TSR R&D Staff, Lake Geneva, 1996

So, the slow sorting continues to turn up items of interest from my years at TSR, Wizards of the Coast, and even (to go further back) Marquette. The latest such is the routing list that circulated among the R&D department (all the game designers and editors). This particular copy was inserted in the May/June copy of PYRAMID (TSR's creatives being interested in the industry as a whole, though management was not). Consider it a snapshot of who was working there at a specific place and time. 

Looking over it now highlights a number of things about the department that didn't get much attention at the time but are striking in retrospect.

First, the department was 100% white. An occasional freelancer might work on a project, but even this was rare.

Second, there were quite a few women who worked as designers and editors (mostly editors) and product group leaders (our lowest level of management, pretty much all of whom had been promoted out of editor positions  --definitely a minority but nevertheless a force to be felt within the department.

Third, this list is not comprehensive: some folks were not interested and had their name taken off the list, like Andria Hayday.

A quick count to the names listed here shows thirty-nine names, the last five of which are RPGA, a sort of mini-department, like books and magazines (DRAGON, DUNGEON). That leaves thirty-four. By my count there are eight women on the list, which makes it 25%. My memory made it about one-third, but I'm glad to see I wasn't too far off.

Given the chaos surrounding TSR's final days, looking back it's hard to keep track over who got laid off in The Great Reckoning (like myself), who survived the Passover Event (December 1996) but chose to stay behind in the Midwest (e.g. Anne Brown, Bill Connors, &c), who was already out in Renton, having survived WotC's initial forays into rpgs, like Jonathan Tweet (Primal Order, Everway, Ars Magica), those who were rehired after the department was reconstituted in Renton (like myself). 

Of these, a number were women: names I can come up with without researching the topic include

Lisa Stevens, Penny Williams, Sue Cook, Julia Martin, Miranda Horner, Michele Carter, Cindi Rice, Gwendolyn Kestrel, Kij Johnson, Jennifer Clark Wilkes*

Given Wizards of the Coast's reputation as more hip and happening than the old guard in Lake Geneva, you'd expect the percentage of women working as D&D designers and editors to rise dramatically. And while I think this was initially the case, it's my impression that their numbers declined steadily throughout the post reboot years. I don't have any documentation for this, simply anecdotal observation from the time, and wd be interested in anyone who can supply a corrective.

--John R.

*Of these I think JCW was the longest survivor, having preceded the arrival of the folks from Old TSR and I think outlasted the last veteran from Lake Geneva days.