Cerise Magazine

Sara Girard, Associate Brand Manager at Wizards of the Coast and marketing lead for Dungeons & Dragons, started visiting our forums in August last year, and I quickly started looking forward to her contributions in discussions. She’s been very visibly involved in the publicity surrounding the fourth edition of D&D (which will be launching almost as soon as this issue of Cerise goes live!), and I’m thrilled that she was willing to take some time out during what has to be a very busy month indeed for everyone associated with Dungeons & Dragons to answer some interview questions for us.

Robyn Fleming: How did you end up working at Wizards of the Coast?

Sara Girard: I came to Wizards of the Coast from a corporate communications background. I was a producer for large scale events and communications for Fortune 500 companies. I studied communications and film in college and have always gravitated toward creative companies. I’m happy to have found a home at Wizards.

RF: I know you play D&D yourself – were you a player before you started at WotC? Are there other games that you like?

SG: Before Wizards, I did not play Dungeons & Dragons, mostly because I didn’t have any friends who played. I have always been a fantasy/scifi geek. I also prefer social gaming to head to head competition, so D&D is naturally a good fit. I like the party games like Pictionary and Balderdash. My favorite part of playing games is goofing around with friends.

RF: What do you do as Associate Brand Manager? What’s an average day at work like for you?

SG: I am the marketing lead for D&D. This means that I manage the strategy and execution of our marketing initiatives. Specifically, in public relations efforts, in-store placement options, promotional opportunities, advertising and community outreach.

An average day goes something like this:
8:30am – drop the kids at daycare downstairs
8:45am – get to desk, check emails for fires
9:00am – chat up The Rouse and discuss the day’s major initiatives
10:00-2:00 – Meetings, email, work, geek out with coworkers
2:00-3:00 - (depending on the day) gym
3:30pm – (depending on the day) Play D&D; are you seeing why I love my job? It’s encouraged!
5:30-6:00 wrap up the details
6:00 pick up my kids from daycare, go home and be mom

RF: What are some of the best things about your job?

SG: You mean aside from playing games all the time? This is by far the best job I’ve ever had. I love Wizards’ culture, but specifically I love the D&D culture and how much passion everyone has who touches the game.

RF: Are you working on anything exciting right now? Can you tell us a little bit about it?

SG: Wow. Where do I start? Today we’re having an internal employee event to celebrate the launch of D&D 4th edition. We have 4th edition gaming, core books available, a DM clinic and the D&DI Character Visualizer available for a trial run. I sat in on the game day adventure today and it was a blast. Of course I fell back on playing the fighter because I have to be the one up front hitting everybody. Really, what does that say about me?

On Saturday June 7th, for Worldwide D&D Game Day, we’re planning a big celebration event at Neumo’s in Seattle. We’re expecting hundreds of people to come and play D&D with us.

Following the launch of 4th edition, we’ll be focusing our efforts on D&DI. I’m looking forward to everyone giving it a try when the applications become available. My gaming group have all made their characters on the D&DI Character Visualizer. It took me a little longer because I was trying to find armor with underwire support.

RF: When we first started talking about doing an interview, you expressed interest in being interviewed for this particular issue of Cerise – what was it about the “Heroines and Villainesses” theme that interested you?

SG: I like the idea of women being depicted in positions of strength. It aligns well with my personal values and activities to create stories and images of tough women. Not only have I been studying martial arts for years, but I teach self defense and coach roller derby. It’s a big part of my life to encourage women to tap into their inner strength.

RF: Have you played any memorable heroines (or villainesses) in your games? What made them fun to play?

SG: My characters have always been heroic. I started D&D as a druid, but realized that I couldn’t play a druid true to my D&D style, which turned out to be to charge up front and fight. That character died of mummy rot trying to save a friend.

Taking what I could from my first experience, I created a Human Paladin because Paladins couldn’t die of mummy rot. Her name was Meleena. She died trying to save Shelly Mazzanoble’s character, Astrid, from a water demon.

My current D&D character is a very heroic Dragonborn Paladin. I built her to be not only a protector with a strong sense of honor but to deal big damage. She’s a bigger, stronger more fiery version of myself. OK, well my personality anyway.

RF: You’ve made an effort to connect with D&D players beyond the official WotC boards. Would you say that community dialogue is an important part of game development?

SG: Absolutely. The D&D team is very active in the community. We try to keep on top of the major topics and we often discuss them here in the office to make sure we’re on the right track. My favorite part of this job is connecting with players whether it’s at conventions or on the message boards. As I said earlier I love the passion everyone has for this game. I like knowing that a spoiler is going up in a blog or a news item and watching the reaction the community has to it.

RF: You’ve been a pretty visible advocate for women gamers. Is there anything that you think women will find particularly interesting or welcoming about the 4th edition of D&D?

SG: The game is fun for everyone. I won’t try to generalize about why women will like 4th edition because the game is robust enough for everyone to make it a great experience. Male or female.

That said, I’m really proud of the efforts that Wizards is embracing to make the gaming environment more welcoming to women. Last year, I ran a discussion here for our female employees to discuss “women in gaming”. Out of that discussion, many of the women created gaming groups. This is a small scale version of what I would like to accomplish globally. Introduce women into the discussion. Show them that there are many women gamers already. Get them playing.

RF: Do you have any advice for women who are interested in working in the gaming industry?

SG: If you walk through the halls of Wizards of the Coast you will find a tangible devotion to the games we make. If I were at all qualified to give this advice, I’d just have to look around me and describe what I see. Be great at what you do and love the games.

RF: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

SG: I want to express my sincere appreciation to you and your team for creating places for women to be heard and create community.