Me, Rob Heinsoo, and 4ed Too

As was recently announced, Rob Heinsoo has been released from his position at WotC as part of their now ritual Christmas layoffs, along with a number of others. For those who aren’t entirely sure who Rob Heinsoo is, he was the lead developer for the 4ed D&D core rules books.

Here’s his somewhat brief mention of it on his blog:

The same applies to the other change in my life. Getting laid off by Wizards of the Coast this Thursday wasn’t on the seismometer compared to Mom’s death. I wasn’t choosing to get laid off but when I saw the writing leak up onto the wall I didn’t fight very hard to erase it—I shrugged and decided that if this was what WotC really thought was their best option, screw it.

It’s time for a change. I get to work on games and stories as an independent again. Designing games is a passion I don’t intend to shake off. And I’ve got a book or four to write; that’s a challenge I didn’t want to grapple with while Wizards said that it owned everything I created.

Now, as anyone who knows me will testify, I have little to no interest in 4ed and I have very few ties with WotC these days. One of these was, however, Rob Heinsoo, who came to the UK for the 4ed launch as part of the World Wide Game day. I went along to check it all out and was told that Rob Heinsoo would be coming along later that day. A bunch of us waited for his arrival and when he did, I cajoled him into DMing for us.

Although pushed for time, he nonetheless graciously did so and those of us who were fortunate enough to share in that experience had a real blast. Rob tried to get us all involved and his enthusiasm for 4ed was clear to see. He was a good DM and made it a memorable day. He didn’t get a chance to finish the last encounter as he had to leave, but it was fun to play a game of 4ed on its launch with the DM who was the lead developer of the very game we were playing and is one of those gaming memories I’ll keep.

So it’s sad to see that WotC could no longer find a place somewhere in their company for Rob and I wish him the best for the future. I’m sure he’ll find his niche somewhere.