No more Pathfinder one-shot adventures are in production. Paizo Publishing is one of the most notable tabletop publishers in the industry. Their own take on a heroic fantasy TTRPG has continued to give healthy competition to Wizards of the Coast's ubiquitous Dungeons and Dragons franchise, both in terms of content and in employment practices. As for why they are stopping production on this one area of TTRPG content, there are a few possibilities.
No more Pathfinder one-shot adventures
The discontinuation of Pathfinder one-shot adventures was announced via the official Paizo Twitter account. In a string of tweets, the company stated that from the "Department of Expectation Management" no more one-shots are on the production schedule for both Pathfinder and its sci-fi counterpart Starfinder. It also specifies that other content was still in production, including PDFs for Pathfinder Bounties, Adventures, Adventure Paths, as well as Scenarios for Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society respectively.
We reached out to Paizo for an official statement on the discontinuation of Pathfinder one-shot adventures. A representative got back to us and issued the following statement:
One-Shots were experiments in adventures that can be easily incorporated into various virtual tabletops, run off of digital devices, or printed out and played at a table. One-Shots were digital-only experiments in generic VTT play. There was no subscription. As you can see, they were not big product lines and each was priced at $5. As our relationships with our VTT partners (primarily Roll20, Foundry VTT and Fantasy Grounds) has deepened, that format makes less sense. We’ve learned from our experiment and are moving on. Our VTT efforts continue, just not in that direction, at least for now.
The representative also explained how much Pathfinder Infinite, the studio's community created content on DriveThruRPG, has grown. Since the material is community created, adventures can be more experimental when it comes to length and material. Because of this, there is plenty of material available for players who enjoy one-shot adventures thanks to this product line. Additionally, the fact that in person games have resumed in greater number due to Pandemic restrictions moving back means there is less need for digital only content, especially that which can be produced at a quicker turnaround.
We are still the single most prolific ttrpg publisher in terms of pages per month. Bounties take an hour or two. Scenarios are designed to be played in a single 4-6 hour session. Adventures vary, but will be multiple sessions. Adventure Paths can be a whole or half campaign. Pathfinder and Starfinder are alive, well and growing. We are focusing on what we do best and letting Infinite creators do what they do best.
Updated: 10/12/2022 2:00 PM EST with new information from Paizo.
