I assume you mean the Wizards of the Coast creative team for D&D? Well the same way you get onto any creative team, or any job in general for that matter:
Demonstrate you are capable of producing content of a quality in line of what they look for
Demonstrate you have the skills they are looking for
Wait for Wizards of the Coast to advertise a position for which you are qualified
Apply for that position and hope you get accepted for an interview
Assuming you do get an interview, demonstrate that not only you have all the skills they are looking for, but you are more skilled/have more skills than all the other applicants
Assuming you accomplish the above, hopefully get accepted for a job
To accomplish step 1, you should focus on producing D&D or D&D related content. What exactly you choose to focus your energies on depends on what you want to do. One does not simply "join the D&D team", you join in a specific role. Some areas you could focus on and development:
Wizards of the Coast posts their job listings here. Presently, the only position open for D&D’s regular team is a VP of Marketing, requiring 15+ years of experience in the field. There are also a number of different positions open for their Digital D&D platforms.
One of the best ways to break into an industry and get hired at your favorite company is to do related work in that space. The kind of work that gives you the experience and qualifications to apply for the role you seek.
In this case that might mean publishing your own D&D content on https://www.dmsguild.com/ , working with a smaller, independent studio that creates d20 and related gaming materials, and more.
The core of my message is do what you can do now, now! and keep pushing to find ways to grow and improve your skillset.
I wonder what the age requirements for being hired are for various D&D related positions?
Other than being an adult, a job is not going to post an age requirement—there are discrimination issues at play. They are far more likely to post education requirements and experience requirements.
There is only one non-management, non-senior level D&D job listed right now - an unreal engine software designer. This position requires a bachelor’s degree in the field and at least 2 years of relevant experience. That is the minimum for that position - and it is rather rare for a company with a pedigree like Wizards to hire someone who fills the minimum requirements, since they’ll be attracting a higher tier of applicant.
Sone of their non-D&D entry level job postings also look for 2-3 years of relevant experience and a reluctant bachelor’s degree as the absolute minimum, so I expect that is the floor for most Wizards jobs.
That likely means the youngest hires are folks who are in their early 20s who did extensive internships during their college career relevant to the job they are seeking. It is likely the average age of new hires is probably a bit older than that.
For more senior positions, they look for things like a Master’s degree and a decade or more of relevant experience. Those are going to be folks who are established in the industry already, either with smaller projects or junior staff promoted from within. For those positions, folks are likely at least in their mid thirties before being qualified.
I wonder what the age requirements for being hired are for various D&D related positions?
Other than being an adult, a job is not going to post an age requirement—there are discrimination issues at play.
Well, I'm disqualified then lol.
If you’re seriously interested, it’s never too early to start thinking about that sort of thing. Wolfgang Baur, the founder of Kobold Press, did his first freelance RPG work when he was 14. He has since worked on dozens (hundreds?) of RPG books and games, including Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Tyranny of Dragons.
If that’s your dream, best to get all the experience you can now. You never know where you’ll end up.
I wonder what the age requirements for being hired are for various D&D related positions?
Other than being an adult, a job is not going to post an age requirement—there are discrimination issues at play.
Well, I'm disqualified then lol.
If you’re seriously interested, it’s never too early to start thinking about that sort of thing. Wolfgang Baur, the founder of Kobold Press, did his first freelance RPG work when he was 14. He has since worked on dozens (hundreds?) of RPG books and games, including Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Tyranny of Dragons.
If that’s your dream, best to get all the experience you can now. You never know where you’ll end up.
this is good advice. I started working in the music industry at 15 as a voulenter sound technician i did 2 years performing arts and 1 year music in further education ... My regret is i left music then until age 33 where I did 3 months as a Music tutor and 1 year as a performer but I was unable to get a regular income from music and even on weeks i made big amounts i still had my main job to do and was too tired.
I often wonder though had i of performed in those 2 years of education as a job would i of gained more varied skills and perhaps i'd now be gaining a regular music income on top of my wage as shop keep
Start early this way by the time you have a family etc you'll have the experience.
I wonder what the age requirements for being hired are for various D&D related positions?
Other than being an adult, a job is not going to post an age requirement—there are discrimination issues at play.
Well, I'm disqualified then lol.
If you’re seriously interested, it’s never too early to start thinking about that sort of thing. Wolfgang Baur, the founder of Kobold Press, did his first freelance RPG work when he was 14. He has since worked on dozens (hundreds?) of RPG books and games, including Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Tyranny of Dragons.
If that’s your dream, best to get all the experience you can now. You never know where you’ll end up.
this is good advice. I started working in the music industry at 15 as a voulenter sound technician i did 2 years performing arts and 1 year music in further education ... My regret is i left music then until age 33 where I did 3 months as a Music tutor and 1 year as a performer but I was unable to get a regular income from music and even on weeks i made big amounts i still had my main job to do and was too tired.
I often wonder though had i of performed in those 2 years of education as a job would i of gained more varied skills and perhaps i'd now be gaining a regular music income on top of my wage as shop keep
Start early this way by the time you have a family etc you'll have the experience.
damn, i'm 1 year too young
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
-Yours Truly, The King Of Demons
🍅 PM me the word 'tomato' 🍅
🧀PM me the word 'cheese'🧀
Commander of Demise, Fear me ye Mortals! Life's Bane
Nah, that was a different publisher. His work for WotC didn’t begin until he was an adult. My point is that getting experience early is going to help you immeasurably. Davyd’s post is great advice for someone with that experience.
In the meantime, you can still make your own homebrew and even publish it with the DM’s Guild, which (to my knowledge) has no age requirement. That’s how you get the experience to get noticed.
Best advice in breaking into TTRPG's professionally comes from someone who used to write for DDB:
Of course, no methodology lasts forever, though there are still some basic principles to keep in mind, as seen in this video from another person who used to write from DDB and sort of discusses the ways breaking into TTRPGs professionally have evolved (this one's long, the prior video is a lot more succinct, but there's a lot of history here worth considering if you want a broader view of the history of the professional side of the hobby):
To get on with someone like WotC, as many above also note, you're going to have to have already proved yourself. You're going to need to have some sort of portfolio, ideally a portfolio that includes prior professional experience with other publishers demonstrating you can work in a design studio setting.
As for very first steps, I think Introcaso's point about opening doors or reaching early ladder rungs through involving yourself in the communities around the games you enjoy, particularly those who are making stuff for those games.
As for being too young to be working for a large publisher or whatever. If doing TTRPG is really a goal, now is actually the right time to start honing your skills in whatever aspects of gaming you feel you want to contribute.
Legit question. Old post but im trying to hunt down info. I found a discord that offers work from smaller "studios" producing D&D content but its hardly ever getting new posts. Got advice on where to look to find these places? I'm trying to write my own one-shot but it would be nice to get experience around a company already doing it and see there operation and makes some money of course lol.
If your one-shot is within FR or is settings agnostic you can put it into a PDF and sell it on DMs Guild. You can also write guides and articles to put there. Make enough content like that and you may get noticed by WotC. I believe that's similar to how Keith Baker got involved with WotC. He made the basis for Eberron, submitted it in a contest, won and WotC liked it enough to release it officially.
"You can also write guides and articles to put there."
You can do that? I need to look at DM's guild more. I found the Drivethru Discord and they offer a spot to promote small guys looking for work but i really wish i had more spots like that as there are not many but it told me that there is a market for freelancers and that most of these people are not doing their guild projects alone lol.
It's a rough one-shot right now. We're doing framework, homebrewing, and a test run but its far from a sale lol. Someone suggested learn how to sell homebrew content to me.... that's an idea i think?
If the Discord channel is tumbleweeds in the wind, probably not a good investment of your time. Generally, and if you watch the vids posted above, you'd see concurrence from "pros" but the best way to get attention to your work as a game designer is first through community and then through professional opportunities. If there are small publishers you are interested in, check out their discords and make yourself available for playtests etc. If you have a solid true one shot, run it at cons with not just you but others as DM too. Getting involved with gaming community in person or online, and being a stalwart in that community would give a potential manager/editor the confidence that you can consistently produce, are available or 'have bandwidth' and therefore are able to perform on a publication time table. Most creator discords also have self-promotion areas to benefit members of the community who have their own stuff to check out.
And put yourself in the best position to connect with whoever you want to network with. In the 70s/80s, sure, you had randos send in resumes and jobs were to be had, but in the era of social media and industry where there are more people wanting to 'work' than there are full time or freelance positions available, someone hiring for creative work is going want to see what you got out there, and are going to also have some expectation that you know their company and have a desire to work there for reasons beyond "I want to break into TTRPGs" (not saying this to you particularly but this is more a broad seeking work 101 claim).
In other words, no one's going to hire someone to learn how to design game content. They're going to want to see a portfolio of work that shows a potential to contribute to a given company's productions, and they'll teach them how to adapt to that methodology. The best way to develop design skills is through reading widely in the field, trying some stuff out on your own, and testing it within the community.
Yeah this makes a lot of sense. I'm a professional chef by trade so it's similar in some ways. You can't just start as a chef. You gotta work for min wage as a dishwasher or go to school (and still become a dishwasher for 6mo). Finding the path to "get where i want" doesn't seem to hard. It's honestly looking like a straight line. Focus on something, get good at it, get noticed, maybe i'll get a cool gig in the TTRPG world doing something i find myself passionate about (i really wanna do a D&D cookbook but its been done a million times i found out).
My bigger issue is the where to get started part? Kitchens, walk into a kitchen and say you need work. You get asked to cook a few things a prove yourself. Freelance or selling on DM guild.... I don't know where to even start honestly. Like i said, i found one discord that offers work but its... slow. So now im trying to see where you even look to find work cause that's where im struggling. I got some stuff to show off, nothing too great yet but a mini west march campaign i wrote and put a ton of time into. I don't see myself being an actual big corp professional but im mainly just at that level where I like my Paid DM job. I like homebrewing and writing stories (seems to be a market for this im hearing) and so now im like.... what if i wrote a one shot or some sort of material for D&D that actually sells? What if it gets me some freelance work cause it's actually good?
Then i go back to.... where do you even find the companies though? I don't even know how to find a small time one.
I want to be in it, becuase i love dnd and its amazing, but i don't know how?
-Yours Truly, The King Of Demons
🍅 PM me the word 'tomato' 🍅
🧀PM me the word 'cheese'🧀
Commander of Demise, Fear me ye Mortals! Life's Bane
https://company.wizards.com/en/careers
I assume you mean the Wizards of the Coast creative team for D&D? Well the same way you get onto any creative team, or any job in general for that matter:
To accomplish step 1, you should focus on producing D&D or D&D related content. What exactly you choose to focus your energies on depends on what you want to do. One does not simply "join the D&D team", you join in a specific role. Some areas you could focus on and development:
Basically you've asked a very broad question
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Wizards of the Coast posts their job listings here. Presently, the only position open for D&D’s regular team is a VP of Marketing, requiring 15+ years of experience in the field. There are also a number of different positions open for their Digital D&D platforms.
One of the best ways to break into an industry and get hired at your favorite company is to do related work in that space. The kind of work that gives you the experience and qualifications to apply for the role you seek.
In this case that might mean publishing your own D&D content on https://www.dmsguild.com/ , working with a smaller, independent studio that creates d20 and related gaming materials, and more.
The core of my message is do what you can do now, now! and keep pushing to find ways to grow and improve your skillset.
I wonder what the age requirements for being hired are for various D&D related positions?
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.Other than being an adult, a job is not going to post an age requirement—there are discrimination issues at play. They are far more likely to post education requirements and experience requirements.
There is only one non-management, non-senior level D&D job listed right now - an unreal engine software designer. This position requires a bachelor’s degree in the field and at least 2 years of relevant experience. That is the minimum for that position - and it is rather rare for a company with a pedigree like Wizards to hire someone who fills the minimum requirements, since they’ll be attracting a higher tier of applicant.
Sone of their non-D&D entry level job postings also look for 2-3 years of relevant experience and a reluctant bachelor’s degree as the absolute minimum, so I expect that is the floor for most Wizards jobs.
That likely means the youngest hires are folks who are in their early 20s who did extensive internships during their college career relevant to the job they are seeking. It is likely the average age of new hires is probably a bit older than that.
For more senior positions, they look for things like a Master’s degree and a decade or more of relevant experience. Those are going to be folks who are established in the industry already, either with smaller projects or junior staff promoted from within. For those positions, folks are likely at least in their mid thirties before being qualified.
Well, I'm disqualified then lol.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.same
-Yours Truly, The King Of Demons
🍅 PM me the word 'tomato' 🍅
🧀PM me the word 'cheese'🧀
Commander of Demise, Fear me ye Mortals! Life's Bane
If you’re seriously interested, it’s never too early to start thinking about that sort of thing. Wolfgang Baur, the founder of Kobold Press, did his first freelance RPG work when he was 14. He has since worked on dozens (hundreds?) of RPG books and games, including Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Tyranny of Dragons.
If that’s your dream, best to get all the experience you can now. You never know where you’ll end up.
This is what happens when you let a nothic onto the forums. Longtime mapmaker and forever GM.
Resident map-fiend. Writer, storyteller, worldbuilder. Lover of music & food; hater of elves & numbers. Threads I enjoy:
The Bloody Barnacle | The Spider Guild | The Wonderful Roleplay Guild | Anything BUT the OGL 2.0 | The Tower of Lore | The Universe Smorgasbord | The Afterglow
this is good advice. I started working in the music industry at 15 as a voulenter sound technician i did 2 years performing arts and 1 year music in further education ... My regret is i left music then until age 33 where I did 3 months as a Music tutor and 1 year as a performer but I was unable to get a regular income from music and even on weeks i made big amounts i still had my main job to do and was too tired.
I often wonder though had i of performed in those 2 years of education as a job would i of gained more varied skills and perhaps i'd now be gaining a regular music income on top of my wage as shop keep
Start early this way by the time you have a family etc you'll have the experience.
in a hole in the ground you notice a halfling
damn, i'm 1 year too young
-Yours Truly, The King Of Demons
🍅 PM me the word 'tomato' 🍅
🧀PM me the word 'cheese'🧀
Commander of Demise, Fear me ye Mortals! Life's Bane
Nah, that was a different publisher. His work for WotC didn’t begin until he was an adult. My point is that getting experience early is going to help you immeasurably. Davyd’s post is great advice for someone with that experience.
In the meantime, you can still make your own homebrew and even publish it with the DM’s Guild, which (to my knowledge) has no age requirement. That’s how you get the experience to get noticed.
This is what happens when you let a nothic onto the forums. Longtime mapmaker and forever GM.
Resident map-fiend. Writer, storyteller, worldbuilder. Lover of music & food; hater of elves & numbers. Threads I enjoy:
The Bloody Barnacle | The Spider Guild | The Wonderful Roleplay Guild | Anything BUT the OGL 2.0 | The Tower of Lore | The Universe Smorgasbord | The Afterglow
Best advice in breaking into TTRPG's professionally comes from someone who used to write for DDB:
Of course, no methodology lasts forever, though there are still some basic principles to keep in mind, as seen in this video from another person who used to write from DDB and sort of discusses the ways breaking into TTRPGs professionally have evolved (this one's long, the prior video is a lot more succinct, but there's a lot of history here worth considering if you want a broader view of the history of the professional side of the hobby):
To get on with someone like WotC, as many above also note, you're going to have to have already proved yourself. You're going to need to have some sort of portfolio, ideally a portfolio that includes prior professional experience with other publishers demonstrating you can work in a design studio setting.
As for very first steps, I think Introcaso's point about opening doors or reaching early ladder rungs through involving yourself in the communities around the games you enjoy, particularly those who are making stuff for those games.
As for being too young to be working for a large publisher or whatever. If doing TTRPG is really a goal, now is actually the right time to start honing your skills in whatever aspects of gaming you feel you want to contribute.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Legit question. Old post but im trying to hunt down info.
I found a discord that offers work from smaller "studios" producing D&D content but its hardly ever getting new posts.
Got advice on where to look to find these places? I'm trying to write my own one-shot but it would be nice to get experience around a company already doing it and see there operation and makes some money of course lol.
[ CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ]
If your one-shot is within FR or is settings agnostic you can put it into a PDF and sell it on DMs Guild. You can also write guides and articles to put there. Make enough content like that and you may get noticed by WotC. I believe that's similar to how Keith Baker got involved with WotC. He made the basis for Eberron, submitted it in a contest, won and WotC liked it enough to release it officially.
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See My Youtube Videos for Tips & Tricks using D&D Beyond
"You can also write guides and articles to put there."
You can do that? I need to look at DM's guild more.
I found the Drivethru Discord and they offer a spot to promote small guys looking for work but i really wish i had more spots like that as there are not many but it told me that there is a market for freelancers and that most of these people are not doing their guild projects alone lol.
It's a rough one-shot right now. We're doing framework, homebrewing, and a test run but its far from a sale lol.
Someone suggested learn how to sell homebrew content to me.... that's an idea i think?
[ CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ]
If the Discord channel is tumbleweeds in the wind, probably not a good investment of your time. Generally, and if you watch the vids posted above, you'd see concurrence from "pros" but the best way to get attention to your work as a game designer is first through community and then through professional opportunities. If there are small publishers you are interested in, check out their discords and make yourself available for playtests etc. If you have a solid true one shot, run it at cons with not just you but others as DM too. Getting involved with gaming community in person or online, and being a stalwart in that community would give a potential manager/editor the confidence that you can consistently produce, are available or 'have bandwidth' and therefore are able to perform on a publication time table. Most creator discords also have self-promotion areas to benefit members of the community who have their own stuff to check out.
And put yourself in the best position to connect with whoever you want to network with. In the 70s/80s, sure, you had randos send in resumes and jobs were to be had, but in the era of social media and industry where there are more people wanting to 'work' than there are full time or freelance positions available, someone hiring for creative work is going want to see what you got out there, and are going to also have some expectation that you know their company and have a desire to work there for reasons beyond "I want to break into TTRPGs" (not saying this to you particularly but this is more a broad seeking work 101 claim).
In other words, no one's going to hire someone to learn how to design game content. They're going to want to see a portfolio of work that shows a potential to contribute to a given company's productions, and they'll teach them how to adapt to that methodology. The best way to develop design skills is through reading widely in the field, trying some stuff out on your own, and testing it within the community.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Yeah this makes a lot of sense. I'm a professional chef by trade so it's similar in some ways.
You can't just start as a chef. You gotta work for min wage as a dishwasher or go to school (and still become a dishwasher for 6mo).
Finding the path to "get where i want" doesn't seem to hard. It's honestly looking like a straight line. Focus on something, get good at it, get noticed, maybe i'll get a cool gig in the TTRPG world doing something i find myself passionate about (i really wanna do a D&D cookbook but its been done a million times i found out).
My bigger issue is the where to get started part?
Kitchens, walk into a kitchen and say you need work. You get asked to cook a few things a prove yourself.
Freelance or selling on DM guild.... I don't know where to even start honestly. Like i said, i found one discord that offers work but its... slow. So now im trying to see where you even look to find work cause that's where im struggling. I got some stuff to show off, nothing too great yet but a mini west march campaign i wrote and put a ton of time into. I don't see myself being an actual big corp professional but im mainly just at that level where I like my Paid DM job. I like homebrewing and writing stories (seems to be a market for this im hearing) and so now im like.... what if i wrote a one shot or some sort of material for D&D that actually sells? What if it gets me some freelance work cause it's actually good?
Then i go back to.... where do you even find the companies though? I don't even know how to find a small time one.
[ CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ]
If you are serious, this is a very good class to get started:
https://www.storytellingcollective.com/courses/wyfa-dnd
I took it two years ago, and they go through the entire process of getting an idea, developing it, and publishing it. You'll also make friends!