A Talk With Jesse Decker

A 30th Anniversary Interview

I met Jesse Decker when he was the editorial assistant for the Dragon and Dungeon magazines. I'd been in a few meetings with him and discussed articles or whatnot and found him to be not only a real devotee of the game but a really nice guy. So, when a vacancy opened up in my Ptolus campaign, I suggested to the (Black Lantern) group that he might be a good addition and other members agreed.

And we were right. Jesse was a great addition to the group (and I still game with him every week). I also think that Jesse, who soon became the editor of Dragon, was great at that job. I enjoyed the magazine greatly under his guidance, and always thought he had a really good grasp of what gamers wanted and needed out of a magazine. (For what it's worth, I think Erik Mona's also doing a great job today, too.)

Today, Jesse works as the head of development of roleplaying games at Wizards of the Coast, and I don't know of anyone who didn't think he was a great choice for that job. More than anything else, I'm always impressed with Jesse's ability to keep grounded in what is ultimately most important about game design and development, and that is making sure that the game is fun. I'm pleased to be able to ask him some questions to help celebrate Dungeons & Dragons.

Monte Cook: How did you come to start playing D&D?

Jesse Decker: I began playing D&D in 1983 during elementary school recesses. There was only one bookshop in the area that sold anything like gaming material, and my friend Tag had gotten a copy of every product that they stocked as a Christmas gift. This treasure trove included exactly two products: the red box edition of the D&D Basic Set and Deities & Demigods. We devoured those rules in moments, and soon my 3rd-level elf moved from room to room, taking on three or four Odins at a time.

Monte: What were you doing before you started at Wizards of the Coast? How did you get your initial job at the company?

Jesse: In January of 1997, I was fresh out of college and looking to kill time with an easy job, stalling the decision between full-time employment and graduate work. I lived in the Seattle area, and during the previous summer I had done temp work for the Wizards of the Coast events team, packing up tournament prize kits and convention support materials. I enjoyed that summer, but when it was over, I headed off for my last year of school, and didn't for a moment think that I'd ever see the inside of Wizards again. Maybe someone at Wizards remembered me, because after graduation I registered with the same temp agency that I had used the previous summer and got a call the same day asking if I wanted more work at Wizards.

That second dose of temp work grew into a six-month stint at Wizards' first Game Center as a tournament judge. During those few months, I had decided to forgo graduate school for a few years and look for more challenging work. At the same time, some editorial jobs opened up at Wizards' corporate office because of the TSR acquisition. Although Wizards brought most of the staff out from Wisconsin, there were a few spots to fill, especially in the company's junior roles. I sent in a resume, and after a few interviews, I became the editorial assistant for Dragon and Dungeon Magazines.

Monte: What were your impressions of Wizards of the Coast, both as a new hire and as you got to know your way around?

Jesse: I really didn't know what to make of Wizards to begin with. I hadn't had any other serious jobs, and my only window into the company was the small, tight-knit periodicals team. I remember times when the periodicals team that I joined felt lean and unloved, but it's fair to say that I was enjoying both the company and the work from the start. I was surrounded by interesting, hard-working people, and from the first day on I started to build friendships that continue to grow. The other overriding impression that I take from those days, one that remains still, is that the whole thing was a lot of fun. Corny, I know, but working to make Dragon and Dungeon, to try new things with the game, was just fun.

Monte: But you didn't start out working with magazines or roleplaying games. Tell us more about what you did before at Wizards, and how you ended up working on Dragon Magazine.

Jesse: Before Wizards, I played D&D in my dorm room and applied myself irregularly to passions ranging from biochemistry to foosball. Since being hired as the editorial assistant a little more than seven years ago, I've held what I consider to be five different jobs: editorial henchman for Dragon and Dungeon, managing editor of the short-lived TopDeck, writer for Wizards website, Dragon editor-in-chief, RPG designer, and now development manager in the R&D group.

This progression has been almost entirely unplanned. I joined the Dragon staff thinking it but a short break before beginning graduate work in biochemistry. What I couldn't see in those first few months was that working with games excited me in a way that science never had. Each subsequent job seemed to come as part of a natural progression. After my first two years as a junior editor on Dragon and Dungeon, I knew that I loved working in the gaming industry and thoughts of graduate school were mostly things of the past, but at the same time I was interested in a change. The senior editors of Dragon and Dungeon seemed unlikely to leave, and I felt ready for bigger challenges. The managing editor job on TopDeck came at just the right time, and was just what I needed to further my growing understanding of publishing. When TopDeck was cancelled, the web team kindly provided a shelter for most of the magazine's editorial staff. Six months of writing for the website would have made for a pleasant chunk of employment, but it was tainted by the morale problems that the company was experiencing. The company went through a rough bout of downsizing, and many of the folks that I had grown close to left the company during that six-month stint. I remember that at the end of my time there, I was sitting alone in a pod of four cubes, with literally no one sitting within a two-cube radius of me. When I had shifted over to the web team, all the seats around me were full-there were friends occupying a cubicle on every side.

When I heard that the periodicals department was looking for a new leader for the Dragon team, it seemed like an opportunity to start over, to get a new perspective on the company, and to get back to D&D full time.

Monte: You left Wizards of the Coast when Paizo Publishing took over the production of Dragon Magazine. What was the transition to Paizo like?

Jesse: In the summer of 2000, a year after I became Dragon's editor-in-chief, Wizards was a wounded giant, mighty still, but seemingly unable to solve the morale problems that had plagued the company for at least year. The company had gone through several rounds of layoffs, and I had taken them pretty hard. When I was brought into my boss' poorly lit office and told of a plan to move the periodicals out of Wizards, I was relieved.

Because of a chance conversation that I had very early in my editorial career, I decided to make sure that I'd never be an editor who secretly wanted to be a designer. I felt pretty strongly about this, and even though I had done some freelance writing and game design before taking the Dragon editor-in-chief job, I had no thoughts of becoming a game designer. Then, about six months after having taken the Dragon job, I literally woke up one day, and the world had changed. No kidding. In parallel to the whole Wizards shift to Paizo, I was going through big-time personal change. I woke up that morning with basically all of the ideas in Hammer & Helm* in my head, thinking, "Man ... it'd be cool to turn this stuff into a book." Chris Pramas of Green Ronin still worked in the Wizards building, and I went to see him as soon as he got into work. I was walking around in something of a daze. I remember that I was practically shaking while I talked to him about the book, because I suddenly wanted to write it so badly.

To make a long story short, after that morning, it was really only a matter of time. I had liked being an editor, and learned a lot while doing it, but something about working on that book changed me for good. Once I had that taste of design, that's about all that I was interested in doing. I'm not shy about the fact that my stint at Paizo wasn't all that enjoyable, but my friends who still work at Paizo tell me that the company has changed for the better in the year and a half since I left. That's good to hear, because the D&D magazines can be great, and Paizo's staff is a talented crew full of folks that I admire.

* A d20 System sourcebook Jesse later wrote for Green Ronin Publishing.

Monte: What kind of insight or perspectives on D&D did you gain from being the editor of Dragon Magazine?

Jesse: My time on Dragon was both a test and a teacher, forging an attention to the fan base that I hope I never lose. Dragon was great teacher of game design, simply because I read so much gaming material, discussed it with smart people, and then sent it out to my 50,000 readers who kindly ripped it to shreds. The constant feedback of Dragon's many fans sharpened my instincts for what fans liked and proved over and over again how important it is to pay attention to message boards, those casual conversations at conventions, and other forms of fan feedback.

Monte: What was it like to come back to Wizards of the Coast?

Jesse: After a year of Paizo, I was lucky enough to get a design job in Wizards of the Coast's roleplaying R&D department. The bout of self-discovery that led me from editing work to design continued, and led to the move from design to development a year after I came back to Wizards.

Monte: What are some of the differences between working on Dragon Magazine and working on D&D product as a designer or developer?

Jesse: The difference is mainly one of focus. There was no time during my work on Dragon when something wasn't on fire, and the way a magazine's schedule is set up, there's some kind of deadline at the end of almost every week. In design/development work, the projects are bigger and the deadlines farther apart, so it feels like we're much more focused on any one project. The number of printed pages that I handle each month is nearly unchanged from job to job, but the difference in project size means that there's a distinct difference in how the jobs are paced.

Monte: Although you've worked at Wizards for a long time, when you think back, what's the most memorable period so far?

Jesse: I guess I've logged about seven years at Wizards and another at Paizo, but nothing in that past compares to right now. As great as the first days working on the D&D magazines were (and they were great), they weren't even close to my current job. I get to lead a great team of developers, full of energy and ideas. I simply love the challenges that I get to deal with each day. As development manager for RPGs and miniatures, I manage a staff of four developers, and our task is to review, revise, and balance the work that comes out of the design team. As Andy Collins pointed out in his earlier interview on the site, development is very much a team activity, and I think the opportunity to shape and lead that team is a pretty special thing.

Monte: Give us a better idea of what exactly do you do as the manager of Wizards' RPG development team.

Jesse: The development team works with a manuscript between design and editing, and we focus on standardizing and balancing the mechanical elements in a book or miniatures set. A team of three developers deals with two books at a time for a period of six weeks. At its best, the development team gives the designers the room to be daring-they can innovate without the need to monitor the power level of every mechanical element, because it's our job to come behind and measure, test, and standardize the mechanical elements of a product.

I also revel in the challenges of the management position. I see it as my charge to provide the developers with the tools to do their job, get them projects to which their skills are well suited, and give them opportunities to grow those skills. So, it's my job to shield them from the chaos inherent to the publishing business while still making sure that their best ideas influence our products and business strategies.

Monte: What's the work environment like at Wizards of the Coast?

Jesse: I find the work environment in Wizards, especially in R&D, incredibly energizing. There's a lot of work to be done, to be sure, but I spend every work day surrounded by folks who want to make great games. I know, that sounds almost too fluffy to be true, but I've been inside the walls almost eight years now, and it's as fun as it's ever been.

Monte: How about wrapping up with a funny or interesting story about your time working on D&D?

Jesse: The day that I got the job as Dragon's editor-in-chief, I passed Kim Mohan in the hallway. For those few who don't know, Kim was Dragon's editor back when "pasting text" actually meant pasting strips of text to board, and manuscripts were sent to the printer on the back of a pterodactyl. Kim slowed down and asked, "So, you've got the Dragon job?" "Yes," I replied, a little geeked out that Kim Mohan (Dragon's coolest editor) was talking to me about the magazine. I stood there, waiting for him to impart some potent piece of wisdom, sure to guide me through the new job. Kim looked at me a moment longer, silent and seemingly holding some hidden bit of lore. Then he asked the most fitting question I've ever heard about working on Dragon. "I wonder," he said, the smile in his voice, "how long will it take you to go insane?" I managed some sort of awkward chuckle, waiting for the punch line of Kim's joke. But he was in earnest, and he leaned back a bit as he reflected, "It took me about six years, I think, and Roger [Moore] a little less." Considerably less happy than I had been a moment ago, I replied with a pithy "um...." and scurried off on whatever errand had taken me there in the first place.

So, the answer to Kim's question -- a mere two years.

Related Articles

Sue's TSR Scrapbook During my years at TSR/Wizards, I took a lot of pictures. If there was an event, I was there with my camera. And as much as I loved the books and games that we produced, I loved the people even more. So, as my contribution to Monte's D&D anniversary series, I thought it would be fun to wrap things up with a photographic look at the many faces of D&D during my Wisconsin years with TSR.	A Talk With John D. Rateliff I don't actually remember first meeting John D. Rateliff. He'd already been at TSR for quite a while before I got there, and I remember hearing people refer to "Dr. John," and not knowing what they were talking about (John will explain). In early conversations with him, I remember feeling a bit intimidated by his knowledge of, well, a good many things. John's very well read, very literate, and a very knowledgeable guy. He's got a good eye for detail and minutiae -- all of which makes him a great editor.
A Talk With Jesse Decker I met Jesse Decker when he was the editorial assistant for the Dragon and Dungeon magazines. I'd been in a few meetings with him and discussed articles or whatnot and found him to be not only a real devotee of the game but a really nice guy. So, when a vacancy opened up in my Ptolus campaign, I suggested to the (Black Lantern) group that he might be a good addition and other members agreed.	A Talk With Steven Schend Steven Schend was one of the very first people at TSR that I interacted with. My first freelance job from TSR was working on the Marvel Super Heroes line, and Steven was more or less the in-house shepherd of the whole line, being the comics expert of the comics experts in the office. We talked on the phone a lot, and when -- about two years later -- I was hired as a full-time designer, he even offered to let me stay in the guest room of his house.
A Talk With Douglas Niles I never had the pleasure of working directly with Douglas Niles. He left TSR before I came to work there. Still, his legacy was clear. Though he was no longer in the office, his presence was still felt -- everyone still talked about Doug, and he had parties at his home and invited the whole TSR crew, even the newbies.	A Talk With Cindi Rice I can remember Cindi Rice's first days at TSR very well. It was a period when the company was hiring a lot of new creative staff, and it was sometimes hard to keep them all straight. I remember Cindi seemed to fit in really well, and really fast -- which is to say that she figured out quickly how to have a lot of fun.
A Talk With William W. Connors Bill Connors was one of the few people I already knew when I got to TSR in 1994. We had a mutual friend, and I'd met Bill at a previous Gen Con. (I remember that he was wearing a really cool suit and I was in a T-shirt and shorts. In one brief evening he changed my opinion about the mystique of being a game designer -- that they didn't have to be dorks, they could be really cool -- and I immediately wanted to be him.)	A Talk With Skip Williams Skip Williams hardly needs any introduction from me. When I started at TSR, I looked on him as the voice of experience. If I had a rules question, I went to Skip. The cool thing about Skip was, when you went to him with a question, he didn't speak from on high. Most of the time, he'd tell you what a good question it was, and that there wasn't an easy answer. Often, we'd end up having a good discussion about the rules....
A Talk With Stan! Steven Brown, a.k.a. "Stan!", is a good friend of mine. Although we both were at TSR and Wizards of the Coast at the same time, we never actually worked together on any projects, although he has since written a couple of short stories for Malhavoc fiction collections. Stan! always seemed to be working on other things. And in truth, I never really got to know him until after the move to Washington and Wizards of the Coast.	A Talk With Sean K Reynolds Sean Reynolds came to TSR right as the company was preparing to have a big 25th anniversary celebration. It was a pretty lavish affair with a big tent outside, lots of food, and a big display of TSR products. My first memory of Sean was when Sue and I met him and kind of dragged him to the celebration...
A Talk With Jeff Quick "Hire Jeff Quick! A Million Gamers Can't Be Wrong," one button read. "Hire Jeff Quick! Editor Extraordinaire!" read another. And there were many, many more.	A Talk With Ray Vallese Ray Vallese started working at TSR just a few months after I did. His cubicle was right next to mine, and one of my earliest memories of him is of the two of us discovering that if we fashioned a bunch of rubber bands together and hooked them into the ceiling via a paper clip, we could fling action figures up over the cube wall between us...
A Talk With Miranda Horner Miranda Horner was always a pleasure to work with. It seemed that, with few exceptions, she was always upbeat no matter what the situation.	A Talk With Keith Strohm I can vividly remember Keith Strohm coming to work at TSR. Hired right around the same time as Bruce Cordell (1995), Keith didn't have a cubicle at first and had to set himself up in a room we called the Games Library, which also doubled as a sort of employee lounge for the creative department. Keith took this all with amazing stride.
A Talk With Colin McComb When I arrived at TSR in 1994, Colin McComb was about as close as you could come to being the Welcome Wagon. Of course, he was the force behind the infamous Mask of Valor, so it was a sort of intimidating welcome....	A Talk With Wolfgang Baur Wolfgang Baur started writing as a freelancer in the 1980s, and worked full time at TSR in the early 1990s. He wrote for a lot of different game lines, but personally I remember him mostly for his work on Al-Qadim and Planescape.
A Talk With Andy Collins I remember when Andy Collins joined the Roleplaying R&D staff at Wizards of the Coast (although he was no newbie -- he started working at Wizards of the Coast before the buyout of TSR). It didn't take long at all to see that he was a good addition to the team.	A Talk With David Wise David Wise started working at TSR in 1990. He designed and edited all sorts of great products, particularly a number of Ravenloft titles and some of the early Planescape stuff.
A Talk With Bruce R. Cordell Bruce Cordell started at TSR in 1995. He and I became friends in the eighth grade (circa 1981), both of us born in a small South Dakota town where there wasn't much for a kid to do besides play football or D&D.	30th Anniversary Interview Series 2004 is the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game. To help commemorate that fact, I thought it might be interesting to hear from some of the people who have worked on the game over the years, both at TSR and Wizards of the Coast.