[UPDATED!] The Unsung (Female) Half of the D&D Team!

Now that Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes is no longer at WotC, the core D&D design team of eight people (Mike Mearls, Rodney Thompson, Jeremy Crawford, Greg Bilsland, Chris Perkins, Peter Lee, Matt Sernett, Adam Lee) is comprised solely of men. However, it's easy to overlook the other half of the team, which consists of those not so much in the limelight, and who are essential to the game's success - and who include a number of talented female staff. According to Mike Mearls, the following members of the D&D team are female.

This amounts to 9 hardworking, essential people. Mike lists them as follows:

• all of our data collection, polling, research - done by a woman
• our director of publishing, aka the person who decides what we make - a woman
• our marketing senior manager - a woman
• the four person team who created the look of 5e - women
• our licensing director - a woman
• our marketing art director - a woman

I don't know the names of all of them (I've listed the ones in the credits of the books below). I've dropped WotC's Jeremy Crawford a quick line, as he's been helpful with providing WotC staff names and positions before, and I'll update this if I hear back.

The books themselves mention Kate Irwin, Mari Kolkowsky, Melissa Rapier, Shauna Narciso (art directors), Liz Schuh, Shelly Mazzanoble, Hilary Ross, Laura Tommervik, Kim Lundstrom (brand and marketing), and Emi Tanji, Bree Heiss, and Trich Tochum (graphic designers), which is at least 12 women working on D&D!

UPDATE - Jeremy Crawford has responded with an awesome reply which lists many of the people involved with D&D:

We're putting the finishing touches on Princes of the Apocalypse, so I need to keep this short for now.

Many committed, talented people work on D&D products at Wizards of the Coast, both inside D&D R&D and outside it. The D&D team spans multiple departments, and it works on the roleplaying game, video games, licensed products, novels, and more. Regarding the RPG, which is my focus, the credits pages of the three core books show that many people had a hand in forming the new edition of the game.

EN World currently lists the following people being on the D&D team: Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, Greg Bilsland, Rodney Thompson, Peter Lee, Matt Sernett, and Adam Lee.

That list should include Kate Irwin, Dan Gelon, and Shauna Narciso, the art directors who oversee the creation of all art for D&D. The list should also have Bree Heiss and Emi Tanji, who created the gorgeous interior designs of the core books and who worked tirelessly with me, Chris Perkins, and Kate Irwin to lay out those books. Most recently, Kate, Emi, Chris, and I have been collaborating to bring Princes of the Apocalypse to completion. The way we work, art affects text and vice versa.

The list is only complete with Richard Whitters, our amazing R&D concept artist and world builder, who works with Chris Perkins and Adam Lee in shaping the stories and worlds we plan to visit in the coming years. A fun fact: the fabulous condition sketches in the Player's Handbook are by Richard.

The list should name Chris Youngs, Ben Petrisor, Tom Olsen, and Chris Dupuis, members of D&D R&D who work with our video game partners; who work on board games, like the upcoming Temple of Elemental Evil; who review numerous licensed products, like the WizKids miniatures; and who are part of our internal testing of the RPG.

The list needs Nathan Stewart, Liz Schuh, Chris Lindsay, Shelly Mazzanoble, Hilary Ross, Laura Tommervik, Kim Lundstrom, and Trevor Kidd—all members of the D&D brand team. They collaborate with R&D on shaping product plans, creating future stories, gathering playtest data, working with freelancers and outside game studios, planning convention events, and dealing with innumerable other parts of the D&D business.

The list should mention Chris Tulach, who oversees the Adventurer's League and who has participated in many design meetings for the RPG over the years.

I could keep going and going. The core books wouldn't have made it out of the building without the D&D project managers—John Hay and Neil Shinkle—making sure all our departments were working in sync with each other. Our books would never see print without people like Jefferson Dunlap and Cynda Callaway working with our printers. Our gathering of playtest data and potential errata is always helped by Sam Simpson and the rest of our enthusiastic customer service team. We also get feedback and occasional loans of personnel from Magic R&D. For instance, James Wyatt did his final work on the Dungeon Master's Guide while on the Magic team.

And everything we do is in consultation with Bill Rose, the vice president of R&D, and with the rest of the company's executive team.

None of this begins to scratch the surface when it comes to our contractors. People like Michele Carter, Anita Williams, and Robert Schwalb aren't on our staff, but each of them played a key part in creating the fifth edition books. And currently, Dan Helmick is a full-time contractor working for us in-house.

Oh boy, I said was going to keep this short. It's easy for me to get enthusiastic when acknowledging the contributions of the diverse group of people who make D&D what it is today!

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[Sacrosanct]

Just a reminder that in a system that oppresses a specific group, taking a stance of "total neutrality" supports the status quo.

(also I definitely take the stance that voices of more diverse experiences benefit products, so a diverse team with "equal resumes" compared to a homogenous team is going to put out a better product anyway.)

Women are being oppressed in the RPG industry? News to me.

The most likely thing that happened is that WoTC hired the best people for the job, of which several of them happened to be women. As it should be. If you take the position that women are just as qualified for a job as men in a particular industry, there is no need to hire just to fill a quota because the diversity will happen naturally. And as someone who actually works in management for a corporation, I can tell you I couldn't care less if you were a hermaphrodite from Mars. The bottom line is the only thing I care about. So the best person gets the job.

 

[Dm_from_Brazil]

"The books themselves mention (...) Shelly Mazzanpble,(...) which is at least 12 women working on D&D

Morrus, isn´t this SHELLY MAZZANOBLE (who also wrote "Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress" and "Everything I need to know I learned from Dungeons & Dragons")?

 

[Morrus]

There was a context to this. Somebody (doesn't matter who) posted on Twitter that D&D now had no women working on it, and Mike Mearls corrected them. I felt that it might be nice to highlight the awesome women working on the game.

 

[Morrus]

"The books themselves mention (...) Shelly Mazzanpble,(...) which is at least 12 women working on D&D

Morrus, isn´t this SHELLY MAZZANOBLE (who also wrote "Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress" and "Everything I need to know I learned from Dungeons & Dragons")?

Yeah. The P key is right next to the O. Thanks for spotting the typo.

 

[jimmifett]

That assumes that all people are starting from a level playing field within an industry. Also body parts are not gender.

There is no such thing as a level playing field. There are people with more experience and people with less experience. Some with more experience cost more and are thus priced out of a hiring decision in favor of cheaper, less experience people that show the potential to grow into a position. Others are so low in experience that they may not yet show the potential to grow into a position and no matter how cheap, aren't selected for a position of a certain level. No where in this does human anatomy play a role.

But as you say, anatomy is apparently no longer related to 'Gender' (as if that even matters in a hiring decision either). So if we're making things up now because we can't tell fantasy from reality, I'm claiming as my gender 'Sexual Tyrannosaur'.

I suggest this thread be locked, it's well past going into SJW politics, which is not something I come here for. Save that for Video Gaming 'journalist' sites like Kotaku and Polygon.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Now that Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes is no longer at WotC, the core D&D design team of eight people (Mike Mearls, Rodney Thompson, Jeremy Crawford, Greg Bilsland, Chris Perkins, Peter Lee, Matt Sernett, Adam Lee) is comprised solely of men. However, it's easy to overlook the other half of the team, which consists of those not so much in the limelight, and who are essential to the game's success - and who include a number of talented female staff.

Still, it'd be nice to have a greater diversity of experiences on the design team itself. Ain't like it takes a Y chromosome to be an awesome D&D designer, and if their "pipeline" isn't providing them with diversity, they need to seek that out and make it a priority (and re-consider their hiring practices).

Which isn't to deny the contributions of those who are there, simply to say that there is still plenty of stuff to do to ensure we get the most awesome D&D products from the most awesome people in a world where awesomeness is often obscured and diminished by cultural forces that it takes some active effort and conscious work to overcome.

 

[Chocolategravy]

*Puts hand up, jumps up and down* Me! I care! In an industry that's generally seen to be male dominated, with a product that many wrongly think is aimed solely at men, I think it's great that WotC are hiring women and pushing diversity.

Looks like the directors are women. So you should be saying that it's great WotC's women are hiring men and pushing diversity.

 

[Patrick McGill]

There is no such thing as a level playing field. There are people with more experience and people with less experience. Some with more experience cost more and are thus priced out of a hiring decision in favor of cheaper, less experience people that show the potential to grow into a position. Others are so low in experience that they may not yet show the potential to grow into a position and no matter how cheap, aren't selected for a position of a certain level. No where in this does human anatomy play a role.

But as you say, anatomy is apparently no longer related to 'Gender' (as if that even matters in a hiring decision either). So if we're making things up now because we can't tell fantasy from reality, I'm claiming as my gender 'Sexual Tyrannosaur'.

I suggest this thread be locked, it's well past going into SJW politics, which is not something I come here for. Save that for Video Gaming 'journalist' sites like Kotaku and Polygon.

Being happy with diversity and not being transphobic is hardly sjw politics.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Still, it'd be nice to have a greater diversity of experiences on the design team itself. Ain't like it takes a Y chromosome to be an awesome D&D designer, and if their "pipeline" isn't providing them with diversity, they need to seek that out and make it a priority (and re-consider their hiring practices).
.

So let me ask you this. If the team is set at 8 people, who should they fire so they can bring in a few women? Do you not see the major problem in this? I prefer not to automatically assume sexism on the part of the people in charge, so based on that assumption, you're suggesting they should fire someone who is more than qualified for someone who might be lesser qualified just because of gender? I also find your strawman that it "doesn't take a Y chromosome to be an awesome D&D designer" disingenuous. Because I don't see anyone making that argument.

 

[jimmifett]

Being happy with diversity and not being transphobic is hardly sjw politics.

Being pleased with diversity is a nice side effect of fair hiring. Pushing diversity for the sake of diversity is not only stupid, but discriminatory.

Transphobic is a fear of trans... what? Transmissions, transportation, transporters (Dr. McCoy), transcendence, transvestites, transcontinental railroads? Not agreeing with accepting that someone is actually "Napolean Bonaparte of the Third Terran Intergalactic Empire" just because they claim to be, regardless of facts, does not mean that someone is afraid of something.

"Pushing" artificial diversity and acceptance of irrational ignorance of facts is very much SJW politics, which is why I don't want to be having this discussion on a table top gaming site.