Buttercup said:
I tend to use a limited palatte of monsters, and just give them levels and/or templates to increase their difficulty.
Amen to that, Buttercup.
For myself, I run things very story-oriented. I do award XP based on encounters primarily for the first 10 levels. Beyond that, the kills are sometimes much less important than the story arc they represent, so levelling might be delayed or advanced as needed to keep the party's level current with the story. However, there's always a sense of progress.
When I'm designing the adventure, which I think is more in keeping with the original question of the thread, I find myself working in chapters. I come up with the overall story first, and then I think, "Realistically speaking, how long do I think this is going to take, and by the end of this, how powerful do I want the PC's to become?" Then I break things down from there by trying to space one major confrontation per story segment.
An example. The PCs in my world (Tol Vehara, homebrew) are heading to a place called Pain Mountain run by minotaurs, built atop adamantine mines that were originally created by Duergar who are still there. The minotaur and the Duergar feud, so there's already a power struggle going on. The party is going there for a specific purpose, to obtain a legendary gemstone worth 100,000gp. I know how important that gem is to the struggling factions, and I have a rough idea of just how powerful the PCs will be by the time they actually obtain it (I'm thinking about 12th level, and they're 6th now).
That means that, at the minimum, I need about 10 major plot encounters. Each of those major encounters will need to have story hooks and minor buildup encounters. And realistically speaking, there will need to be an area or setting developed to 'house' them, because when you're strong enough as an NPC to cause a major plot-developing encounter, you don't have much in the way of competition around you.
Of the 10 encounters, I'll most likely make 5 of them extremely combat-intensive, 2 of them mysteries that need solving with a key end-scene to provide the epiphany, 1 of them will require rogue abilities above all else, and 2 of them will most likely require a hefty bit of roleplay to bring about. Chances are, the PCs will miss 4 of those major encounters or circumvent them unwittingly. Perhaps 5. If they *do* miss them, chances are I won't force the issue, but instead the climactic adventure ending will be much more difficult.
When it comes to the moment of actual preparation for each of these adventure Chapters, I only allow myself to plan in broad strokes until the party is one session away from the next one. Since we game once a month with between 4-6 weeks between sessions, that's plenty of time for me to flesh out the anticipated next areas. It means, too, that my overall goal toward the conceived ending can remain organic enough to easily incorporate changes in the setting due to the Party's actions. But by keeping a desired ending point firmly in mind, I can easily 'guide' the Party toward it. By not planning out and mapping the specifics until later, it prevents a lucky left turn or a 5 year old from cakewalking through to the ending from the entryway.
To keep the overall theme, like Buttercup I work from a limited palette of monsters. In Pain Mountain, you've got Duergar and Minotaurs, and the region's typical GOKO races (Goblins, Ogres, Kobolds, and Orcs). There are a small sprinkling of other monster types in there, but those are placed intentionally for plot development, not random encounters for no reason. By the end of this adventure's planning, I will have memorized the stats for the GOKOs and Minotaurs just from the sheer numbers of them that the party will encounter. And, chances are, so will the party.
To keep the party started, I know that one in three of those 10 encounters should be fixed, and at those fixed encounters there should be enough treasure and magic present (used against them, of course) to keep them on par with their level's usual equipment. By making those encounters fixed, I also gain the benefit of having definite advancement benchmarks to plan around.
Now, with all that being said, since I know generally where I want the adventure to end up at, and I've got the map of the setting and the history/politics going on filled in mentally, I now focus all my attentions on the first Chapter and how to get them moving toward their overall goal without giving away the store.
Make sense?
