One of the problems I face is that with the inclusion of the section batch of details (Goals, Fears, Location, Quote, Associates, Organizations) I can no longer fit a single NPC into a quarter page. Now I have to figure out how to handle it.

As I’ve mentioned before, this leaves me with a few tough decisions:

• Cut content (which I really really don’t want to do) (67 portraits)
• Have 3 NPCs per page with one split between two columns (this would be ugly) (between 67 and 100, depending on implementation)
• Have two NPCs per page with one piece of artwork inbetween (100 portraits)

Another solution has presented itself, but I’m not sure how I feel about it.

As it stands now, NPCs are in pure alphabetical order by first/only name. This makes them super easy to find, and with some NPCs having non-standard names (“lastname, firstname” is a weird human culture thing), it’s the only way that really makes snese.

After discussing this with kjdavies and Steven a bit, Steven suggested a fourth option: split NPCs by race chapters, then alphabetically per chapter. Originally I’d discarded this for a couple of reasons- Some races (Aasimar, Fosi, Mastikan, Ogres, and Tieflings) only had 1-3 NPCs making for very short chapters, while others (Dragonborn, Dwarves, Humans) are very long in comparison, creating a monotonous stretch of dwarven or human art and no chance to intersperse the minor races into the book. When I originally came up with my 67 portraits, I took care to create a proportionally representative selection including at least one of each race. I don’t know that it would be possible with races clumped.

My wife (Jackie) suggested grouping the minor races together into a Miscellaneous chapter to combat the “half-page chapter” problem, however that would result in a lot of images compressed at the end. Steven also said that breaking it up by race would allow me to have a half or full page piece of art for each chapter heading (I really like this idea).

So far I haven’t found the right combination, but at least it’s resulting in some interesting experiments.