Thread by @Delafina777

I also want to say that the coolest thing about working on this has been feeling pulled into the excitement that @the_strix, @ajitgeorgeSB, @GoblinPrincete and some of the other authors on it have for its launch.

Like (selfishly, I admit) it's been really healing for me.

https://twitter.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1364247211438190592

Like, it's so easy when you've worked in TTRPGs fulltime for somewhere like Paizo, where we were putting out SO MANY products every month, to just have all the joy sucked out of having contributed.

And especially with Paizo, because there was *so much trauma* for so many people on the team. Like, even the books I poured my heart and soul into, the launches felt muted because the process of getting them out had often been ugly.

The battles to get what (or *who*) we wanted included were often ugly. The process of trying to keep *out* stuff we knew would be harmful but higher-ups were invested in was often ugly. The stuff we wanted to put in that we had lost fights on. All that stuff.

And, like, I'm not a WOTC employee--I was a contract writer who got to do some concepting and brainstorming, work with some people, iterate a bit, hand over my stuff, make revisions, and then go on with my business--so that helps insulate you from the stress, too.

But it also seems like oh, what happens when you give someone like @FWesSchneider, who cares about inclusivity and doing it right, the power to make a book he wants to make with the people he wants to make it with is there's a lot more room for genuine joy.

And when authors like Strix and Ajit and Jabari get to write stuff they're passionate about, when you're not hampering creatives with just doing the same thing over and over again because that's what sold before, you get a lot more room for joy.

And I think about how I've written stuff for so many RPG books where it was like oh yeah, is that finally out? I should probably retweet the announcement and say something positive, without feeling any real excitement.

Versus this experience--like, I'm so excited for a lot of the people I've worked with, and it's just really making me happy to see how excited *they* are, and it's just generally been a reminder of like, "oh yeah, this is supposed to be--and CAN be--FUN."

So anyway, I just want to say that it's making me really happy to see that sometimes progress *does* happen and things *do* get better, and burnout *can* be reversed, and good people *do* get recognized.

And ironically it's the horror book that has made me the happiest. :-)