Blog (A5E) Meet Our ‘Level Up’ Team!

We’ve crossed the ‘t’s and dotted the ‘i’s, signed on the dotted lines, and we’re very excited to introduce our team of 5E designers to you! They’ve already started work on Level Up!

Hundreds of people applied when we advertised these positions. Whittling them down was a challenge, but we are very proud of the group we’ve brought together to work on this game. Some you may have heard of, while others we hope you’ll get to know over the coming months.

Check them out on our Team page!

If you are interested in working on Level Up, keep an eye on this website, as more opportunities will be available.

 

[Morrus]

Does the selection of designers mean that the Level Up forum is now moot?

Eh?

 

[GMMichael]

...regarding the decision/idea making. As in, have the elements of A5e been decided and/or assigned to the inside design team, or is forum discussion still being used for input?

 

[Morrus]

...regarding the decision/idea making. As in, have the elements of A5e been decided and/or assigned to the inside design team, or is forum discussion still being used for input?

The forum is a place to discuss the game, like the 5E forum is a place to discuss 5E.

 

[Imaculata]

What a wonderful and diverse team. Lots of ladies! I approve.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think you're missing some nuance in how game design reflects culture. If all we had were "generic fighter" with "attack routine #1" in game design books, followed by numbers, your point might hold more true. But in fact the backgrounds of designers come out in how their designs are expressed. Even more, the perspectives of the team inform how the mechanics work together. Diverse perspectives will consider more angles.

I'm not saying it's always a thing. I'm not saying it's the overriding thing. But it's definitely a thing. Time and time again studies have proven that diverse teams put out better products. If you're interested, I encourage you to look up some of the research. In a vacuum, if I had to choose between two products and all I knew was that one was developed by a homogeneous team and another was developed by a much more diverse team, I would tend toward choosing the latter product.

That's a false choice. When are you going to have to make a choice when all you know about either product is how diverse the creative team is?

 

[ART!]

That's a false choice. When are you going to have to make a choice when all you know about either product is how diverse the creative team is?

Just off the top of my head from recent experience:

You're planning to run a big 5E adventure published by WOTC. You decide you need more NPCs than the adventure provides. You go to DM's Guild and do some searches. You find a couple options. They are vaguely-roughly the same length and have roughly the same number of NPCs. The teams on both are people you recognize from social media. One of the options was created by mostly white cishet dudes (you know this because people advertise these things on social media). The other option was created by mostly not white cishet dudes.

 

[timbannock]

That is one heck of an awesome team you've assembled!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Just off the top of my head from recent experience:

You're planning to run a big 5E adventure published by WOTC. You decide you need more NPCs than the adventure provides. You go to DM's Guild and do some searches. You find a couple options. They are vaguely-roughly the same length and have roughly the same number of NPCs. The teams on both are people you recognize from social media. One of the options was created by mostly white cishet dudes (you know this because people advertise these things on social media). The other option was created by mostly not white cishet dudes.

In that case. at least got a preview of both books. You can look at content to help you decide. I know I wouldn't anything if I had no idea what was in it, no matter who was in the creative team.

Just off the top of my head from recent experience:

You're planning to run a big 5E adventure published by WOTC. You decide you need more NPCs than the adventure provides. You go to DM's Guild and do some searches. You find a couple options. They are vaguely-roughly the same length and have roughly the same number of NPCs. The teams on both are people you recognize from social media. One of the options was created by mostly white cishet dudes (you know this because people advertise these things on social media). The other option was created by mostly not white cishet dudes.

In that case, you at least have a preview of both books. You have some content to look at. I wouldn't buy anything without having an idea specifically about what was in it, no matter which

 

[Morrus]

I know I wouldn't anything if I had no idea what was in it, no matter who was in the creative team.

That’s a really odd thing to say. No, of course you wouldn’t. Whoever suggested otherwise?

 

[Micah Sweet]

That’s a really odd thing to say. No, of course you wouldn’t. Whoever suggested otherwise?

The poster above stated that, if given a choice between two products about which they knew nothing except the level of diversity in the creative team, they would choose the more diverse team. That's what I think is a false choice, because that would never be all you know, and if it were I wouldn't buy either without knowing more.