D&D 5E (2024) No 5.5 AP Yet?

Paul Farquhar said:

Splitting information about specific NPCs and their role in the story, and where they might be encountered is an issue with many WotC adventures. It's a big problem in Vecna. That information should all be together in one place.

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I find it odd that they won't take the space to do a dramatis personae - with art, and NPCS profiles. It would work great for that idea of the "thieving DM", where you could ignore the adventure if you wanted but steal some of your favorite NPCs.

FitzTheRuke said:

I find it odd that they won't take the space to do a dramatis personae - with art, and NPCS profiles. It would work great for that idea of the "thieving DM", where you could ignore the adventure if you wanted but steal some of your favorite NPCs.

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They literally do that in every adventure campaign book I’ve read?

They’re usually 25-35 pages of NPC details, with art, profiles and backgrounds…

TheSword said:

They literally do that in every adventure campaign book I’ve read?

They’re usually 25-35 pages of NPC details, with art, profiles and backgrounds…

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I think you are conflating the Pathfinder Adventure Paths and the D&D Campaign Adventures. The latter have monster sections, but they don't really do what you are talking about. But the Pathfinder ones do. I just looked at Avernus as a reference and its info on important characters is disjointed and split between sections. I don't expect that is an anomoly.

TheSword said:

They literally do that in every adventure campaign book I’ve read? They’re usually 25-35 pages of NPC details, with art, profiles and backgrounds…

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I was speaking of WotC, which the thread has been about (as they usually are) even when using the term "AP".

FitzTheRuke said:

I was speaking of WotC, which the thread has been about (as they usually are) even when using the term "AP".

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It’s basically Paizo’s fault, since they are responsible for selling these things in a serialised magazine format, giving them a reason to hold back critical information on NPCs. WotC copied the format (and hired former Paizo writers), even though everything was being published in a single volume.

Paul Farquhar said:

It’s basically Paizo’s fault, since they are responsible for selling these things in a serialised magazine format, giving them a reason to hold back critical information on NPCs. WotC copied the format (and hired former Paizo writers), even though everything was being published in a single volume.

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Interesting take.

Have people here looked at Dragon Delves, I could easily see how it’s chapters are formatted becoming a standard thing

MonsterEnvy said:

Have people here looked at Dragon Delves, I could easily see how it’s chapters are formatted becoming a standard thing

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I have not, but adventure formatting is due a major overhaul.

Here is what the first page for the chapters would look like.
Following this with a description of the background, area it takes place in, and groups and the NPCs part of them.

FitzTheRuke said:

I was speaking of WotC, which the thread has been about (as they usually are) even when using the term "AP".

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To be honest so was I. Here are some examples of what I'm talking about from Dragonheist and again from Curse of Strahd. You can see the same in Tomb of Annihilation, Rime of the Frostmaiden, Wild beyond the Witchlight, Tyranny of the Dragon Queen, Shattered Obelisk and Vecna.

I definitely overstated it when I said they are in every one. The best AP's (unsurprisingly) seem to have them. Interestingly Princes of the Apocalypse and Storm Kings Thunder seem to be toying with the idea of an NPC appendix very early on. POA has write ups for the main villains for each cult and the elemental lords. While SKT has a set of NPC collection with brief details and a pic. While out of the Abyss has an appendix detailing the Demon Lords that act as major NPCs. Its definitely incomplete though.

By some fluke Descent into Avernus is the only WotC published book as far as I can tell that doesn't have any kind of index section for NPCs. Its strange that that book embeds everything in chapter when the books either side don't but I could say more on DIA but won't. Turn of Fortunes Wheel doesn't have the appendix because its been spun out into a separate book.

Its not true to say WotC doesn't do these though.


Here is another example from Curse of Stahd...


When we talk about modularity this is what I'm talking about. The Dragonheist section for instance works as a who's who of important NPCs in Waterdeep which could be lifted and dropped into any campaign.