Wizards Hires Erin Roberts as Game Designer for D&D

Wizards of the Coast has made another D&D game designer - this time tapping Erin Roberts, creator of the Godsbreath setting seen in Journeys from the Radiant Citadel. Roberts announced the hire on social media over the weekend. Similar to the hires of James Haeck and Leon Barillaro, Roberts is an established TTRPG designer. In addition to her credits at Wizards of the Coast, she's also worked for Paizo and Haunted Table. Her Godsbreath campaign setting has appeared in two different D&D anthologies, first appearing in Journeys from the Radiant Citadel.

Wizards has restocked its group of designers over the last year, following the departure of Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins. This is the third designer hired over the past couple of months, alongside the aforementioned Haeck and Barillaro. Additionally, Wizards promoted Justice Ramin Armin as the Director of Game Design.

While the D&D design team has put out a steady stream of Unearthed Arcana releases, no announcements of 2026 D&D products have been made as of yet.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

I've actually always found it kind of funny that if you put a vampire in a small town it's "horror" but if you move them to someplace like NYC it almost always becomes "urban fantasy."

The vampire's body count, as a percentage of the population, will be much higher in a small town and that's what makes it horror.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The vampire's body count, as a percentage of the population, will be much higher in a small town and that's what makes it horror.

The vampire can create more vampires, so it spreads like a contagion, so it could easily have a much higher body count in a city. It's also easier to pass unnoticed. BG3 touches on this.

What I think @Misanthrope Prime is talking about is the Stephen King and his imitators style of American horror. It's not set in cities because cities are viewed as terrifying enough in their own right, it's set in small towns because small towns are believed to be safe.

But if you look at classic horror of the late 19th/early 20th century, it is often set in London or other cities (as well as remote and foreign locations, also often seen as scary). For example The Strange Tale of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

But if you look at classic horror of the late 19th/early 20th century, it is often set in London or other cities (as well as remote and foreign locations, also often seen as scary). For example The Strange Tale of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

To a degree, nothing written by Victorians for Victorians is still "horrific" because British culture moved past those values and no one authentically holds them as a source of familiarity and comfort, so the act of upending Victorian society is just like, mildly funny instead of ghastly.

It's the same reason why "horror" films from 1950s America are more properly classed as comedy and gave rise to things like MST3K.