Wendersnaven.com (a resource for nwn2 builders)

While digging around looking for some ideas, I came across the Writing Your First Adventure article By Wolfgang Baur on the Wizards of the Coast site. It's a fun read and can help stretch your brain:

If you are ready to design your first RPG adventure, or learn how to improve the adventures you've already got, you've come to the right place. The "Adventure Builder" will cover all the bases, from hooks to background to traps and treasures.

This time out, we'll cover the foundation you need to build a great adventure. It's not the background, the stat blocks, or even the main villain. It's monster selection, and figuring out the size and style of the adventure.

Of particular note is the section on balancing encounters. While this it's a bit different from PnP, it's still worth a look.

While this breakdown is good advice, it's not complete. You'll want to be sure that your ... encounters include encounter variety by class as well as by EL. That is, make sure to include each of the following types of encounters, to give every class and every player a chance to shine.

1) Two Skill Encounters: These are creatures or obstacles that can be defeated by stealth or skill, such as guards, castle walls, cliffs, informants, or low-hp creatures that can fall to a single sneak attack.

2) [Eight] Pure Combats: You need some no-negotiation, straight-up combats that play to the fighter classes. Think orcs, wolves, ogres, giants -- or dragons. Consider tactics first here: ambushes, charge, bull-rush, something to make it more than just attack rolls and damage rolls.

3) Two Magical Challenges: Include two magical challenges that require a knock, a fireball, or whatever other strengths your arcane spellcasters have. They might be lore-based challenges, such as knowing the weaknesses of an extraplanar creature, or they might require the use of Concentration or Spellcraft to manipulate a magical object or unravel a mysterious warding.

4) One Divine Challenge: The divine caster in the party is more than just a medic, so give him or her something to do with at least one undead turning, Knowledge (Religion), or nature-knowledge encounter (if your divine caster is a druid).

5) One Puzzle or Trap: This could be as simple as finding the key to a tough lock, deciphering an ancient script, or finding a secret door with Search, but you should include traps and puzzles for your party to solve. If the party doesn't have a rogue in it, use Knowledge skill checks as a substitute.

6) Two Roleplaying Encounters: Social skills play an important part of the game too, and bards don't like to just sit and do their stuff in the background. Provide at least two roleplaying encounters that can be defeated by the right social skills, bribes, exchange of services, or clever conversation. Examples include a scholar with a clue that the party needs to bypass some defenses or wardings, or a devil who will ally with them against a common foe.

7) One Mook Encounter: This should be against foes of at least 2 CR less than the party, and ideally 3 or 4 less. Think kobolds, bandits, skeletons, wild animals, or any other group of many foes that play to Cleave and area-effect spells. It's fun to see heroes cutting a swath through hordes of foes.

8) One Polder: "Polder" is a Dutch word describing land reclaimed from the sea, but here it's a more general term. As described in detail in Dungeon 135, polders are safe havens for adventurers, places where the party can regain strength. Think Rivendell in Lord of the Rings. Your polder could be a xenophobic elven tree city, a magical rope that generates rope trick spells as a charged item, a bound archon who wards a treasure, or a dwarven merchant caravan. If the party wishes, they can heal up to full strength and level up.

9) One Bigger Fish: To keep the blood flowing, you should have one overwhelming encounter that the party can't handle without serious risk of a total party kill. This could turn into a roleplaying bit of Diplomacy, a chase, or a stealth challenge, depending on how the party handles it -- but they should see that not every encounter in every adventure should be fought.

10) Big Finish: A grand finale encounter with all the trimmings: villain, minions, and a room or terrain that provides interesting combat options.

Note that for the sake of increased combat in a CRPG, I've doubled the combats from four to eight. That's a total of 19 encounters, 11 of them involving combat. Whether that's enough for a full level of play is up to you as a builder, but at least Baur's list will get you thinking about balance.

Check out the article here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ab/20060728a

Check out the full Adventure Builder Archive here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/ab