It's time for the annual Christmas Layoffs at Wizards of the Coast!And this time the cheerful elves at WotC have given coal in the stockings of two guys who should be well-known to the OSR. Steve Winter and Rich Baker.
Steve Winter's been with TSR/WotC for 30 years. His credits include editing Star Frontiers, co-creating Marvel Super Heroes, editing the gold World of Greyhawk boxed set, editing the original Oriental Adventures book, and a slew of other excellent stuff. I'm sure he doesn't remember me, but I met him when I was brought out to TSR in the late 1980's for a job interview (I didn't get the job, obviously).
Rich Baker is another long-timer who was with the company when it was still TSR, and has such credits to his name as co-designer of Alternity and Birthright, developer of the 2E "Player's Option" line of books, a mess of Dark Sun and Forgotten Realms products, and a dozen novels. He also designed Axis & Allies: War at Sea and was a developer on Risk: Godstorm. I know there's all sorts of things that go into layoff decisions, and in some scenarios seniority is actually a bad thing (because it means you're packing a high salary, which is easy to pick off compared to some newcomers who might be making half what you're making). But damn, this seems like an especially bad choice for Wizards.
I like one fellow's idea over at ENWorld; Paizo should scoop these guys up.
(Sad hat tip to Joethelawyer)
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