One shot side adventures

[Wizardoro]

Hello

Just wondering if anyone could help with some advice for adding one shot adventures to break up the main campaign?

My group has just finished Cult of the Bloom and are soon to head into the Varnhold Vanishing, but in real time we've been playing for 1 year and 3 months.

My players asked if we could do a one shot to explore a different area of the kingdom for a breather.

I want to use the one shot to forshadow upcoming events so was planning to have them be citizens of Tatzleford who stumble across Ameon Trask scouting / meeting about the upcoming invasion of Tatzleford

Does anyone have ideas of pre-made one shots I could retheme to fit this idea or an idea for how to put such a one shot together? I've never really created one before so find my creativity lacking

Thanks for your help!

[BismuthBronze]

You're 1 year & 3 months in, & you're almost to Varnhold? Yeesh, I'm 1 year in & dealing with Hargulka still...

I believe that the companion quests in the companion book are meant to fall into 1 session (I haven't ran one yet, so others can correct me on how they are in practice). Maybe you've ran some, given where you are in the story, idk. Have they been helpful in freshening up the pace?

I'm not familiar with other premade one shots, but you could pull out the old reliable "Masquerade Ball" session. It always provides a fun change of pace. Perhaps Either Lady Jamandi or the Mayor of Restov or noble is holding a gathering in Restov for visiting diplomats. You could use it as a way of framing the rising tensions in that will prevent any assistance during Varnhold Vanishing, which is why Jamandi has to rely on the players to go & check up on Varnhold.
For fluff, I would take heavy inspiration from Vance & Kerenshara's Venture Capital document, in this forum, which is chock full of NPCs that could easily be hidden under not-subtle, on-the-nose masks (Who's that under the green crab mask, surely that couldn't be so&so from House Lodovka, head of Brevoy's fishing & sea-trade?) It is a hefty document, but if you save a copy & delete the non-relevent stuff like offers & such, what you're left with is a colorful cast of folks who are all eager to backstab eachother(to test this, I just spent 5 minutes getting it from 36 pages to 10 pages, & from there it can be futher boiled down into spark notes). For example you could have the players potentially find Radomir Surtova's wife in the midst of having an affair with his best friend Uthred Lodovka in the rose garden, or a scene where the Lebedas are playing match-making, introducing their bachelorette daughter Elanna to the Surtovans, setting things up nicely for the doomed marriage that will result in a possible civil war in a few years time when the houses begin splitting into two sides. Lots of Roleplaying potential.

Another tried & true change of pace: The traveling circus is in town. I'm sure there's written one-shots for a circus, but if not, have a bunch of weird NPCs, a handful of skill-based carnival games, & let the players roam.