A lot of people will be making adventures and modules for Neverwinter nights when the game is released. But the question that many have is "How do I make an adventure?, What is in an adventure?" and "How does it work?"

First of all, making a good adventure takes time and planning it is nothing you just sit down as create in an hour (even though the toolset is said to be easy). placing a monster is no art but making is come alive and fit into the setting of a larger adventure is.

When first you want to create a adventure forget about the computer, your creativity will only be hindered by the white of the blank document and the flashing cursor. Instead take a piece of paper and start writing down ideas for the adventure. What is the main idea?

Find the lost temple
Help the village against an orc raid
Locate the lair of a dragon and bring back one of its egg
Stop the wizard from summoning the demon
When you have the initial idea go on with finding out what setting you would like the adventure to take place in. (still use the paper)

Forgotten Realms (the setting of Neverwinter nights)
Dragonlance
Greyhawk
Ravenloft
Your own custom (advanced DM´s only)
The good thing of choosing an already made world is that you will be able to find a lot of information about almost everything that you would have to use.
Using a "homemade" world is something that takes a lot of time, as every single piece of information has to be written by you. As a start I would choose one of the already made worlds.

Then choose what part of the world you would like the players to adventure around in

The savage north
The Moonsea area
Thay
Calimsharn
(these are all forgotten realms areas)

As things are starting come to life, you can start thinking about what kind of NPC´s you want in the adventure, and start to come up with ideas to what they are like and how they will react to the players (if they don't like different races or classes) name them and start to flesh them out on the paper (rolling the stats, choosing the feats and so on)
You can always use a NPC generator on the Internet if don't want to make this your self.

As you go along remember that everything can be still be changed but you should think about how it will work s soon as the players start moving around in the world.

Will they think its silly?
Are there enough areas to explore?
Is the area to hostile?
Is it easy to find adventure?
Do I have enough material?
Is there a good atmosphere?
Is this what I had in mind?
When you have all these things down on paper you can start thinking on moving to the computer and to flesh the adventure out more. But still a good thing is not to be afraid the return to the good old fashion paper when making the initial sketches for dungeons, encounters, house layouts and descriptions.

Now you can start to get stuck into designing the adventure.

The following is only guidelines and is not something that you should follow set by step.

TELLING AN ADVENTURE IN 4 CHAPTERS

Overview

The drawing shows the cause of an adventure and the "danger level" that the players will go through as they move from start to end.
*Player death is NOT something that a DM should plan.
*Players will NOT like the DM for killing a character (unless the players is asking for it :)

Adventure
Everything together

Chapter
The adventure divided into sections that follow the nature of the adventure

Sub-chapter
Explanation to what might go on in the different chapters

Plot line
The story that weaves it all together

Plot explanations
Explanations about what the story and what is happening

The sub-points for every chapter can be mixed at will with in the sub-chapter without losing the stability of the whole adventure, but the DM must be careful no to ruin the balance and the fun of playing the adventure.

1 chapter = 1-5 sub chapters

CHAPTER 1

Lets go on an adventure!

Can be made as a cut scene or as in game information supplied in dialogs, rumors or as text on scrolls or in books. The Dm can also choose to inform the players ahead of the start of the adventure.

Give the players information

Where are they
City?
Inn?
What land?
What region?

Important information
Is the city in danger?
Is the land in turmoil?
Is there peace at lat?
Is the princess going to get married?

Adventure related information
Does a ghost hunt the land?
People have seen a red dragon!
Magic has changed
A disease plagues the city

Important information about the surrounding world
Is the land at war?
Is the land at peace?
Are other lands at war?
Is the whole world in danger?

Player specific information

You are the captain of the guard
Your uncle has brought you here
Your mother died
Your brother is gone
You are a wanderer
A knight in the king's service

Setting initial stage:

Guiding the players towards first contact

Introducing adventure specific NPC´s

First light contact with the adventure plot

Giving the players the first clues

Give the players the chance to "Choose" adventure
The DM should always let the players choose what to do,
But the whole idea of playing an adventure is to go adventuring, so let the players choose the path they wish to walk and then introduce the adventure on that path.

The start of the adventure should always be flexible. So you would be able to fit it in no matter what the players do.
This may sound wrong but I believe that everyone would agree with me when I say that no one cares as long as the players and the DM is having fun :)

Bringing the players in to the adventure

What s the adventure all about
(not final goal! only a overview)
Rescue a lady in dissess
Recover a lost item
Look for a person
Hold an item for the NPC

Provide them with location information's

Provide them with information about the adventure so that they might know if they have to buy adventure specific equipment
Winter cloths
Lock picks
Torches
Backpacks
Ect.

Starting the adventure :

Give the players more information
Successful research
NPC information
3rd party information
Rumors (wrong / right)

Reveal plot specific information
Locations
Names of important NPC´s
Clues about the item
People that might help the payers

Surprise the players ***
The goal is suddenly different
The players are ambushed
The Item is not what it seemed at first
An NPC betrays the players
A "non vital" NPC is killed
Give them a false sense of security.

Close the chapter
.Make a cliffhanger
Provide important information
Bring a powerful NPC on stage

*** Surprising the players is a good way to keep the players on thier toes, not taking anything for granted, but using it to much will only ruin any major surprices later in the adventure, as the players will be to used to the DM making them "jump in thier seats"

CHAPTER 2

When starting on chapter 2 take the players back to what is going on "behind the scenes"
Show them with a cut scene what the bad guys are doing t the moment or what is happening to a specific adventure important NPC (getting kidnapped, running away, killing some one..) Doing this will give the players the sense that they are not the only once making plans and working towards a goal, keeping the players on their toes through out the adventure.

Continuing the adventure.

Bring the players closer into the plot of the adventure
Continue the cliffhanger
Bring them deeper into the dungeon.

Introduce a new NPC witch has new extended information's about the quest.

Use a all ready introduced NPC
Place information (Scrolls, books, notes, writing on the wall and so on)

Surprise the players
They find a magical item
They find a lost NPC
They find a adventure vital clue
The goal of the adventure changes

Make the players chose the path of their actions, and let them know that there are consequences.

The adventure get tougher

The players must know that adventuring is not a walk in the park, people can get hurt, captured, disappear or even get killed (no not the players :) so in order to make the adventures flow, the DM can make the adventure harder and challenge the players both in combat and by intellect. Remember that you are not out to kill the players… but to play with them.

The players encounter greater resistance in the dungeon.

The encounters are getting harder, the monsters are more when they attack the players

The riddles get tougher

The information's is sparse

The players must go on a sub-quest in order to get more information's

The bad guy makes the life harder for the players (puts a bounty on their heads, puts a guild of assassins on them, he knows their every move?)

A NPC close to the players gets killed or is kidnapped

The players they self's are imprisoned, and must find a way to escape

This is the part where the players might find it to had to go on, and it is very important that when the DM creates the adventure is aware that the players cannot read his mind. The adventure must never be so hard that the player wants to quit. If the players show signs of the adventure being to hard the DM must sep in and VERY subtle guide the players along the plot line.

One thing players hate and must never be enforced by the DM is to take control of the players actions!! If the DM has no other way of helping the player to understand what they should to in order t get on in the adventure, then the DM should do it as subtle as possible, this way the players will still "think" that they are in control and the adventure will flow on.

Second cut scene

The second cut-scene in chapter 2 should reveal more information about the intentions of the bad guy, or about what is going on behind the scenes.

Bringing up the name of the bad guy
Viewing a specific location
Giving inside information's
Reveal the bad guys is dealing with a demon
Betrayal of a friend

Using cut-scenes should never be over ex-saturated as it will ruin the flow of the game, the cut-scenes should be used to bring the players up to date or reveal important information's that the players would never have a chance to know (seeing a conversation between the evil wizard and his familiar) but the DM must be careful not to reveal to much, as it ill upset the balance of the game and take away the surprise for the players.

The players discover a Key element
The location of the key to the dungeon
The secret lair of the monster
The location of the next clue
The route to the bad-guys hideout

The adventures overcome an enemy.
The players defeat a semi-powerful enemy.

This part should be planned carefully as you are not out to kill the players (although it might seam that way) but to give them a challenge. The encounter should be enough for the players to feel that being an adventure is a dangerous line of work. So be careful not to but the players up against to powerful opponents.

A pack of assassins send to kill the players
An Orc leader
The dragon that guarded the key they need
The Bad guys henchmen
The answer hard riddles to get the map

CHAPTER 3

Chapter 3 is where the players se how everything is tight together.
When the players reach the start of this chapter, then let the players know what is going on behind the scene but this time it has to make the players really concerned.
Show how close the bad guy is from fulfilling his quest or that he now knows that the players are coming to stop him so he will do anything from reaching their goal.

Make the players aware that this is serious and if they don't take action all will be lost, that the village will be over run by the orc´, that the dragon will awaken and bring terror to the lands, that the mage almost have the summon demon spell and knows the demons name.

This is the chapter that leads to the climax of the adventure, and the player should feel this. The monsters get tougher, the dungeons have more riddles, the players get challenged more and more, but still there should be help to get, either from NPC´s that knows the players or from other NPC´s that appear in this chapter, a magical device that help them, the gold dragon who showed then the way and so on.

This chapter could get vital for players so it is encouraged that the DM plan this as mush as possible and take every encounter up to consideration. The players know and will feel that their life might be in danger, and that they might die. But remember that if the hero dies there will be no part II in the story, so make them sweat but don't make them make new characters.

It is all clear (building up to climax)
The players discover the true motive of the quest
They reach the location of the bad guy
The orc´s starts to march their army on to the village

The plan is set into action (Build up II)
The players make their plans
The players make their stand against the orcs
The bay guy reveals himself
There is a stand off

Everything goes wrong (build up III
The orcs have giants with them
One of the NPC´s is with the bad guy
The plan back-fires (it often will)
The players release the demon them self

THE CLIMAX

The grand finale.

When the players reach the climax of the adventure here will be no turning back from what is going to happen, and the players must know this other wise they will not take this seriously, and this will make them loose their character.

When fighting (the climax often involves heavy fighting the DM must keep a sharp eye for anything that might indicate that the opponents are to powerful and might ruin the climax for the players.

The climax is dangerous but if the whole party is dead as a result of the DM´s clumsiness the hole adventure will be ruined. The fun of the adventure is to come out of the other side of the climax as the true heroes of the adventure, not some dead adventures that need to roll up new characters.

The DM´s can control many things but he cannot control how players are playing their character, so if the paladin would like to charge the 100000 orc army alone, even though he sees the danger, there is nothing h can do. But is the paladin wants to give is life so his friends might live, then the DM have to play along and give that player a grand finale that lives up to the players own idea of what will happen.

The Paladin says goodbye to the rest of the party, tells them to bring his holy symbol home, tells them to get out while they still can, turns and charges the oncoming treat. Then the DM should react to that, and just let the treat pass the paladin and attack the whole part, but let the paladin stop the treat for as long as it takes the rest of the part to escape.

This is only one example and can be done in many ways as long as nothing ruins the players feeling of the moment (that can be very emotional : )

When the players comes out on the other end of the climax they will have to regroup, this have to be done with out any interruptions, like wandering monsters or sudden surprises as the players will be marked by the climax battle. If the DM wants to stress the players the DM can set a time limit for the players to follow

The dungeon will be flooded with water soon
The adult dragon will return
Re-enforcement till arrive soon
The floor will collapse

If there is no time limit then let the players heal the wounds, look around and more important let the players look for treasure.

When the goal of the adventure is reach using a cut-scene to show the effect it had to reach it will be a good way to explain what happened.

Not just that the players killed the bad guy, the dragon is still alive, the orc army is defeated or that the players released the demon, but what consequences it had for the surrounding world. This is what makes the players heroes, that they have an effect on the world and not just on them self's.

REWARDS ON SITE

Giving the players rewards after the climax is almost something that the players are expecting, as they feel that they did a great deal of dangerous combat, and that they defeated the main reason for why they set out on this adventure in the first place.

Giving the players treasure is another that the DM has to consider with cautiousness, as giving he players to powerful treasure can upset the balance in further adventures.

When the DM hands out treasure he should be aware that there is something for everybody with thi si don't mean that there have to be a magic item for every player in the group!!! But if the warrior gets a sword +1 then the mage could get a fine dagger woth 5 x the normal price, the Monk could get a map with the location of a secret tomb of long lost knowledge and so on.

CHAPTER 4

This is the final chapter of the adventure and the chapter where the players can be further rewarded.

When all is done and the adventure is solved the players return home, return to the castle of the local lord, to the village or leave for their hometown.

This chapter should not involve combat. As the players may still be weak after climax of the adventure, and brining the players into combat again can quickly get boring and make the adventure suffer.

They players are confronted with the key NPC´s of the adventure who thanks them for doing what they did, new friends are made, the players get reputation, the players are rewarded by the NPC´s and so on.

This part is important to for making the players know the NPC´s and for making friends with some of them, hate others but in general experience the joy of being a hero of the lands. These NPC´s can be used in further adventure as adventure plots and as connection to other adventures

The NPC from the first adventure is suddenly lost
The NPC calls upon the players again
The NPC dies under mystical circumstances
And so on

If any member of the party has been slain this is where the DM can use some of his NPC´s to reward that player with resurrection of his body. Or that he players them self's finds out where this can be done.

In this section some DM´s like to divide out EXP (experience points) but as the game surly will gather the EXP over the cause of the adventure my guess is there is no use for it.

Then there is only one thing to do

Bringing the heroes home.