• The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!

D&D 5E Listing the current D&D team

exile

First Post
I am kind of curious what Shelly Mazzanoble is up to at WotC these days. She used to be very prolific (and I often enjoyed what she had to say), but I haven't seen much from her of late.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

What's interesting to me with people heading over (or back over) to M:tG, is that it implies they don't anticipate a need for much full time staff for D&D after the core books are out. James Wyatt seems to be finishing up his job and then being reassigned so WotC can use more or less the same skillset elsewhere.

I wonder if they are going to call on a lot of freelance work for additional D&D products? With the focus on adventure paths and limited rules expansions, it makes sense that they can get by with less people dedicated to R&D and content creation.

It also makes me wonder if some of the designers that left simply got offered some good opportunities elsewhere, and chose to take them because theyk new the D&D team was downsizing after 2014, and didn't want to risk being part of that downsizing.
 



Scrivener of Doom

Adventurer
I'm really happy for James that he's managed to get into a part of WotC where there is some job security, particularly with the new edition about to be released and thus a reasonable chance that WotC will cull their D&D staff.

(snip) I wonder if they are going to call on a lot of freelance work for additional D&D products? With the focus on adventure paths and limited rules expansions, it makes sense that they can get by with less people dedicated to R&D and content creation. (snip)

Outsourcing makes sense for a lot of reasons, including that Mike Mearls probably has more freelance experience than anyone else in this "industry" beyond Rob Schwalb so I expect he's comfortable and confident managing a freelance team. And it seems they have recognised their weaknesses in terms of both creating adventures that don't suck and delivering on any sort of online tools and have simply contracted out these areas from the very beginning. That's surprisingly smart and suggests that someone with a bit of a business mindset is having a lot of input.
 

ClauDeDoin

First Post
I wonder who the Art Director(s) is these days? Based on the sneak peaks, there's someone great managing that side of things.

Daniel Gelon is Senior Art Director, and according to a recent Escapist interview, he's been working with Creative Director Shauna Wolf Narciso on the look of 5e. (I can't include the link because I don't yet have ten posts. Google "gelon escapist interview" to find it.)
 
Last edited:

Voidrunner's Codex

Remove ads

Top