Quote Originally Posted by stoutstien View Post
Let's say you are running any published campaign that has an encounter on page 36. The stats for the NPCs needed are probably on pg 99, their motivations are probably hiding on pg 50 and if there is any specific mechanical things involved they don't give a quick reference or even a page to refer to if needed. I.e spells.
For some things the rules are sprinkled throughout 2-3 different books so for newer people looking to DM it's a huge investment to even begin with let alone fine a way to reference them without grinding the game to a halt.
Good example.

I think it makes sense for the NPC details to be located in one place rather than repeated each time the NPC comes up, however the information should be consolidated and page numbers provided. Even then, some information (for example the NPC's motivational context related to the encounter) it might be possible to give a summary on the encounter page.

This is also why, when I GM, I rarely use spells outside the big spell books (PHB or some kind of Spell Compendium) unless I am using an online compendium.

D&D expects the GM to occasionally access each book. Improving that user experience would be ideal.