Layoffs Hit Wizards Of The Coast ‘D&D’ Team

Wizards of the Coast has downsized its Dungeons & Dragons creative team. Included in the layoffs was Bill Slavicsek, WotC’s Director of Roleplaying Design and Development, who joined TSR in 1993 after a stint a West End Games where he oversaw the development of West End’s Star Wars RPG. Slavicsek, who wrote the second and third editions of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, is considered one of the world’s leading Star Wars experts.

In a farewell statement posted on the Wizards Website Slavicsek noted the projects he had worked on since WotC acquired TSR and moved the staff from Lake Geneva to Seattle: “I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with a talented group of creative people over the years, and we accomplished such feats as launching both the 3rd and 4th editions of the D&D roleplaying game, creating d20 Modern and d20 Star Wars, launching painted plastic miniatures for D&D, creating new worlds such as Eberron and the D&D Core World, and most recently launching a new category of D&D board games that started with Castle Ravenloft.”

At least two other layoffs from the D&D creative team have been confirmed on the EN World Website. Michele Carter, the “Editing Manager” of the D&D Group, who has been around for a long time (her name is in the credits of numerous D&D publications from the 1990s), and Stephen Schubert, the Development Manager for D&D, have also reportedly left the company.

Wizards of the Coast did not respond to a request for comment in time for this article.

Wizards of the Coast has given D&D a lot of support in recent years, including the D&D Encounters Organized Play program and new entry level products. But the company pared its D&D release schedule for 2011, eliminating weaker products from the schedule.

WotC’s new initiative to translate elements of its D&D adventures into the world of board games (see “Dungeons & Dragons: Legends of Drizzt”, “Wrath of Ashardalon,” and “Cooperative Ravenloft Board Game”) has met with considerable success.

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Dungeons And Dragons Online Free To Play In Aug 2009

In a crowded MMORPG market, we always had trouble remember which one, exactly, Dungeons and Dragons Online was. As of August 6, it’ll be a little easier, and the game becomes Dungeons and Dragons Online: Unlimited, or "the one that used to be a paid one, but now is free."

It’s an interesting strategy, and we’re curious to see how it pans out. We’d issue a stern reminder though, that the true cost of MMORPGs (your immortal soul) is much pricier than a few more bucks on your Visa every month.

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D&D Links – 20 Free Random Generators

DungeonMastering.com has compiled a bunch a great random generators that will help any Dungeon Master in his or her campaign…

1. Dragon description generator – oh, yeah!
2. Government generator – because we’re all boring of adventuring in “The Kingdom” or “The Empire” and would rather explore the “Legendary and Perfected Federation” or some place with a funky name.
3. Whacky class generator – don’t you wan’t to play a Crocodile Kicker?
4. Detailed character generator - a short description and quick roleplaying notes will make bring any anonymous NPC to life.
5. Goblin namer – even though goblins can kill you, most of the time they die. Having a unique name gives them personality, which in turn increases their chances to be spared.  “Ktozs scared.  Pleeease don’t kill Ktozs…”
6. Fractal world generator - interesting and maybe even useful.
7. Dungeon generator – try the “labyrinth” setting to mees with your players’ mind.
8. Snake generator - what the hell?  Do we really need a snake generator? Well, it’s there just in case…
9. Pirate name generator – I could click that button all day!
10. NaNoWriMo motivator – maybe you’ve tried to write a book during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and maybe you failed (like me!) and maybe you could have used some motivation!
11. Martial arts move generator – ninja time!
12. Wrestler name generator – trust me, you’ll find a way to squeeze these names in your campaign.
13. Namator – probably the best looking random gen website
14. The Forge – you don’t know it yet but you like flash-based generators.
15. Lorem Ipsum – it’s made for print and web filler text, but you can use it to impress your players with scrolls filled with gibberish (I think it’s latin)
16. Candy generator – every inn cooks up something sweet, unique, and delicious.
17. Magic invocation generator - this one is especially fun!
18. Drink recipe generator – don’t try this at home…
19. Darth maker – it has nothing to do with D&D but I enjoyed it a lot!
20. Humorous fantasy class generator – a butler sorceress and footpad nanny walk into a bar…

And there’s so much more out there!  Seventh Sanctum has the most fun generators.  So have fun and click aways.

Source: DungeonMastering.com Read more

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition – My Final Verdict

I think I’ve made up my mind about the new 4th edition. I think that “out of the box” it’s completely playable but it doesn’t quite suit my needs for a gaming system so here’s what I did… Read more

Free Dungeons & Dragons Resources

Since getting the new 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, I did a search online for resources that would allow me to be creative without the usual headache that accompanies the process.

Well, the fine folks over at DungeonMastering.com have put together a couple of great posts that provide more than enough material to get the DM Juices flowing.

Here are the links to those posts:

387 Free D&D Maps

83 Free D&D Adventures

Thanks to DungeonMastering.com for researching this material.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Getting Some Positive Initial Feedback

By guest blogger Michael Zenke

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition is going to change just about everything for the dice-rolling set.

With the new edition, released Friday, D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast is launching one of the most ambitious attempts the tabletop-games industry has seen at redefining what it means to play an RPG. The rules are different, the mind-set is different, even the delivery system is different. At essentially every level, Dungeons & Dragons is being streamlined and simplified with one goal in mind: To get players together to roll some dice and have fun.

“From the beginning of the 4th Edition design process, we knew we wanted to make a rules set that was accessible and easy to use,” said Bill Slavicsek, R&D director for role-playing games at Wizards. “We wanted to approach them in a friendlier manner, and not necessarily continue the ‘dense textbook’ style of past editions. I wouldn’t say we were thinking ‘mainstream gaming,’ whatever that really means. The D&D game will always be a specialized hobby. The trick is making sure that we can remove as many hurdles as possible so that it becomes the largest specialized hobby it can be.”

I had the opportunity to play D&D 4th Edition in a series of play tests run by a friend of mine last December. As gaming sessions go, they were quite grueling; we showed up at noon and played until well after 10 or 11 p.m. We had to, though: We were on a deadline. Wizards needed feedback on the adventure we were playing by the end of the month. Despite the long hours, despite our fumbling with the rules, despite sometimes rough notes for the dungeon master, it was a glorious experience.

At every level, mechanically, players and dungeon masters (a game’s storyteller and arbiter) are freed to experience the game in ways they never could before. Characters now have special powers that assist them in combat, giving them real moment-to-moment choices in the heat of battle.

“I hit it with my warhammer” gets pretty old; instead, why don’t you whack that monster upside its head so hard that it’s forced to stagger backward? Spellcasters have similarly colorful abilities in D&D 4th Edition; where once they had hundreds of thematically similar spells to choose from, they now only have to make a few important decisions as they gain in power. Warlocks, arcane casters that truck with mysterious powers, have particularly evocative abilities. What better way to deal with a troublesome orc than to teleport it away from you? If part of that trip involves burning in the fires of Hell, so much the better!

You can read the rest of the story HERE.

Thanks to Michael Zenke and Wired.com