Layoffs at Wizards of the Coast

Things are shaking up yet again at Wizards of the Coast.  ICv2 reports that Bill Slavicsek, WotC’s Director of Roleplaying Design and Development, was laid off.  Bill graciously announced his departure in Dragon Magazine's Ampersand column:

It’s hard to believe that I first entered the hallowed halls of TSR, Inc. in the long-ago year of 1993. I was the new kid on the block back then, even though I had seven years of professional work behind me at the time and a handful of industry awards already to my credit. Some of the greats were still on the staff back then, people whose work I admired and played in my formative years, including Zeb Cook, Jeff Grubb, and Jim Ward. My first projects were set in the Dungeons & Dragons worlds of Dark Sun, Ravenloft, and Planescape, and I couldn’t have been happier. It was a gamer’s (and game designer’s) dream come true. As time went on, I got the plum assignment of lead designer for the Alternity Science Fiction Roleplaying Game, working with co-designer Rich Baker and editor extreme Kim Mohan. It was a great time.

In 1997, Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR and moved me and a bunch of the staff out to Seattle. Shortly thereafter, I was promoted to Director of R&D for Dungeons & Dragons. 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. I can’t wait to see what they do next! I know that whatever it is, it will be great and I will be playing it.