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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Composer99" data-source="post: 8496687" data-attributes="member: 7030042">I would like to see the layout changed as follows (with content changes described in each section) to make the layout progressive - in the way that lesson books for learning a musical instrument are progressive - so that content goes from most crucial and basic to most optional and advanced.Part 1: Running a GameThis includes stuff like session 0 stuff, adjudicating PC actions during gameplay, encounter-building (whether the encounter includes combat or not), adjusting encounters on the fly, and running typical adventuring situations - combat, exploration, travel, social interaction, and downtime, including temporal hazards such as tornadoes or earthquakes.Basically, in my view new DMs should be confident that they'll either have procedures or guidance for running pretty much any typical or commonplace adventuring activities, and seasoned DMs will know what the baseline assumptions for the game are before they run roughshod over them. (For this reason, I would prefer to retain material for things like chases or diseases, perhaps with some reworking.)(Personally, for encounter building, I'd have preferred that they use aggregate monster CR to estimate encounter difficulty instead of XP budgets, though that would require reworking monsters more than I expect a 5.5 that aims to be backwards compatible would aim to achieve. Such estimates need not be precise. But CR is a smaller, and thus by my reckoning easier, number to use.)Part 2: NPCsThe overall content about NPCs in the DMG probably doesn't need much change, but the layout may well. Players interacting with NPCs is covered in part 1, so this part is about creating, running, and portraying NPCs and factions thereof. I think it should be a separate part simply because we're dealing with material that is something of a hybrid of running a game and creating content for a game - for instance, if you're running a published adventure path and want to expand on the role of a given faction the players are interested in joining (or taking over!).Part 3: RewardsTreasure, boons, property, hirelings, favours, that sort of thing.Pretty well every DM will find use to refer to the first three parts. The next three are for DMs who want to modify the game to suit their tastes or run their own stuff, possibly in their own worlds.Part 4: DM's WorkshopI'd also like to see this consolidated and expanded.Part 5: Creating Adventures and CampaignsI separate this from worldbuilding since you might, say, run a campaign in the Forgotten Realms without using published adventures.Part 6: WorldbuildingAppendix: A small starter adventure so you don't have to buy the starter set or a whole adventure path to have a first adventure to throw at your players when you're a new DM.</blockquote>

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