[UPDATED] Sean K Reynolds just rehired by WotC

He's an opinionated bald man, why can't we slam him?

Probably good news. They certainly need the help.

 

[Thyrwyn]

What pleases me most about this news is knowing that SKR wanted to be involved with 5e. That is good news.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

What pleases me most about this news is knowing that SKR wanted to be involved with 5e. That is good news.

"Wanted to be involved with 5e," or "wanted a job again"? Those are two different things, and there's no telling whether one, both, or even neither applies.

 

[Celtavian]

Judging by the many hate threads across the internet of which he is the subject, and the rejoicing that occurred when he left Paizo, I think you're probably in the minority.

Rejoicing? I was on the Paizo's board when he left. There wasn't much rejoicing unless you mean the same posters posting over and over again to grind an axe. Most people were unhappy he left and liked his Paizo work.

 

[houser2112]

Rejoicing? I was on the Paizo's board when he left. There wasn't much rejoicing unless you mean the same posters posting over and over again to grind an axe. Most people were unhappy he left and liked his Paizo work.

I wasn't referring to just the Paizo boards, although as you say, there were plenty of haters there. My perception is probably skewed by the vocal minority that were, I will admit. I will say that I am not one of them, though. At the time, I thought he was put in a bad spot by the powers that be at Paizo, which earned him the enmity he has (I recently read that this has been confirmed, and was a contributing cause to his departure). I enjoy his the writings I've seen on his site, and I think he has good design chops, except for his feat points article, of course. Good idea, bad execution.

 

[Kramodlog]

So, what design choices did SKR make that made him such an evil person?

 

[Wicht]

I still do not know that why did he left WotC? Anyone here know?

Heh heh heh....

Sorry... You're new to WotC business practices I assume. Most times, when you hear about a former WotC employee, its safe to assume they were laid off by the company. With WotC, there's traditionally been this thing that is called the "Christmas Layoff." Sean was hit by something like it in 2003 I believe. He's actually on record as having not much desire to go back to work for WotC because of it, so I assume either they are offering him a really good package, or he's really missing the Seattle scene that much... or maybe both both....

 

[Morrus]

Yeah that is good for the WotC customers because we can now will be able to see the work of Sean soon if the news is true. I still do not know that why did he left WotC? Anyone here know?

As it happens, I do know! In fact, I keep track of these things right here on EN World:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showwiki.php?title=Ex-WotC-Employees

Sean was laid off in 2002.

 

[spinozajack]

Those articles are very old, and I hope that he's seen the error of his ways, before trying to bring such out-dated philosophy to 5E.

Gone are the days of Pathfinder or 4E, with their worthless Knock spells that can't even do the one thing the spells are specifically designed to do. Long live 5E, with its spells that just work, within the bounds that adventurers actually operate, with the adjudication of deities and solar phenomena being left to DM discretion.

Knock should just give you a stupendous bonus to open a lock, and without the need for thieves tools. Knock would have been balanced if thieves can retry their lock pick attempt, or if the DC of the lock is related to your spell save DC in some way. Otherwise it bypasses a restriction that only existed on retrying locks for rogues, making it possible to get by virtually any lock given at most 24 hours delay (which is far from unsurmountable, compared to only one retry per rogue level), and it can allow one to open locks that even a 20th level rogue might not be able to, given that it also bypasses pick lock DC entirely.

That may be wrong in 5e, I haven't used the spell or played a rogue yet. So pardon me if I'm mistaken.

 

[spinozajack]

What pleases me most about this news is knowing that SKR wanted to be involved with 5e. That is good news.

5e is old school, that's why. I can't imagine him joining Wizards a couple years ago.

 

[Charles Wright]

If you want to know what kind of design choices SKR would make if he were in charge, then you should just check out his Five Moons RPG.

http://seankreynolds.com/fivemoonsrpg/

Since he says the work is contractual, I think that this is nothing more than a part-time job to bring in money. They needed someone to do it and he can do it.