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I've really enjoyed all of the official Pathfinder One-Shots released so far (especially Dinner at Lionlodge, which I wrapped as a sidequest into my Extinction Curse campaign!). I haven't seen any announcements for future one-shots...is this line dead? On hiatus? Anyone know if more of these will be coming out?
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I think the line is discontinued.Ah, okay then. Bummer. I really dug them. I wonder why they were discontinued? Just not good sales?
I think they said something along the lines of the one-shot line being redundant due to the VTT products they're releasing now. The original goal for the one-shots line was for streamers to have a prepackaged product to perform on streams and that doesn't seem as necessary now with the high-production/quality VTT products.
What I thought made the one-shots line unique was they could experiment with any theme, area of the world, subfaction, etc. without requiring you to invest the time into an entire book or books worth of content. They also got better and better with each release. Mark of the Mantis was phenomnenal. I'm super bummed they won't be back.
Starfinder Senior Developer
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What I thought made the one-shots line unique was they could experiment with any theme, area of the world, subfaction, etc. without requiring you to invest the time into an entire book or books worth of content. They also got better and better with each release. Mark of the Mantis was phenomnenal. I'm super bummed they won't be back.
I don't have any official word on one-shots to share; I contributed mostly on the writing side, only minimally on the strategic planning for the line. I'll echo thoughts that short adventures that provide unique pregenerated characters does open up some really interesting narrative possibilities that would be really challenging to manage in a longer adventure format. That said, these adventures also have some unique challenges, from ensuring the pregenerated characters' abilities and the adventure's obstacles align well to providing material that's narratively deep and sufficiently complex without being difficult to pick up and play in one sitting.
And I'm glad you enjoyed Mark of the Mantis! It was fun to plan, test, and write. I love creating investigations, social intrigue, and (particularly in this case) heists, and I've been happy to see reviewers observe how readily it captured Assassin's Creed vibes.
I had totally forgotten to write a review and have done so just now.
Mark of the Mantis was amazing, by far my favorite of the One-Shots.
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That said, these adventures also have some unique challenges, from ensuring the pregenerated characters' abilities and the adventure's obstacles align well to providing material that's narratively deep and sufficiently complex without being difficult to pick up and play in one sitting.
Happily left a review. I wonder if now that one-shots could be disentangled from first-time players/streamers if that would remove some of those concerns. They could be a product for more rather than less experienced players. You could still have lower-level one-shots that are welcoming to new players too. I know this is wishful thinking since the line has been sunsetted but maybe it could make a return in the future. Honestly, I'd be happy even if it wasn't even a dedicated line but every once in a while Paizo was like hey we did this cool one-shot don't know if there are more in the future but we thought you'd enjoy.
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I did think it was interesting that all of the one-shots were level 3 or higher. At first I found it frustrating as a way of introducing new players, but as I mentioned in my original post, it proved to be fantastic for slotting into an ongoing campaign (granted, that meant not using the pre-gen characters, but I made it work!). I still need to read Mark of the Mantis, but bought it immediately because it looked so cool!