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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kalendraf" data-source="post: 1587765" data-attributes="member: 3433">Read.  then reread.  Know the encounters, the foes and any of their special tricks.  That is the easy part...Since I'm overly concerned about wealth issues, I verify that the amount of exp expected from the fights stays in line with the amount of treasure to be found.  Some companies are extremely good about keeping things in check, but others allow their authors a very wide range.  Let me demonstrate the process...My main party is 9th level and consists of 6 PCs.  I tally up all the encounters in a dungeon/whatever and figure out how much exp those encounters as a whole will be worth when divided across the 6 characters.  Seems like a lot of up front work, but one advantage is the numbers are all there and ready for later on when the party is awarded that exp.  Adjustments can be done easily on the fly if necessary.  Now let's say the exp per character for the next large section of the module is going to be around 12K.  That enough to reach 10th level and exceed it by 25%.From that, I index the recommended wealth table and determine what characters should see in terms of a change in their wealth from 9th to approximately a quarter of the way past 10th level.  Multiply that number by 6 characters and use the overall number as a baseline to target for the stuff awarded.Next I add up all the loot, and consider coins, jewelry and gems as full value, and also items the party is likely to keep as full value.  But items they are like to sell only count half since that's how much they are going to get for selling them.  I add up all this stuff and compare to the baseline number for exp.A well-written module might be within +/- 30% of the target and require very few changes.  On the other hand, some "monty haul" adventures may be off by a factor of 4 to 5 times the recommended dose of treasure.  Let's just say 450K worth of treasure for those encounters mentioned above.  In a case like this, I need to do some major overhauls.How to adjust it is more of an artform than anything.  I usually start by axing big-ticket items or ones that don't make sense for the campaign.  I often have to adjust some items downward as well (make a +3 ring into a +2 instead, etc).  It's much easier to adjust upward, but that is less commonly needed.One of my campaigns uses non-standard wealth, approximately 70% of the recommended, so in nearly all cases, I still have to do some adjusting like this.  Depending on the severity of the wealth issues, the process can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours to properly balance things for the campaign.  The reward is worth it though - keeping the party balanced regarding wealth has lots of benefits.Note - I'm kind of anal about this whole thing because I've seen a prior campaign get out of control due to too much treasure getting awarded which led to a number of related problems which eventually killed the campaign.</blockquote>

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