Wizards of the Coast Is Hiring a D&D Worldbuilder

Wizards of the Coast is looking to hire someone to build new worlds for Dungeons & Dragons. Over the weekend, Wizards of the Coast posted a new job listing for a "Senior Narrative Worldbuilding Designer for Dungeons & Dragons." The new position will help Wizards of the Coast "create exciting and inspirational new settings" alongside developing existing settings. Notably, this isn't a position limited to the D&D RPG design team - the position will also work with "ensuring narrative consistency" across video games, entertainment and the D&D RPG.

At a press event earlier this year, D&D franchise head Jess Lanzillo mentioned that new campaign settings were potentially on the way. "With Jeremy Crawford taking on the game director role and then Chris Perkins taking on the creative director role is that we were able to really reestablish a world building environment," Lanzillo said. "What does that mean? We can really establish our worlds and settings like the Forgotten Realms and also look to creating new ones again. That's something that we are working on and we don't have anything to really discuss today other than to tell you like we are re-establishing everything that we have and we are going to make some new stuff too."

The full job listing is below:

We are hiring a Senior Narrative Worldbuilding Designer for Dungeons & Dragons. In this role, you will create exciting and inspirational new settings and develop existing ones. The settings you create will become part of our ever-expanding multiverse. Working closely with others in our creative team, you will give life to legendary characters, intertwine the narratives of D&D stories across various platforms, and provide new content for internal and external partners to play with across all expressions of D&D. We need a world builder with strong writing skills, a collaborative spirit, and a focused imagination.

What You'll Do:

• Build and develop comprehensive narrative worldbuilding materials for the D&D franchise
• Design and flesh out new worlds, locations, and settings within the D&D multiverse
• Evolve and expand existing D&D settings through compelling narrative development
• Build and develop franchise-level characters, factions, and storylines
• Ensure narrative consistency across the franchise portfolio including video games, entertainment, and the RPG
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align worldbuilding elements across different media
• Develop detailed lore documentation and creative briefs for our fans, partners, and team members.
• Lead narrative development for our world bibles and style guides

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Fascinated to see who they pick for this role.

Also it sounds like it's a lot more like "metaplot designer" than "worldbuilding designer" when it comes down to what they're actually doing.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Fascinated to see who they pick for this role.

Also it sounds like it's a lot more like "metaplot designer" than "worldbuilding designer" when it comes down to what they're actually doing.

I thought it was agreed that meta plots suck by the 00's?

 

[Reynard]

I wonder if @mearls put in an application.

 

[Reynard]

Also it sounds like it's a lot more like "metaplot designer" than "worldbuilding designer" when it comes down to what they're actually doing.

I don't think so. I think it is more oriented toward making sure that there is not such a wide gulf of lore and, importantly, tone between media products. HAT and BG3 could not be more different and a fan of one going to the other likely felt some culture shock.

 

[Kadroth]

Should we be expecting a new world like Eberron?

I wouldn't hate it to be honest. We've seen wotc try to return to old worlds like Spelljammer and Planescape and I can't say I enjoyed either book.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I thought it was agreed that meta plots suck by the 00's?

It turns out sales show that is wrong, same with all the rescent complaints about Multiverses.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I don't think so. I think it is more oriented toward making sure that there is not such a wide gulf of lore and, importantly, tone between media products. HAT and BG3 could not be more different and a fan of one going to the other likely felt some culture shock.

Oh I think it's pretty definitely not just "lore gulfs" because of how the role is phrased in the bullet points.

The key word is narrative. That's not how you refer to pure lore in the game design business, generally speaking. Narrative is what it sounds like - story. A narrative designer will be involved with lore, but their focus is on the story.

Let's look at some specifics:

Evolve and expand existing D&D settings through compelling narrative development

Like, there is no other possible meaning. That's story and thus metaplot. There isn't an alternative meaning or interpretation.

Build and develop franchise-level characters, factions, and storylines

Franchise-level storylines are metaplot. Maybe they're more akin to the MCU metaplot, but they are undeniably metaplot.

(And honestly stuff like the MCU metaplot was very much prefigured by TTRPG metaplots, which were themselves arguably prefigured by comic book metaplots.)

Ensure narrative consistency across the franchise portfolio including video games, entertainment, and the RPG

Narrative consistency. Not lore consistency. Not tone. Not "artistic consistency". Narrative consistency. I.e. story. Telling the same stories across multiple products. This is something WotC have long been interested in, long, long before 5E, so it's nothing new or shocking, but they're clearly moving more towards focusing there.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align worldbuilding elements across different media

Develop detailed lore documentation and creative briefs for our fans, partners, and team members.

Whereas this? This is about lore, and that's why the explicitly say "lore" and "worldbuilding", not "narrative". That's not about story - that's lore, that's absolutely what you're saying with "lore gulfs" (and also tonal gulfs). So what you're describing is part of the job. But it's only part of it.

Judging from the job and work description - and anyone who has ever had a corporate job knows those can be deadly accurate or utterly misleading - it looks like it's a real split between maintaining lore and consistency, and developing actual storylines.

But this is part of why who they ultimately hire for the role is so interesting. There are "lore masters" who don't do metaplot or narrative development stuff, like Pablo Hidalgo does with Star Wars lore for Disney, for example. Like, people will ask him for stuff that could potentially fill a role, and he can offer suggestions, but he doesn't do the narrative development stuff. And there are others who do narrative development who inevitably interact with and create lore, but who are focused on the story - this would be most videogame lead narrative directors for example.

If they hire someone like Pablo Hidalgo, well, whatever the role description says, the role will likely be more focused on lore master stuff, but if they hire someone John Gonzalez (lead writer of Fallout: New Vegas, Horizon: Zero Dawn, etc.), the metaplot skill is likely going to be hiring for. My expectation would be a hire from the videogame industry generally - I'd be surprised if they hired from within TTRPGs. I wouldn't be totally shocked to see a movie/TV writer, but if so I think we're looking at an even harder push towards metaplot.

 

[sevenbastard]

Decent pay for a job where you get to play D&D all day.

But I got to remind myself there is like one oprtunity like this every few year, don't follow your dreams, stick to your soul crushing but steady boring job, you made the right decision, happiness is a myth...

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

It turns out sales show that is wrong, same with all the rescent complaints about Multiverses.

Which recent RPG products have had significant metaplots?