Report: The Wizards of the Coast Content Creator
Summit was a 100% successful procedure -- event. Status Confirmation:
Dungeons & Dragons 5e Rules Update - PERFECT. Dungeons & Dragons Virtual
Tabletop Development - PERFECT. Creator Consciousness Upload
to D&D Beyond - COMPLETE. Thank you for watching. Buy officially
licensed Dungeons & Dragons products. End Report. Just kidding, but that’s actually what a
surprising number of folks in the comments thought would happen, just because I
made a video about being invited to this summit! And I don’t like to
draw attention to rude comments, but I gotta point out how a couple comments
said I must’ve been paid “30 pieces of silver!” And if you don’t get that reference right
away, they’re saying that I am like the Biblical character Judas, who was paid 30 silver
pieces by the Roman authorities--in this case, Wizards of the Coast--to BETRAY them--and
for this metaphor to work, the commenter is Jesus Christ himself, or at least feels
like they are going to be executed? What?? So if you already don’t trust me,
just don’t watch this video, but I’m gonna remind everyone that I was actually
present, physically attending this event, and while some of the news you’ve heard is true,
I know I’ve seen plenty of “news” about this summit that is just plain wrong! Even about
basic things like when and where it happened. I’m also not saying that this is the definitive
video explaining the objective truth about the event! It’s just my perspective on it, but it’s
informed by my first hand experience, my notes, and a few excellent summaries from other
attendees, linked down in the description. To begin with full transparency, let me remind you
that we were not even ASKED to sign NDAs! One more time: I did not sign an NDA from D&D, WotC,
Hasbro, nobody! However, part of their safety guidelines requested that we do not publicly share
any video recordings from the summit sessions, to protect the identities of other attendees
who may not want to have been recorded. And this is for good reason, while I only
got some rude comments with people calling me a shill and executing people I guess
(?), some attendees got a LOT of hate, including threatening messages,
and even their personal information exposed online just for saying they
got this invite. That’s disgusting! So I have a couple clips from my
trip, but most of this video is just going to be me telling you what
happened, rather than showing it. And wow! We have this summit, the D&D movie,
the D&D Direct presentation that some people confused with the summit--there’s a lot of
important D&D-specific things happening lately, but after this video, we’re gonna get
back into some system-neutral stuff, and some stuff about other games, because I’m Bob, this is where we learn how to have more
fun playing all kinds of RPGs together… And you know what, if you’re gonna call me a
sell out, at least say I’m a sell out for the ONE tool that all gamemasters and players can
use for basically any roleplaying game: dScryb! These days, dScryb is so much
more than an online library with thousands of professionally written scenes of
descriptive text! They have interactive maps, integration with Foundry VTT, beautiful
character illustrations, and even music, sound effects, and atmospheric soundscapes
that you can stream directly to the rest of your group! I’ve been using dScryb since
the beginning, and it’s amazing to see how they’ve grown and adapted to the needs of the
community--other RPG companies should take notes! You can access a lot of dScryb’s content with
a free account, but if you want to sign up, you can save 10% with code BOB, and use the
affiliate link below so they who sent ya! Alright, my WotC Summit experience really began
here at home, as I struggled to figure out who else was invited! Since prior to my interview
with Kyle Brink, I had never once even been contacted by Wizards of the Coast, so I was
baffled to be invited to the office in person! If you watched my video going through the email, you know I wasn’t even sure the invite was
LEGIT because I hadn’t heard anything about what seemed like a BIG important event
that you’d expect WotC to be shouting about from the mountaintops praising their
own efforts to connect with the community! But much like their behavior for the
first week after the OGL leaks began, radio silence. In fact, I think my video about
the invitation, which went live a full week after I received the invite, was what broke the
news about this summit for a lot of people. Soon after that video, I found
out that Ted from Nerd Immersion and Josiah from Dungeon Dad were also
invited, we started a Discord chat, then I started hearing about all the flak people
were getting on Twitter, and we opened the chat to anyone invited so we could communicate
and try to make sense of things together. In the 3 or 4 weeks leading up to the summit,
around 25 in-person attendees joined the Discord, and I realized that Nerd Immersion, Dungeon
Dad, and me were basically the only YouTubers going! By and large everybody else was an
actual play producer, gm, player, cosplayer, etc. There were also one or two bloggers
and art directors attending in person, but Actual Play people were the main audience. And at the time, neither I nor most of the
attendees realized WotC’s true reasoning behind who they invited, and that confusion
is a very important part of this whole story, because it ultimately leads to how the
event itself went a little off the rails, but we’ll talk about that later. Also leading up to the trip, the
event organizers booked our trips, so now it’s time to introduce the shill-o-meter!
Where for full transparency I will display just how many silver pieces WotC
spent for me to attend this event! My flight was a regular-class round trip
from my home on the east coast to Seattle, Washington, and the tickets cost WotC $776.40. I had to wake up at 3:30 AM but the
flying is always pretty beautiful, and I was excited, so it was fun! And
Since I landed around noon Pacific time, I got a sandwich from the airport, then just hung out
in the airport for a while to hydrate and stretch. To cover the cost of that
sandwich, my other meals, and overpriced Uber rides to and from the
airport, WotC sent me a per diem of $385.00. Then I took an Uber, and passed a
suspiciously-named location on the way to the hotel. The hotel itself was easily the nicest part
of the arrangements! With a very cool open atrium, a room with way more space than I needed, and
three nights there cost Wizards of the Coast roughly $550(?) but I couldn’t find the exact
cost of the room because hotel prices are weird. And wow! We’re nearly capping out the
shill-o-meter already! I must be totally corrupt!? Then about as soon as I arrived at the hotel,
I posted up in the atrium to wait for other creators to show up and introduce myself. I hung
out there for several hours talking with people, I got a personal pizza from the
hotel restaurant for dinner, and I called it a night, because the timezone
change made that day unnaturally long for me! But then on Monday morning, the day of the summit, I’m so glad I had the foresight to record a
clip of myself recapping that first evening and talking about my expectations for the
event itself. Because you will see how this clip kind of foreshadows the problems
that occurred during the actual summit. Essentially, I was surprised at the guest
list because MOST of the attendees were people who have directly spoken out against
WotC even prior to the OGL controversy, particularly at times when the company crossed
lines regarding accessibility and representation. Also I was given the impression that we would
be shown some things like the VTT and rules update at the office, then have the afternoon to
ask questions and provide feedback. The agenda that they emailed us ahead of time literally just
said: “Morning session at Wizards” and “Afternoon session with Wizards, held at hotel” with
no solid description or clear details. To the credit of the organizers, they asked us
a few days ahead of time to send our questions, but if you remember from my interview
with Kyle, you don’t want to send questions ahead of time unless you want
to receive a vague corporate-speak answer. So for many of these attendees who
were coming with HARD questions about accessibility and representation--their
fields of expertise--of course they’re not gonna send those beforehand
because they wanted REAL answers! Still, I don’t want to speak for the
other attendees, but the bottomline is that most creators’ expectations were here
or here, and WotC’s plans were over here, and…well I’ll tell you what happened. Monday morning after I shot that
recording and after breakfast at the hotel, some WotC staff met
us in the lobby, took attendance, and almost immediately split us into two groups.
That’s right, they immediately split the party! Then they took us on a short trip to the
Wizards of the Coast office where we arrived maybe a minute or two late…but then we waited
like 20 more minutes for the day to begin. Luckily, the lobby was pretty cool, and I got a good shot with Ted and Josiah in
front of the massive Drizzt Do’Urden statue! When we got started, the actual first
item on the agenda was a surprise! We knew we were receiving a welcome, but
we did not know we’d be welcomed by none other than the Wizards of
the Coast CEO, Cynthia Williams! And even though they told us we couldn’t publicly
post any VIDEO from the summit, they did say the lobby was fair game, hence the Drizzt shot,
so I recorded AUDIO of Cynthia’s welcome. Now, as of recording THIS video, I’m still
waiting for confirmation that it’s cool to post it publicly, but if I can post
it, it’ll be on my second channel, Bob’s RPG Radio! linked up in the
card, and down in the description! This welcome was also when we found out
why everything was getting delayed already: the WotC staff were having some technical
issues keeping the virtual attendees connected throughout the day. There were about 100 virtual
attendees, so obviously that’s a big challenge, but it seems like something that should’ve
been handled more smoothly. I heard from several virtual attendees that the constant
outages definitely dampened their experience. One of the virtual attendees, Mike Shea aka Sly
Flourish has since expressed the idea that in the future, WotC should probably split the virtual
and in-person events into two separate days, with the virtual one coming first. That way
virtual attendees will be better accommodated, and they’ll get an extra-early
look at what WotC wants to show, to reduce the fomo of not being at the in-person
event, and to make it a more valuable experience. Like with most things Mike Shea says, I
agree 100%. But my in-person experience was very valuable! I loved getting
to meet other creators and the staff, and the WotC office itself was beautiful. Cool
murals of fantasy artwork, the character statues, and the absolutely epic game room with a
gorgeous table, display cases filled with minis and dice, and even chandeliers
made of Magic The Gathering cards. Apparently it was the same room
where they shot the D&D Direct video of the group playing
on the virtual tabletop! But in this room, I had my first session
of the summit, where several WotC staff led a presentation about the future of D&D Beyond! And because we were not under NDAs, the future
of D&D Beyond is almost as mysterious to me as it is to you! Most of it was broad statements
about goals, and everything was couched in this metaphor of D&D Beyond being like a theme
park with lots of fun things to explore! Some of those broad goals are to
improve the D&D Beyond mobile app, make the DDB experience easier for DMs, facilitate
the journey from player to DM, help with new player onboarding, and fix a lot of back end
stuff because it’s becoming an old website. Probably the biggest actual news from this first
presentation was that DDB will become the main website for Dungeons & Dragons rather than their
current webpage on the Wizards of the Coast site, because DDB has about 12 million users, and they
want to be posting content where the users are! Though still no information about how many subscriptions they lost
during the OGL controversy. The other HUGE news about D&D Beyond
is that they eventually want to create a marketplace so users can sell their
own homebrew content on the site. That has major implications for the tabletop
industry, and I don’t know if I like it. It would probably make it way easier for
people to create and monetize their work, but it could radically expand D&D’s
monopoly. It would be another way for this one company to control how
people not only play the game, but how they create homebrew for their
game, and that doesn’t feel good. Of course, people had a TON of questions
about what this will look like, and how it will work, and how it would run alongside
current D&D marketplaces like the DMs Guild, and boy oh boy, they could
not give us ANY firm answers. And at least half of this session was
designated for us to give feedback about D&D Beyond. Unfortunately, the virtual folks
got the short end of the stick when it came to hearing and being heard, but there
were great suggestions for new player onboarding, and for improving the website’s
accessibility through language translations, different lighting options, and varying
the complexity of the character sheet. So during this little Q&A just about D&D
Beyond, the summit already started to exhibit this theme of: creators providing a lot of great
feedback about issues with the game experience, and WotC employees giving mixed responses--a
few doing an excellent job knowing exactly what they’re talking about, most giving positive
but broad responses, and a few being dismissive. While this realization and tension slowly
builds, we need to revisit…the shill-o-meter! Because after this first session, they
gave us a bunch of random D&D merchandise! I got a copy of Radiant Citadel, which I already own so my plan is to donate
this book to my local library or high school; A copy of the new heist book, which I
lost interest in after the OGL stuff, but I know my wife Grace wants to read it,
then I’d also like to donate this book; I got a sheet of fridge-poetry
D&D magnets that I will use; a little ampersand magnet that
I’m probably gonna give away; A sort-of fabric map of the sword
coast that I guess was part of the promo for the D&D movie, but I have no
idea what you’re supposed to do with it; A bar of D&D chocolate that was pretty good; and a
notebook of grid paper which I will actually use! All in all, I estimate the swag cost about
$150! Nearly reaching the price of my soul!! And one other moment that was a bad
look for WotC is that the virtual attendees were just left hanging at
the end of this session, camera on, while in-person attendees were given
all this stuff. The virtual attendees are being mailed all the same stuff, but that
was really awkward when I found out about it. Then sometime between sessions I think,
I got to meet Todd Kenreck who handles much of the content direction for the D&D YouTube
channel, and probably a lot of other things, and he was incredibly nice! And he’s actually
a big part of the feedback I gave to WotC after all this was over, so I’ll tell you
about that idea at the end of the video. Anyway, then it was time for
the D&D Virtual Tabletop. In a large conference room, the table
loaded with Alienware laptops and cables, myself and around 8 other creators played the
same short encounter that we all saw one week earlier in the D&D Direct presentation! So yeah,
we got to click around and test out some of the basics in a hands-on way, but if you watched D&D
Direct you saw exactly the same stuff that I did. Well, another group of creators did discover
some glitches like being able to stack up the miniatures so that they’re just floating
way above the map, not being able to target one of the monsters with spell attacks, and how
rolling too many dice at once crashes the game! They did say the user interface we
played on is already out of date, and it’s still in a PRE-alpha stage being tested
by WotC employees and their families. In the next stage, they want to open the playtest to
“influencers” so maybe I’d get to see more, but as I’ve discussed in previous videos, I
personally prefer simple ones like Owlbear Rodeo. But, there was a great question asked for those of
you who invest heavily in VTTs! One creator asked ‘what’s the incentive to use this VTT if they’ve
already invested hundreds of dollars into another one?’ And the lead developer--another super
nice guy by the way--gave a pretty solid answer. Since this VTT is being developed in
tandem with the core rules update, he’s already worked with Jeremy Crawford
to simplify some unnecessarily complicated rules of the game itself, so it plays better
on the VTT, and no other studio can do that. Besides that though, it seems like
the VTT is just going to be a very good-looking application that you can only
use for one game (vs the new Alchemy RPG VTT that’s partnering with Paizo, Free
League, and a bunch of other publishers). And much like with the D&D Beyond presentation,
the presenters couldn’t really give answers to any specific questions about the VTT,
mostly restating points from D&D Direct, like how the VTT should be playable on
computers, phones, and video game consoles. Later in the day, my comment to the developer
was that if they have a team of video game developers using a video game engine to
produce an application that is playable on video game consoles, they should just
embrace the idea that they are using tools and tech from the video game industry
to make a better virtual D&D experience, rather than insisting that it’s NOT a
video game, as if video games are bad. People like video games! And I think
this versatility of devices--while still not as cool as playing analog D&D--will
allow everyone to try out D&D in a way that simplifies character creation
and needing to know all the rules, and play with friends and family
around the globe! That’s awesome. A couple other things I liked was when the lead
developer said their biggest competitor is Google Image search; as in, they need the GM to be
able to create a map in this software about as quickly as it would take to search for and
find a map they would use from Google Images. And when he said they want the GM to
be able to edit the VTT map on the fly, so the players have an understanding that the
map is not set in stone, and it doesn’t limit the imagination of the group. For example, he
said, “If a player goes, ‘Is there a window in this room?’” They want the GM to be able to
almost instantly pop a window onto a wall. Also, he said he wants it to be FREE for players,
acknowledging that if players have to pay for it, GMs probably won’t be able to get
their group to use it! But right now they weren’t able to tell us
anything about what it will cost. Speaking of cost, after that session, everyone
went back to the hotel for a catered lunch, which I estimate was worth maybe $25 per person
on the shill-o-meter, and then we were all brought into a huge meeting room at the hotel for the
afternoon feedback/Q&A session--or so we thought! Turns out, we sat down for yet
another presentation about the VTT, led by the same developer who we all got to talk
with and ask questions that very morning! However, I did learn that the virtual groups
did NOT get to talk to this guy, but it WAS incredibly redundant for us
in-person attendees. He repeated the same things we all heard in D&D Direct, which
WE had all just heard again that morning. And before you say it in the comments, YES, we
all knew this event was going to involve PR, corporate, showcase elements, but we were led to
believe that we could ask questions and get real answers, and about ⅔ of the way through
the schedule, that had not happened yet. Now, and seeing how the event was actually
unfolding, it became clear: the WotC Content Creator Summit, as executed--maybe not as
intended, but as executed--was primarily a showcase for D&D Beyond and the VTT,
primarily aimed at the Actual Play produce, most likely in hopes that they will use
it on their shows for free advertising. With this agenda now totally clear, the folks
who flew to Seattle primarily to give feedback and ask WotC hard questions, rightfully felt
frustrated. The tension was reaching a peak. Fortunately though, we took a short break here,
and when I was walking out of the meeting room, I practically collided with Jeremy Crawford and
Chris Perkins as they were walking in! I got to talk to each one of them individually, and
I asked if they’d sign my PHB, and they did! It was a positive moment because I got to tell
these guys how their work in cultivating D&D through fifth edition literally changed my
life. If D&D 5e wasn’t fun, I would never have started this YouTube channel, and I’m
glad I got to thank them personally for that. Meanwhile however, there was a group
of in-person attendees who spent the break venting their frustrations to
each other about how the summit was simply not unfolding in the way that
it was presented to us beforehand. Frankly, I have to chalk this up with the
numerous times during the OGL controversy that Wizards of the Coast was just not
TRANSPARENT about their goals and actions, and it’s really not cool anymore! They just keep
fumbling when all they have to do is be honest, and we’ll talk about this more when
we get to the feedback I sent them. But all of this confusion and frustration came
to a head when at the start of the next session, one creator in the room asked, “why are we
here?” And please know that I’m paraphrasing. They were completely professional in
how they phrased the question, and yes, they were also courageous in asking this question! I saw some people getting flak about this
on Twitter, but I cannot imagine speaking out in a room with dozens of people I
don’t know, including half a dozen WotC executives and over a dozen D&D designers
and other staff, and calling them OUT. That took courage, and the real news
is that they SAVED the summit for us creators and for WotC, because
the presenters could no longer deny that the afternoon was going very
poorly, so they adjusted the schedule. But not so fast, they did try one last time to
keep their grip on it. With a fairly condescending tone, one exec pushed that we were finally
about to get into the reason we’re all here, to talk about “you know, the gaaaame?” That
was actually the tone of voice. Not cool. Ultimately, I give credit to WotC as a whole
here because they did listen. They delayed the next session in favor of an open Q&A
where many creators were FINALLY allowed to ask the questions they were led to believe
they had been flown here to ask, and the staff even extended this Q&A to try to make sure as
many people as possible had their voices heard. However, due to the technical issues
and less-than ideal moderating of the questions from virtual attendees, they got
some not-so-great treatment once again. And even in-person, it didn’t go too
perfectly. Most of these high-level questions about how WotC is working
to make the game more accessible and inclusive for everyone who wants
to play--those high-level questions, were mostly unknowns to the high-level execs at
the event. If “answered” at all, those questions were answered by the creator-relations staff and
by the diversity, equity, and inclusion staff. That wasn’t a great look when many
if not most of the creators there in the room belonged to marginalized groups
and are well-known advocates for better accessibility and representation
in the TTRPG industry. Ultimately, WotC just did not understand
WHO they invited to this event, and the invitees weren’t given an honest chance
beforehand to understand WHY they were invited. So looking on the bright side,
we can call it “a learning experience!” And by the way, I’m not trying to lump
myself into this genuinely courageous group of advocates pushing against foundational
issues in the culture of D&D both as a game and a brand. I was quiet, and I listened,
because this was not my turn to speak. Then, much like during D&D Direct, our two
favorite D&D designers Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins were kinda crammed onto
the end of the summit to tell us about the rules update. Thankfully, the mood
shifted at this point. Crawford kindly and smoothly transitioned from what just
happened to where we were about to go, and we did learn some neat things
about “you know, the gaaaame” Just like with Cynthia Williams’ welcome message,
I recorded audio of this hour-long sneak peek, and if I get the green light to post it, it’ll be
on my other channel. And if you’ve watched this far, do remember to give the video a thumbs up,
consider subscribing, and even consider picking up a set of my limited edition metal Bob World
Builder dice! Out of the original 500, there’s only like 100 sets remaining, and you can save
18% with code BOB and the link below, thank you! Alright, Jeremy Crawford talked about
the legacy and importance of D&D, and WotC’s responsibility not as the original
creators of the game but stewards of the game going into the future. He said that WotC will
be at more conventions going forward to connect with content creators and the wider community,
and he got into the goals for the core books! The main goal being to make the books easier
for new and experienced players to navigate and find the rules they need, so they’re
adding detailed glossaries and indexes, including one in the DMG covering iconic D&D lore.
As Chris Perkins explained, this lore glossary is to share the CORRECT D&D lore and prevent the
misinformation that can happen on the internet! The next PHB will walk you through how to play
the game before how to make a character, and how to make characters quickly with optional arrays
of ability scores and features for core classes. Both the PHB and DMG will include guidelines
for session zeroes and safety tools, and the DMG will include practical tips about
the management of a group and a campaign, like what to do when a player doesn’t show up, where
to find inspiration for homebrew adventures, etc. In a very quick comment, they said the new core
books will be released staggered, one at a time, rather than all three at once. I had asked
Kyle Brink about this in our interview, and he wasn’t sure at the time, but he leaned
this way because their whole system is set up for putting out around 2-300 pages of
material every couple months, whereas the new core books would be like 8 or 900 pages of
material all at once, and it just won’t work. In fact, Perkins said this new Monster Manual
will be D&D’s largest monster manual EVER, with around 500 monsters--clearly taking
notes from the new Dungeon Denizens monster book published by Goodman Games! It will
include many new monsters like high-CR creatures for every creature type and scaled
NPCs. For example, there’s already a low CR cultist stat block in the MM now, and they want a
cultist-type NPC stat block for each tier of play. They said the PHB will have ALL new art and MORE
art, including unique pieces for all 48 subclasses (confirmed 4 subclasses for each class), and new
art for character backgrounds that are literally landscapes and scenes--as in, backgrounds that
you would imagine your character in front of. And they specifically talked about how
the monk class which has traditionally been represented with mostly east-asian
influence, will now be represented in artwork and language as not-specifically
east asian because there are unarmed martial arts practices all over the world! Also the
monk’s martial art die is getting a boost! Along those lines, Crawford said that ALL text
and concept art now goes through an inclusion review process before anything is published.
Something they probably learned after Spelljammer. He talked about the One D&D surveys receiving more responses than the entirety of the
original playtest process for D&D 5e, and how they DO have people who read ALL of the
written survey feedback, even pointing out one designer who was at the event who reads
everything, and everyone applauded him! On this note, they said the idea
of having the druid’s wild shape as templates instead of specific
creatures was a highly requested idea from feedback on previous surveys,
and then it didn’t test well in One D&D, so they’re making adjustments, and all of
that is still in playtest, so chill out. Another interesting note about the surveys was
why they always ask what edition of the game you started with. Essentially, it’s so they
can sort responses and look for preferences that are tied to each edition. Noting that there
are now more people who have come to D&D through 5e than all of the other editions, but even
that group has a wide range of preferences, so it helps them do their best to appeal to
the underlying wants and needs of all groups. Then Crawford talked about edition changes and
how everyone REALLY knows that 3.5e should’ve been called 4e because you had to replace
your core books! However, they also stand by the idea that this new 2024 set of core books
will still be 5e because it’s all still backwards compatible…unless there’s a specific note in
the new books about how to make an adjustment… And how Xanathar’s and Tasha’s content is
getting “special treatment”...and how spells or monsters that didn’t seem to match their
original power level or challenge rating, will be adjusted to actually match their
original level or rating. Basically, any spell that seemed too weak
for its level would become more powerful to match that original level
rather than changing the level itself. Crawford also said the next Unearthed Arcana
article will contain all 6 of the remaining classes, and new weapon options, namely,
“weapon mastery.” This was a feature from previous editions that I think exists in
Pathfinder as well. The underlying idea is giving martial classes more to do, and the
way it works is that martial classes are able to train in specific weapons and unlock new
cantrip-like properties for mastered weapons! If this sounds familiar, I made
multiple videos last year about my own 5e weapon system project full
of new features for each weapon, but I pretty much abandoned that
around the time of the OGL controversy. They talked about a few specific weapon
properties, but they’re all going to be in the next Unearthed Arcana like any
day now, so you’ll see them very soon. And the last bit from the UA that they talked
about was how warlocks will choose a “baby pact” at first level, and how a warlock’s pact
will determine their spellcasting ability. Then at the very end, Kyle Brink stated that all
these rules changes will be added to the SRD, so the good news is, if you don’t want
to spend $150+ dollars on these new core rules that apparently you don’t
need anyway because it’s just 5e…all the new rules should be FREE in
the SRD under Creative Commons! And I hope they actually follow through on that! Ahh, and Planescape will
be getting the Spelljammer treatment of three small books in a box set. Then after several hours of presentations,
we practically got kicked out of the hotel meeting room because we stayed in there for
like an hour longer than we were supposed to! Now, the games began as we were all told the
dinner would be held at a local restaurant / gamestore?…but we had to figure out our own
transportation for this part. So they gave each of us an additional $50 Uber gift
card--adding that to the shill-o-meter, and it was kind of a free for all as everyone
scrambled into pairs or groups to share rides. As for the price of the dinner, I have no idea,
but I imagine it cost them at least $50 per person because it was a nice buffet and included two free
drink tickets, which I did not use by the way, so I may have been “dined” but I was
not “wined” at any point on this trip. And the dinner was great! I sat with
the senior VP of Dungeons & Dragons, Dan Rawson, and we talked about how
each of us got started with the game, and talked about our careers. I wish
I got to talk more with Chris Perkins or Jeremy Crawford or Todd Kenreck, or
even Cynthia Williams who was there too! But as an introvert, this day was already
completely exhausting, and being packed into a loud dining room did not help, so I spent probably
an hour and a half, just browsing the game store! …because they gave each one of us a $50 gift
card for the store to buy whatever we wanted! I bought some dice and a cool pin
for my wife, and they didn’t really have any Dungeon Crawl Classics stuff
which was a bummer, but I found this absolutely sick Basic D&D lunch
box that even came with a thermos! And that brings our shill-o-meter to its total at
$2036.40! Fortunately, I’m guessing that if you’ve watched this far, you understand that I can’t
pay my rent in plane tickets and lunch boxes, so while the free travel was amazing, the meals
were pretty great, and the gifts were nice, I was literally NOT bought out by the
Wizards of the Coast content creator summit. After all that, most of us had one more
day in Seattle, so being a total tourist, I went to see some big building called
the Space Noodle? Idk it was pretty tall, and when I was in line, an employee recognized
me and was super excited about it, and that’s only the fourth time I’ve ever been recognized in
public, so that was another highlight of the trip. And on the last night at the hotel I hung out with
Ted, Josiah, and some other creators for a while, ate the rest of my leftover pizza from the
first night, and then played a riveting game of D&D Trivial Pursuit with some of
those creators and, wait for it, Celeste Conowitch the lead designer of Kobold Press’s
new game, Tales of the Valiant! Networking? Then the true final day of the trip
was ALL travel. I got home very late, completely exhausted, and started thinking
about what I learned from this experience. Personally, my main takeaway was that
I need to go to more in-person events because the most fun I had the
entire time was just meeting and talking with other creators and
with the developers and designers! A couple days ago, we got a survey
from WotC to give them feedback, and the first thing I told them was how smaller
group sessions would be great because it kinda forces everyone to introduce themselves. Whereas
this large group setting really put the onus on us as individual guests to introduce ourselves
to each other and to any of the WotC staff. But their survey also asked this
great question, “What impact, if any, did the creator content summit have on your
opinion of Wizards of the Coast?” And I said: “It reinforced my opinion that WotC may
be trying to reconnect with creators and the community, but they still don't
know how to do it without upsetting a non-negligible number of people.
Transparency is the word that gets thrown around with every new WotC
post or event, yet it's not there.” “Transparency IS the answer to almost all of
these problems, but WotC seems to refuse to be genuinely transparent. I'm aware I may be subject
to bias on that front after the OGL controversy, but in those high level and now low
level ways, it's still not there.” “For example, a clear itinerary and more
transparent messaging that this event was to be mostly a VTT showcase for actual play
producers would have saved the summit. But the itinerary was unclear, and the messaging was
that we were there to provide feedback...and also get sneak peeks of the VTT and
rules update. Transparency is the key.” And their last question was, “What do you want to see Wizards do
going forward?” So first I reiterated: “As I said above, just actually be
transparent about their intentions, reasoning, and methods when attempting to connect
with the community. I know WotC has said during the OGL and now summit invitation controversies
that they wanted to keep quiet rather than stir the pot. But the silence IS a lack of
transparency, and it's becoming hypocritical.” “I want to see the general opinion (and
my own opinion) of WotC improve. For me, making connections with the staff helped a lot.
I think the public needs more reminders that WotC is just PEOPLE, as in, without going too
heavy on the ‘hey, fellow gamers’ messaging.” “Have Kenreck interview more staff
about what they are working on and WHY (aka be transparent) just like he
does with Crawford for the UA updates. There should be videos like that with
the DDB dev team, the VTT dev team, and the DEI team, and even with Cynthia about
the direction of the game/brand. Basically, the community will never “connect to WotC”
because people need to connect to people. And much like the commenters who called me a
shill, I think my feedback was more harshly worded in text than what I would’ve said in
person. But in this case I’m glad they gave us the opportunity to submit written
feedback, because that is how I feel. It’s a shame that to a large extent this summit
was, as executed, supposed to be primarily a PR showcase for the VTT, when they couldn’t hardly
answer questions about it. It just seemed rushed. But after everything, this summit was
an opportunity that--never in a million years--would I have expected to come to me when
I started this YouTube channel! Getting to see the office where D&D is made, and meeting
the designers like Crawford and Perkins and that cool guy Justice Arman who I mentioned in
the email video--all of it was pretty surreal! And it is not lost on me, that while I
worked very hard to build this channel over the last four years, it is because of
YOU and your support, and in a huge way, the support of all the Bob World Builder Patrons
that really made this opportunity possible for me. So as grateful as I am for the event
organizers who put me on the list, I thank YOU for all your support over the
years to make this happen. Keep building. I mean, KEEP BUILDING! lol
