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."

 

[Haffrung]

If anything, it's odd that they did not experiment a little bit more with the way adventures are written, presented and formatted.

Absolutely. They've taken an extremely conservative approach. Maybe it's an (over)reaction to the more 'modern' layout and presentation of 4E.

 

[Northern Phoenix]

Absolutely. They've taken an extremely conservative approach. Maybe it's an (over)reaction to the more 'modern' layout and presentation of 4E.

You could say that about a lot of 5e tbh.

 

[dave2008]

The frustrating thing is other RPG publishers have demonstrated innovative and user-friendly ways to present adventures. Smart formatting, straightforward structure, call-outs, flowcharts, graphics, all essential information laid out clearly for use at the table. But WotC adventures are presented with walls and walls of text and larded with pages and pages of background and baroque politics. It's like it's 1998 forever. When third-party aids for running the campaign come out within weeks of every published adventure path, it's clear that WotC is consistently missing the mark.

Heck, you don't even need modern published adventures for examples of presentation WotC would do well to imitate. Nothing they've published for 5E comes close to Red Hand of Doom for concision, clarity, and ease of use for DMs.

Any other recommendations. I have always hated published adventures i've look at (any edition of D&D and CoC, not sure which edition, and PF); however, maybe I was looking at the wrong adventures. I would love to see an adventure with a layout that made sense to me.

 

[Parmandur]

Hoard of the Dragon Queen was the first Adventure I ever ran, the first time I ever DMed, and it was fine. I prefer the current style.

 

[Haffrung]

Any other recommendations. I have always hated published adventures i've look at (any edition of D&D and CoC, not sure which edition, and PF); however, maybe I was looking at the wrong adventures. I would love to see an adventure with a layout that made sense to me.

Maze of the Blue Medusa is a good example of innovative presentation. You should read a review of two before purchasing, though - it's pretty gonzo. Barrowmaze is more conventional in content, though it too uses graphics and level summaries to present the dungeon. Both are indie OSR books.

Then there's Madness at Gardmore Abbey from 4E, which handles different eventualities (including even the identity of the main villain) smoothly and creatively.

 

[Jharet]

"I quit WOTC, I hope I can still work with WOTC!"

OK. Great news. Thanks for sharing.

 

[DnD Warlord]

I wonder if a free or pay what you want starter idea would work on the DMs Guild

 

[Von Ether]

I wonder if a free or pay what you want starter idea would work on the DMs Guild

The question confuses me because WotC has free basic rules on their website. And while it is 180 pages, it's got enough to run with, monsters and all.

What could help would be a intro adventure and pre-gens with that file.

https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/DnD_BasicRules_2018.pdf

 

[Micah Sweet]

Agreed!


I don’t think making the core books for people who already know how to play and making a separate starter product for people to learn with is a sound strategy. WotC learned that lesson with MtG. Most people, when they want to start playing your game, reach for what they perceive to be the core product. And the idea that newcomers need to get a separate, basic version of the product first before they’ll be ready to graduate to the “real” game contributes to the misconception that the game is super complex and hard to learn.

I'm not sure you can make the PH an easier experience for new players without simplifying the rules and removing options. They've already gone a long way in that regard, far enough for the PH as far as I'm concerned. That's what the starter sets are for, and they all do a pretty good job in 5e. Focus on making those better, and opening new avenues to learn the game, and leave the corebook for people who want more than a starter set can offer.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I

Making the books enjoyable to read is not mutually exclusive with presenting the mechanical systems clearly and efficiently. You can put the fluff in introductory paragraphs or sidebars. But burying procedures in walls of conversational text is terrible instructional design, and makes an already complex system needlessly difficult to learn and use. It means you essentially need an uber-nerd who has read and memorized the rules to run and referee every table. That's really bad for new user uptake.

And it's worth keeping in mind that WotC's market research would have been gathered from existing players, people who had already demonstrated a willingness to memorize pages and pages of rules. Their polling could not have captured the barriers to entry for people who weren't even players yet.

I'M not sure I can think of an rpg book that is both enjoyable to read and presents mechanics clearly and efficiently. Those two may be mutually exclusive. At least with the current books I get a good read while I'm parsing out the rules.