Keep it under your hat though... This is top secret stuff...

We went trough an extensive process to select a new designer for vset. 10. Laura had an impressive application and got picked through a multi-tiered voting process. I think she's a great addition to the team. If anything the fact that Laura is the wife of a designer may have hurt her a little in the process. I think a few designers voted "against" her for that reason alone. Her merits on her own were enough to overcome that though.

The plan is to continue doing that for each set, so we will have a healthy mix of veteran designers, and new blood. Our process was more open and public than ever before, and personally I think that is the right direction. We don't want to be a secret society, we want to have the strongest team. It's not accidental that of the individuals who submitted applications, the ones who already roll their sleeves up and do a lot of work in the community got the strongest consideration. They have proven their work ethic and dedication. It was still a very hard selection process, but we not only chose a new designer, but we also recruited several people among the applicants for other positions too.

Advice to anyone who is even remotely thinking about designing - get involved. Play-test, add thought-out and rational posts to forum discussions, make impressive squads, ask how you can help, etc.

Another designer can correct me if I am wrong, but I think we started adding new people to the design team since set 4 or maybe 2. I am not sure.

With an application open to the entire world, we received 10 applications plus one that was turned in after the deadline. From those the designer were able to vote on their top 5 applicants. The top 5 receiving votes were asked to submit three characters that had to meet requirements set by the designers. Unique force user with no new abilites, I think was one. Then the past designers ranked everyone again. Laura had the most votes.

One point that I would like to make is that in the application process we had this question "If you aren't chosen to be a designer, what other role would you be interested in taking in the process, if any?" For each applicant we added them to the process where they requested as best we could.

I am sure later this year we will do this process again to look for a new designer for set 11.

So I should probably keep my mouth shut here, but I can't pretend I didn't know someone would say this (and I'm sure a lot of people are thinking it). Honestly, I had the thought myself when I submitted an application, and, as Tim said, it was something that the voters had to weigh for themselves. I'm very excited and grateful that so many of them were in my corner and could overlook that potential controversy to pick the person they thought would fill the role the best, but I understand the concerns. I also know that it was a very difficult choice among everyone who applied, particularly the five who were asked to submit stat blocks, and several of those people will almost certainly get a chance to design in the future (and deservedly so).

But let me assure people that I am absolutely not just a proxy for Jason. He has his ideas, and I have mine. Obviously I have benefited from his experience as a designer, and I will gratefully accept his help as a resource, but he's not looking over my shoulder and guiding my contributions. More to the point, at this point in the process, anyone who would be seriously considered to be added to the design team would be an "insider" in some way. Especially for set 10, whoever they picked would need to be able to "hit the ground running," so it would have to be someone with extensive prior knowledge of the game and the design process, in addition to the demonstrated dedication to the expansion and continuation of the community and competitive scene Tim referred to.

I can't say for sure that I "deserved this" more than anybody else (in fact, as I said to several people online and in person, I did not at all expect to get picked this time around, my personal connections notwithstanding). I can say that I'm going to do the absolute best I can to be active and involved and make set 10 as good as it can possibly be, as I know that Tim, Deri, Les, and everyone involved with quality control, playtesting, and all of the other things that go into this process are equally committed.

good post. I do not think anyone has a problem with you being selected. You are exactly what people want to see new designers. You build awesome, unique squads, then actually use them at regionals/gencon and do well with them. It is one thing to come with a unique squad, another completely to use that unique squad and do well.

I think people just don't like the application process when it is clear no other designers had to do it. I also think people are upset that it has been the same 8-9 people designing every set from the beginning.

Bill, Dennis, Deri, Ruhk, Ray Becker, Eric, Les, Daniel, Weeks, Jason, Lou, Scott, Trevor, Jake, Tim, Brad, and now Luara.

That is 17 people with at least one lead designer on each set. I thought 8 or 9 was a bit low. Just sayin'

On top of the rest of the people that help or have helped with QC, Playtesting, or Graphics. I would guess we are close to having at least 30 to 50 people involved over the 5 years

Even at 17 people there has been 15 sets (this includes the smaller subsets, but does not include bounty hunter challenge or epics.) so really not a whole lot of design change there.

WTF does that mean, Les?

any married man knows that a wife's job is to tell her husband he is wrong

not if we have good marketing that gets others involved.