Let's take a look at the current state of the industry, in terms of the number of full-time employees devoted to RPGs. Freelancers don't count. Yes, this is only one way to look at the size of the industry and the respective players, but it might be a useful one.

Off the top of my head:

Mongoose: 14 staff
ICE: 2

What about the rest? WotC, White Wolf, Palladium, SJG, Green Ronin, Fantasy Flight (RPG staff only), Hero, Troll Lord, how do they rate?

Here's the staff list for Paizo.

http://paizo.com/paizo/about/contact

Though probably only a fraction work full time on Pathfinder.  (ie. Mona, Jacobs, Bulmahn, Reynolds, etc ...).

No idea what the other names on that list actually do.

For WotC, a rough guide would probably be the blogs of staff members on the D&D forums.

http://community.wizards.com/go/forum/view/75850/135290/Staff_Blogs

For Palladium, it seems to be a one man show of Siembieda working full time on rpgs there.

Looking further at the WotC list, recent titles that can be listed for the names on that blog list:

Andy Collins - Underdark, Player's Handbook 1

Bart Carroll - nothing

Bruce Cordell - Dark Sun Creature Catalog, The Plane Below, Prince of Undeath E3, Kingdom of Ghouls E2, Death's Reach E1, Assault of Nightwyrm Fortress P3, Open Grave, Draconomicon 1, Forgotten Realms CG, Keep on the Shadowfell

Chris Youngs - Dungeon Magazine Annual 1 (editor), Dragon Magazine Annual 1 (editor)

Christopher Perkins - Dungeon Survival Guide (2007), Sons of Gruumsh (2005)

Greg Bilsland - Monster Manual 2, Vor Rukoth, Forgotten Realms PG

James Wyatt - D&D Player's Strategy Guide, PH Races: Dragonborn, Eberron CG, Player's Handbook 2, Manual of the Planes, Pyramid of Shadows, Player's Handbook 2

Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes - Wizard's Presents:  Worlds and Monsters, Wizard's Presents:  Races and Classes

Logan Bonner - Orcs of Stonegfang Pass HS2, The Slaying Stone HS1, Primal Power, Divine Power, Arcane Power, King of Trollhaunt Warrens P1, Aventurer's Vault 1, Forgotten Realms PG

Mike Gills - nothing

Mike Mearls - Psionic Power, Demonomicon, Monster Manual 3, PH Races:  Tieflings, Hammerfast, Player's Handbook 3, Primal Power, DMG2, Revenge of the Giants, PHB2, Pyramid of Shadows, Thunderspire Labyrinth, Keep on the Shadowfell

Rich Baker - Dark Sun CG, Dark Sun Creature Catalog, Marauders of the Dune, Martial Power 2, Draconomicon 2, Divine Power, Manual of the Planes, King of Trollhaunt Warrens P1, Thunderspire Labyrinth

Rob Heinsoo - The Plane Above, PHB 3, Underdark, Primal Power, Adventurer's Vault 2, Divine Power, Monster Manual 2, Manual of the Planes, Martial Power, Forgotten Realms PG, Player's Handbook 1

Rodney Thompson - mostly Star Wars SAGA rpg books

Sara Girard - nothing

Scott Rouse - nothing

Stephen Radney-MacFarland - nothing

Stephen Schubert - Eyes of the Lich Queen (2007), Magic Item Compendium (2007), Magic of Eberron (2005)

Steve Winter - Lords of Madness (2005), 3E Monster Manual 2 (2002), The Destiny of Kings (1991)

(names not on link)

Bill Slavicsek - Revenge of the Giants, Dungeon Delve, Dungeon Survival Guide (2007), 3.5E Eberron Campaign Setting (2004), Urban Arcana CS (2003)

David Noonan - Draconomicon 2, Revenge of the Giants, Eberron Player's Guide, Dungeon Delve, Demon Queen's Enclave P2, Martial Power, Scepter Tower of Spellgard


Looking at the titles produced, it looks like the brunt of the current on-staff work has been done by Bruce Cordell, James Wyatt, Logan Bonner, Mike Mearls, Rich Baker, and Rob Heinsoo.

A grand total of 6 overworked full time 4E D&D designers and one full time Star Wars SAGA designer at WotC.

Quote from: ggroy;345280Looking at the titles produced, it looks like the brunt of the current on-staff work has been done by Bruce Cordell, James Wyatt, Logan Bonner, Mike Mearls, Rich Baker, and Rob Heinsoo.

A grand total of 6 overworked full time 4E D&D designers and one full time Star Wars SAGA designer at WotC.

You think they're overworked now?  They haven't had their annual Christmas firings yet....

Quote from: Joethelawyer;345282You think they're overworked now?  They haven't had their annual Christmas firings yet....

They'll just hire some freelancers to replace the people they fire.

It will be also be quite telling who exactly they fire.

If they fire somebody like Mike Mearls, then I wonder how much confidence WotC still has left for 4E D&D.

We shall see, soon.

RPGPundit

Does that mean that if there aren't Xmas firings, you'll all conclude that WotC is in great shape and 4e is doing awesome?

Nah, didn't think so.

Btw: read the credits on recent books for a real picture of staff. E.g., PHB2 -- 7 people on design, 7 more on development, 1 writer, Rob Heinsoo gets a credit for mechanical concepts, 3 editors, 2 managing editors (hey, Kim Mohan!), and a passel of manager types in various roles. I'd definitely count the design, development, writer, mechanical concepts, and editors as active development participants. We could argue about the rest; I don't care much one way or another.

Um... so 19 people, some of whom are freelancers (Robert Schwalb, right?). Not many, though, I don't think.

You really can't compare WotC to most other companies. Even the split between design and development is not something anyone smaller can do.

Chaosium is just a tiny group... I'm not sure the total but I think it's less than 5. I doubt any of them are full time.

Quote from: Simlasa;345324Chaosium is just a tiny group... I'm not sure the total but I think it's less than 5. I doubt any of them are full time.

They list seven people on their webpage:
http://catalog.chaosium.com/pages.php?CDpath=1
It's not clear if any are full time.

WotC hire contracted freelancers as well as per job folk - so a fixed contract of 6 months, 12 months or whatever. So some of the freelancers are actually full-time staff in all but name.

Quote from: Akrasia;345334They list seven people on their webpage

Lynn Willis has been out sick for a good while now... not sure about the level of involvement of the others... but yeah, a couple more than I'd thought.

Quote from: Thanlis;345310Does that mean that if there aren't Xmas firings, you'll all conclude that WotC is in great shape and 4e is doing awesome?

No Xmas firings is inconclusive and doesn't say anything one way or the other.

One could possibly infer that 4E may be doing awesome if WotC hires more D&D people on staff this Xmas.  On the other hand it could mean something else, such as hiring more staff for designing and marketing a 5E D&D.

Quote from: Thanlis;345310Btw: read the credits on recent books for a real picture of staff. E.g., PHB2 -- 7 people on design, 7 more on development, 1 writer, Rob Heinsoo gets a credit for mechanical concepts, 3 editors, 2 managing editors (hey, Kim Mohan!), and a passel of manager types in various roles. I'd definitely count the design, development, writer, mechanical concepts, and editors as active development participants. We could argue about the rest; I don't care much one way or another.

Um... so 19 people, some of whom are freelancers (Robert Schwalb, right?). Not many, though, I don't think.

You really can't compare WotC to most other companies. Even the split between design and development is not something anyone smaller can do.

We also don't know exactly how much someone contributed to what in a particular book.  What percentage of a book did someone contribute?  This could be determined for the people who did some writing or artwork.  It's harder to determine exactly for editorial people.  For contract freelancers it can be determined by how much they were paid for, whether per word or per piece of artwork.