More Turnover At WotC As The D&D Team Heads For A Busy Summer
Two more fairly high profile folks are out at WotC this week; Jess Lanzillo and Todd Kenreck depart from the D&D team.
It seems like there is a shakeup going on over at Wizards of the Coast, particularly on the D&D team. Just this week, two more big names in D&D have left. Two days ago, former VP of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise Jess Lanzillo announced her departure from Wizards. And then just yesterday, Todd Kenreck, former Senior Content Marketing Strategist announced that he’d been laid off, making for two very high profile cases of turnover on the D&D team.
Tabletop Turnover at WotC
Lanzillo posted her announcement to LinkedIn on Sunday, looking back on an eight-year-long career that took her from Magic: the Gathering to D&D. Lanzillo had been VP of D&D since February 2024, helping to oversee the launch of 5.5E as well as D&D’s 50th anniversary.
“After eight years at Wizards of the Coast, I have made the totally reasonable decision to leave a job where I got paid to argue about whether fictional lizard people can have tails. (Of course they can.)
AdvertisementMy trajectory at Wizards has been wonderfully unhinged: leading creative during an absolutely wild ride with Magic: The Gathering, doing business things as Chief of Staff, and finally, getting to be the VP of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise — which is either the best job title ever invented or proof that late-stage capitalism has finally achieved absolute absurdity. Take that, liberal arts naysayers!
Wizards turns imaginary worlds into real communities, which sounds fake but is actually the most satisfying work in the world. To everyone who let me champion this mission while constantly asking “can you add more glowies?” — you are perfect and I love you.
I’ve been ridiculously fortunate for these eight years, and now I’m lucky enough to, yet again, get to choose my own plot twist. The best part about having super specific creative obsessions is that occasionally the universe decides to reward you for them. More soon!
Kenreck shared the news that he had been laid off on via a post on Twitter:
“I have been laid off from D&D. Thank you to Chris Perkins, Jeremy Crawford and the entire D&D team for being some of the kindest, most talented and passionate people I’ve ever known. This was my dream job. The tabletop community has given me everything.”
Kenreck, especially was a very public part of D&D. If you know his face, it’s from the interviews he’d do as part of the preview/promo videos for every book and in the run-up to all the big live shows. Kenreck also appeared in several of D&D’s livestreams, and his wife, Meagan Kenreck is still at WotC as a production artist for D&D.
And the timing of both of these departures lands just before a busy summer. According to the WotC release schedule, we’re just a few weeks away from the release of Dragon Delves, the first official adventure anthology for D&D 5.5E. And not long after that, WotC plans to release Eberron: Forge of the Artificer which adds the updated Artificer (and five subclasses) to D&D. It’s also Gen Con season, which seems like a time when you’d want to have someone who’s got familiarity with D&D.
WotC Turnover – Poor Timing Or Behind-the-Scenes Turmoil?
The timing of all the turnover at WotC hits a little different in light of the fact that two of the biggest names in D&D just landed at Darrington Press. While there’s been no indication from anyone that thereis any kind of turmoil going on behind the scenes—in the case of Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins, who left in April, the departure had been planned for a while, with the “fairy tale ending” of launching a new edition of D&D the perfect high note to end a career on.
However, seeing this much change does seem to belie a shakeup going on out of the public eye. It wouldn’t be the first time. Wizards of the Coast’s infamous “Christmas layoffs” have bookended the company’s major successes. Just after the launch of 3rd Edition, WotC laid off many employees, and then again at the end of 2023, after the success of Baldur’s Gate and the ramp up into 5.5E, Hasbro/WotC laid off 1,100 employees in early December.
That seems to be par for the course for many corporations. After a big push they trim back teams—but what raises the proverbial eyebrow is just how high-profile these last few “departures” are. And how it seems to be a steady trickle since the start of the year. Let’s not forget that the Sigil team was also mostly disbanded (though that makes sense given that WotC has decided to sunset the app).
All that to say, it isn’t necessarily that there’s something “wrong” at WotC. This could all just be a sign of change—but one can’t help but see the movement on the surface of the water and wonder what’s going on beneath.
What do you think, is all well at WotC?
