone that they are playing the game wrong somehow if they are having fun. I, however, find blatant Dragon People as PCs to be incredibly gaudy and tacky, the same way I find settings that have children running around easily casting spells to be gaudy and tacky. It takes a wondrous, awe-inspiring, mystical thing and renders it common and mundane, spoiling its majesty. It was called Dungeons & Dragons because it was about exploring dungeons and slaying dragons, not playing dragons. The 1E DMG even had a short section on how to deal with players who want to play weird things like dragons, and how it makes the game weird.

If Dragonborn had been presented in the DMG as an exotic optional race for DMs to include if they felt so inclined, then I would have absolutely no problrm with them. However, they were instead included right in the PHB as a basic core element of the game, listed as being merely as "uncommon" as Half-Elves and Gnomes? That is really one of the main things that really irks me, because it gives people the expectation that they should be able to play one even after I have explained that they don't exist in my world, simply because they are listed in the PHB (which is a problem I have personally encountered.) Their inclusion as a playable race seriously weirds the feel of the game for me, as would including vampires as a playable race (which I understand is unfortunately going to be an option in the upcoming new Baldur's Gate game... sigh)

Exotic DMG optional race; fine-- core race presented in the PHB as being on par with Gnomes and Half-Elves; makes my teeth itch.

Dragonborn have been a core race for 12 years, time to let it go. You're either 1) Playing with an established group of players who likely don't care for dragonborn so they'll never appear 2) playing with new and/or younger players in which case it just seems like a case of "get off my lawn"

 

[pnewman]

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

But they are subject to random roll on the spell table. It was not until later that Magic Users were supposed to get an offensive spell, a defensive spell, and a utility spell. At first it was just a random roll. A few DM's did not even allow re-rolls of duplicates, so you might end up knowing "Light, and Light, and Tenser's Floating Disk."

 

[Nikosandros]

But they are subject to random roll on the spell table. It was not until later that Magic Users were supposed to get an offensive spell, a defensive spell, and a utility spell. At first it was just a random roll. A few DM's did not even allow re-rolls of duplicates, so you might end up knowing "Light, and Light, and Tenser's Floating Disk."

That's not correct. A 1st level MU will get read magic plus one offensive, one defensive and one miscellaneous spell. At the DM's option the player may chose the spells, but that's not the default.

 

[R_Chance]

That's not correct. A 1st level MU will get read magic plus one offensive, one defensive and one miscellaneous spell. At the DM's option the player may chose the spells, but that's not the default.

That's in the 1E DMG, page 39. I got this puppy out of the box of 1E books the other day

edit In original D&D it was a bit... undefined. The Greyhawk supplement (1975) gave a minimum and maximum number of spells that a magic user could know based on Intelligence. I took the minimum to be how many spells of a given level you would know when you achieved a character level that could use that spell level. The maximum was a bit odd, because if you had them written in a book... what gives with a maximum you could know given "external storage" and a maximum you could have memorized at any given time? The Intelligence also gave a % chance to know a given spell for Magic users to see if they knew that specific spell for their "minimum". It was all a bit vague. AD&D cleaned it up and presented it logically. In comparison to OD&D anyway. Honestly my memory doesn't stretch back to "pre-Greyhawk" days at the moment although we played religiously from the time we got our hands on the game. When Grehawk came out it was the best thing since sliced bread. We adopted it immediately and didn't look back And then Blackmoor came out later in 1975!

I'd have to dredge out the books and look to get more precise... back to the boxed stuff

 

[Marandahir]

Dragon born, Tieflings, and most of Mos Eisley aren't pretty much humans with a twist (or rubber masks)?

Not like Elves/Dwarves/Haflings/Half-elves/Half-orcs/Gnomes…

Even less so for Dragonborn now that they got rid of those ridiculous mammaries…

 

[pnewman]

That's not correct. A 1st level MU will get read magic plus one offensive, one defensive and one miscellaneous spell. At the DM's option the player may chose the spells, but that's not the default.

When is said "later" I meant "after the 1st ed AD&D DMG was published which had that rule". I started playing before that, after the PHB and before the DMG.

 

[Marandahir]

And I understand that, and if they are happy playing with that I am happy that they are happy. I am not about to tell anyone that they are playing the game wrong somehow if they are having fun.

<snip>

Exotic DMG optional race; fine-- core race presented in the PHB as being on par with Gnomes and Half-Elves; makes my teeth itch.

You say one thing and then the opposite. Pushing them out of the PHB is basically saying badwrongfun.

The Player's Handbook is the one book designed for the Players first and foremost. Everything in every other book is DM's purview. Putting Dragonborn in the DM's Guide as an optional content a la the Death Domain Cleric, Oathbreaker Paladin, and untested sample versions of the Eladrin Elf and Aasimar is telling people that these are as non-standard options as playing as an evil Paladin or as an obscure ancestry from a book not truly balanced and released in full until 4 years into the edition's lifetime.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

You say one thing and then the opposite. Pushing them out of the PHB is basically saying badwrongfun.

The Player's Handbook is the one book designed for the Players first and foremost. Everything in every other book is DM's purview. Putting Dragonborn in the DM's Guide as an optional content a la the Death Domain Cleric, Oathbreaker Paladin, and untested sample versions of the Eladrin Elf and Aasimar is telling people that these are as non-standard options as playing as an evil Paladin or as an obscure ancestry from a book not truly balanced and released in full until 4 years into the edition's lifetime.

Every race, class, feat, spell, background, and skill in the PHB is a non-standard option until the DM says it isn't.

Why? Because it's the DM's responsibility to make the game great. If the DM stops liking a campaign because of the inclusion of a race, class, feat, spell, background, or skill he or she dislikes, the game grinds to a halt. Players can come and go at will*, but without the GM, the game doesn't exist.

*Perhaps to find another DM whose desires better match an individual player's.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I stopped reading every post, and hope this has not been said before in this thread:

The epic adventure paths are an absolute nightmare to run if you are new. The stories are way too complex to prepare ahead and too long to play in your spare time.
What really helped were the flowcharts in the newer books and still it is not enough.
I wished, that every chapter would begin with an extra chart that tells the DM which informations are crucial to hand over to the players so that you don't have to read 200 pages in advance.

For the PHB I would say, that reorganizing the chapters would also be of help as it would be for the DMG. When I am trying to do exploring, there are hundreds of page between two connected topics.