All training systems require definition of curriculum and creation of associated instructional materials. Simulationbased training systems further require development (or at least integration) of a suitable simulation environment, and specification of challenge problems. Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), in addition, require logic for automated assessment, student/tutor interaction, and experience sequencing. Costs to create all these pieces can mount quickly, so it is important to provide authoring tools tied to general methods and code to speed content creation, reduce required levels of authoring expertise, and facilitate reuse. This paper reports on authoring tool development and preliminary evaluation in the context of a simulation-based ITS employing novel mechanisms for tutoring troubleshooting skills. Major challenges included: (1) defining the data needs of the ITS, given it is neither a rule-driven cognitive tutor, nor an example tracing tutor; (2) mapping the system's complex data structures to consistent, supportive, tailorable user interface conventions so as to enhance tool usability and maintainability; (3) bridging between the desired unified authoring tool suite and useful commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) tools—e.g., for didactic instruction and simulation; and (4) designing for flexibility, so as to track evolution of the underlying tutor mechanisms and enable future generalization. The example ITS trains Navy Information Systems Technicians to carry out troubleshooting and procedure-following tasks using virtualized computer networks as a free-play simulation environment. The tutor adds simulation instrumentation to gather information that feeds models of available actions and resulting states of knowledge. It then monitors student activity, hypotheses, and inferences, so as to provide contextualized, adaptive feedback and coaching. The project was concerned with establishing a general framework for simulation-based technology troubleshooting applications, and had strong requirements for broad-spectrum authoring tools. We describe the project context, tutoring approach, authoring tools developed, authoring evaluation feedback, relationship to other authoring tool efforts, and lessons learned.