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."

 

[DnD Warlord]

There have been some very good suggestions already made, including cleaning up legacy terms like "level," which are used in so many different ways that even veteran players sometimes get confused which is meant.

I still think spell depth is better then spell level... either that or go back to 4e spell level equals class or character level

 

[DnD Warlord]

And we don’t help with new experiences.
By we I mean all of us collectively not one person in particular. We as gamers are not always the best with gate keeping...

I mean we are better then comics nerds (me too) but that is a low bar

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I didn't say that. I dont know where that came from?

From you:

Its up to the DM to start small with a group of new players and introduce rules over time, not all at once. Although I believe that as a player, if you're going to play you should at least read the PHB, or at least the portion that's relevant to your character. Some of the responsibility of the new user experience needs to fall on the DM and Players, you cant blame WotC for that.

If D&D, which is a multi-million dollar brand owned by an even bigger corporation, needs established players to teach new players how to play, WotC absolutely deserves the blame.

No one needs a friend to show them how to set up and play an Xbox.

You can figure out how to play Clue for the first time without an experienced player at the table.

Heck, your internet provider sends you a box in the mail and tells you to set up the Internet yourself.

Nearly every episode of Dragon Talk has a guest who says that they bought D&D and had to wait months or years to find someone to play with or that they made a ton of mistakes because they didn't understand the game. Those are both on-boarding and new user experience issues. If Kate Welch wasn't worried about that -- and I bet she was, given that she was a regular on Dragon Talk -- someone should be.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Now I really have no clue what you're talking about or what you're basing this comment on? If you think I was taking about Kate Welch you are wrong, I was commenting on another comment about their fiancee up thread.

My apologies. I was up with a senior cat all night and got about three hours of sleep. I misread who was being referred to.

 

[MGibster]

There's one thing history has shown us: RPG folks are phenomenal business people whose judgement should never be challenged.

::Looks back at the graveyard with headstones memorializing TSR, FASA, West End Games, and GDW among others::

That's a fair point.

 

[Cadence]

It's been incredibly instructive for me. New players get stumped all the time on elements of the game.

Running a game for my 11yo and two of his friends. I can see new players doing fine with an experienced DM. I can't imagine a new DM having to run things without a sizable amount of player experience. (I mean, we managed with Moldvay and B2 back in the day after having only been a player in a few sessions, but I don't remember how).

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

If D&D, which is a multi-million dollar brand owned by an even bigger corporation, needs established players to teach new players how to play, WotC absolutely deserves the blame.

No one needs a friend to show them how to set up and play an Xbox.

You can figure out how to play Clue for the first time without an experienced player at the table.

Your internet provider sends you a box in the mail and tells you to set up the Internet yourself.

This should probably be its own thread.

But I think it might be more nuanced than that.

On the one hand, there were a lot of people who completely, or mostly, taught themselves how to play D&D during the last major boom (the 70s and early 80s). And I'd say that 5e, especially the starter set, is much easier than the earlier editions to pick up (although B/X and BECMI were darn accessible!).

On the other hand, if you have no knowledge at all about "role playing games," the whole concept is ... weird. It is infinitely easier to pick it up from playing with someone else than to try and do it on your own the first time.

That said, given the youtube and twitch, it's easy enough to see how people play.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That said, given the youtube and twitch, it's easy enough to see how people play.

For every customer who does that, how many never end up playing and never buying anything else from WotC? Why should it be the responsibility of random people on YouTube to make a company's product user-friendly?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Also, I'm going to miss Kate Welch's Dragon Talk segments where she helps turn a randomly generated character into something interesting and playable. It doesn't always work, but it's fun to listen to her try and she has a heck of an imagination and a willingness to problem-solve.

 

[Mortus]

This might be nostalgia speaking, but I have a very fond memory of the "Mentzer" Red Box Basic Set. It really takes you by hand, introducing new concepts (such as to hit roll, damage roll, saving throw, different ability scores, etc.) one a time and makes you participate in a sort of guided adventure. After that, there is a choose your own path adventure further helping to get into the game. I managed to teach myself quite well with it when I was 12 years old and had no one to teach me or explain the game to me.

Same experience here. Maybe WOTC should put a modern version of those teaching parts of the Mentzer Basic set on their website as an interactive tutorial?