We investigate an approach that allows exercise managers to design simulations with an explicit focus on building skills, rather than having to focus on all the objects and interactions that a simulation must have. Exercise managers may design exercises at various levels of abstraction and always independently of how those sessions are implemented in simulations, while simulation components that implement the design are assembled and to some extent, automatically, behind the scenes. We outline (1) how Answer Set Programming can assist exercise managers in exercise planning and (2) how automated stage and content generation may be used to invoke appropriate simulation components to realize the design. For deliberate and recurrent training of decision-making skills, stages and content must vary to avoid familiarity (testing effects). We conclude by distilling a main research hypothesis that stipulates how (1) and (2) represent two modes of automated reasoning (so-called deductive versus abductive) and how that distinction clarifies the planning task.