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]

I do think WotC does think about this. Nostalgia for older editions aside, Lost Mines of Phandelver is easily the best introductory adventure the game has ever had, showing players a variety of things the game can do, starting with the most basic (goblin ambush!) and working up from there. The rule book that came with the Starter Set was also well designed and easier to use at the table than the core books. (It'd be nice if the booklets weren't so flimsy, though.)

That doesn't mean either is perfect or that anyone should stop trying to improve the experience even further.

 

[Cadence]

And now I'm picturing things the size of the 2e/3e conversion guide, but one each for a couple different classes and a DM one. So you could have a fighter starter, a sorcerer starter, and a rogue starter, or something like that to get you going. Have a simple pre-built character with just a few options to fill in, a short choose your own adventure set-up, and something on how you can interact with the person using the DM one.

 

[TheFlyingDutchBros]

It is exactly this. My fiancee loves games but even with me being a decades-long veteran there to teach her, she's not interested in putting in the work to learn D&D. There is a ton of terminology, rules, processes, tropes, and very unintuitive things that we don't think about twice because we know it all.

But for somebody walking in blind, there is a lot to grok and the game tends to throw everything at a new player at once (think of all the different parts of the game that you touch before the game even starts just by creating a wizard with a familiar). There really isn't a good "tutorial" mode that isn't "play with somebody who's played before".

I would love to see a D&D starter adventure written to teach the rules as you progress through the encounters in the module. Legend of the Five Rings Beginner Game does a fantastic job of this.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I think there's room for an official rules light version of D&D. In fact, make that two: one for kids, one for adults.

 

[MGibster]

You’re not wrong, but currently reading the PHB is a big ask, especially as a prerequisite for play. It’s enormous and organized in a way that is really not conducive to teaching how to play.

You're right. Role playing games are somewhat intimidating because the rule books to seem a bit overwhelming. I've been playing for a little over, well, never you mind how long I have been playing, but even I get a little overwhelmed. I recently purchased Traveller but figuring out which edition of a forty year old game I should get was a little daunting. Mongoose Publishing is the current license holder and they're already on a 2nd edition and their starter set is just a full version of the rules rather than a set for new players. Very confusing.

 

[The Last Rogue]

Just wanted to chime in on the New User Experience thing (and, apologies in advance if I am repeating something...didn't get a chance to read everything yet).

D&D by its virtue and success at being a fan-creating object is always going to struggle with the need to attract new players while appeasing the diehards...who were created by the very wonders of the game in the first place. Regardless of the edition you joined in, accessing the material of D&D is like learning a new language. And, once you've put in the work, you've become attached to it in a very meaningful way...a way in which many, many other consumer products don't facilitate.

This innate tension, coupled with the limited bandwidth to produce for potential new people and more tradition-rich and/or rules focused content for pre-exisiting fans is almost a function of D&D as opposed to a bug.

 

[Burnside]

And now I'm picturing things the size of the 2e/3e conversion guide, but one each for a couple different classes and a DM one. So you could have a fighter starter, a sorcerer starter, and a rogue starter, or something like that to get you going. Have a simple pre-built character with just a few options to fill in, a short choose your own adventure set-up, and something on how you can interact with the person using the DM one.

I agree with this. The Starter Set is a remarkable accomplishment and Lost Mine is a modern classic. It’s amazing to see an adventure succeed as a tutorial while ALSO managing to be a very fun adventure. And that it covers so many aspects of the game while maintaining a very manageable page count.

As a boxed set, the Essentials Kit is superior in almost every way except that Dragon of Icespire Peak, while not bad, is not nearly as good at being a tutorial, being fun, or being varied.

 

[Charlaquin]

In my experience with D&D, the expectation has been that you learn the game as a player first, under an experienced DM. Then, once you’ve mastered the player role, you might ask your DM to teach you to DM, and eventually you’ll go on to start your own group and teach new players. That’s a HUGE barrier to entry, because even if you are committed to reading the whole PHB, you still need to find a DM to play. Obviously there are groups that form of entirely new players, but they seem less common, and even in those cases DMing is seen as a responsibility someone has to accept. How many DMs these days started DMing because they wanted to play, but none of their friends were willing to DM for them?

I think a better model would be to not just teach the newcomer how to play, but teach them how to run the game. Instead of DMing being the next step you take after learning to play, have DMing be the first thing you teach the new player, and encourage them to recruit their friends so they can run a game for them.

The starter set for the latest edition of Call of Cthulhu does this extremely well in my opinion. It’s 4 or 5 packets you work through in order, which teach you how to run the game. The first packet is a choose-your-own adventure you play through and build a character as you go, teaching you the fundamental flow of the game. The second is a condensed version of the rules, with everything you need to know to create a character and run a simple game. The third is an introductory adventure for a GM and a single player. The fourth is an introductory adventure for a group of 3-5 players. And the fifth is a follow-up adventure to run for the same group. There are also 5 pregenerated characters that are well-suited to the introductory adventures, though the players can of course make their own. I think something along those lines would be excellent for D&D.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I do think WotC does think about this. Nostalgia for older editions aside, Lost Mines of Phandelver is easily the best introductory adventure the game has ever had, showing players a variety of things the game can do, starting with the most basic (goblin ambush!) and working up from there. The rule book that came with the Starter Set was also well designed and easier to use at the table than the core books. (It'd be nice if the booklets weren't so flimsy, though.)

That doesn't mean either is perfect or that anyone should stop trying to improve the experience even further.

Ok, I'll play Devil's Advocate. LMoP is a good introductory adventure for an experienced player/DM to use in introducing the game to new players.

But is it a good adventure if you don't have a teacher like that? I don't think so.

I also think it doesn't feel like whoever wrote the adventure really understood the 5e play loop. Mostly in how the frequent use of ability checks seems like it's based on "skill use" in previous editions.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ok, I'll play Devil's Advocate. LMoP is a good introductory adventure for an experienced player/DM to use in introducing the game to new players.

But is it a good adventure if you don't have a teacher like that? I don't think so.

I also think it doesn't feel like whoever wrote the adventure really understood the 5e play loop. Mostly in how the frequent use of ability checks seems like it's based on "skill use" in previous editions.

It'd definitely better as a player-facing adventure than it is as a DM-facing adventure.

If WotC is going to regularly update and reprint older products, I'd love to see Lost Mines get updated with a more mature understanding of the ruleset and some more hand-holding for the DM. (And better paper quality.)