A.R. Connolly

Photography, Writing, & Game Development

Snapshots

Around the World

Front Seats & Backroads

Capture the Miles

Spokane, WA

Beauty Found

Experimental

Lab Work

Giving Back

If you click the paintbrush icon below, you'll be linked to my gallery of free to download & use photographs. As of April 2026, there are 156 images available.These shots were collecting dust on a digital shelf & instead of relegating them to deletion or disuse, I wanted them to have a chance to get use elsewhere.Again, these are free, you can use them in whatever way you want, & more will be coming. All I ask is you create art & send it into the world.

Notebook

Commissions Open

"Ordinary" - Flash Fiction Character Introduction

"Addiction" - Flash Fiction Character Introduction

Backstories: Tragic & Otherwise - Flash Fiction Collection Teaser

Development Kit

In my mid-twenties, for some curious housemates, I ran my first game of Dungeons & Dragons. While the campaign was short-lived, the unique creative challenges it brought stuck with me. Over twelve years later, my passion for creating spaces for players to enjoy remains strong.

Veil Runners - Early Production

"The Luminary teaches us it was Gimat who invited ruin to Aea. A god’s death is cacophonous and thus the Augur’s murder released an echoing discordance across the Void. With a single action, the Mother of Lies sealed the fate Old World: Acritus, the Interstitial, the Hunger, the Dark Between the Stars, would Shatter our home." - Excerpt from a Lumen journalVeil Runners is a Science-Fantasy TTRPG that weaves together the cooperative storytelling present in Pathfinder & Masks with the tactical strategy found in wargaming titles like Battletech & Trench Crusade. Similar to the XCOM series & the Darkest Dungeon games, it is designed to tell an overarching narrative in bite sized pieces.Taking the mantle of “Runners,” players explore the titular Veil, an enormous debris field comprised of the broken remnants of the Old World, Aea. While the long-Shattered corpse of the planet is home to divine secrets & life-saving resources, securing them won’t be easy. Bizarre creatures, desperate outcasts, & the Eyes of Acritus, will impede Runners in their work. Perhaps worst of all is the Upheaval, a strange anomaly that rearranges & restructures the Veil, seemingly at random.

Veil Runners Design Pillars
(Coming Soon)

Veil Runners Pre-Alpha Concept Art
(Not for commercial use)

Core Rules & Debts of the Throne Module - Build: Alpha 1
(Under Construction)

Night Shift - Early Preproduction

The world has always been strange, but ask any third shift gas station attendants, hotel desk clerks, or fast food workers, & they'll tell you the truth of it: When 2 AM hits, the lines that define reality blur just enough for the oddities of the In-Between to really bleed through. The fact that the sun stopped rising three years ago hasn't really changed that.Night Shift is a TTRPG set in the modern day, where players explore what it means to be "normal" in an "abnormal" world.

The Cyan Incident - Planning

"The Institute of Preternatural Investigation, Containment, & Analysis was opened in 1973. Over the course of its operation, it has been directly, if covertly, responsible for providing revolutionary technological advances to the public, establishing and maintaining two dozen diplomatic relationships with sentient, non-human organisms, and saving the planet on three distinct occasions..."You've read the pamphlet before, at least a dozen times, but you never thought the place was real until you stepped through the front door.The Cyan Incident is a TTRPG that sees players taking the role of members of the IoP-ICA in 1996 during a particularly "loud" outbreak of "impossible" events. Whether serving in the field or back at HQ, players will work together to solve mysteries & unravel the peculiar knots in reality they never knew existed prior to becoming an agent.

At a Glance

A.R. Connolly (They/Them) is a photographer, writer, & game developer based out of Spokane, WA. Most often they can be found snapping photos, penning narratives, or building tabletop systems both for work & fun. When not doing those, they're usually playing games, painting miniatures, spending time with their long-time partner, reading books, or exploring the backroads of the Pacific Northwest.They firmly believe in the power of creativity. Whatever it is & no matter how small its reach, every work of art changes the world through its very existence.

Nightstand - Currently Reading:

  • The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

  • The Infinite and the Divine by Robert Rath

  • Play Money by Julian Dibbell

  • Riposte by Kat_2V

  • Four Against Darkness - Expanded Edition by Andrea Sfiligoi

  • Choir of Flesh by Alex T.

Game Case - Currently Playing:

  • Guild Wars Reforged by ArenaNet

  • Demon's Souls (2009) by FromSoftware

  • Kenshi by Lo-Fi Games

  • Heroes of Might and Magic III by New World Computing & Loki Entertainment

  • E.Y.E.:Divine Cybermancy by Streum On Studio

  • Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance by Slitherine Ltd.

  • Fear & Hunger by Miro Haverinen

Dice Tower - Currently Playing:

  • Favor for a Stranger - Created & run by Stewart Wyatt in Dungeons & Dragons 5E

  • Aemathis: Finding the Path - Created & run by Stewart Wyatt in Pathfinder 2E

Contact, Prints, & Commissions

A.R.Connolly.Contact@Gmail

@Notes-By-Alyx

A. R. Connolly

Alyx Connolly

A.R. Connolly (Under Construction)

Patreon (Under Construction)