arisia s

Dungeon Study: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (Part 1) Last weekend, I got the chance to run “The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh,” (TSSS) a 1981 TSR UK adventure adapted for D&D 5e in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Rather th...

Last week, I ran The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh in Shadowdark, adapting the adventure from its version in D&D 5e's Ghosts of Saltmarsh.

Here's how that went, along with my thoughts on getting the adventure to the table.

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New Edge Sword & Sorcery 2026 Sword & Sorcery magazine featuring short fiction, non-fiction, and gorgeous art. Made with love for the classics, and an inclusive, boundary-pushing approach to storytelling! Luxurious hardcover, clas...

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Looking for tabletop RPG work!
Editing: Copyediting, line editing, and proofreading. If you don't have a style guide yet, can help you come up with one.
Writing: Adventures, setting, flavor text, or other game elements (characters, monsters, etc.)

More about what I do at www.arisia.work

feels like i should re-post this every few weeks

Looking for tabletop RPG work!
Editing: Copyediting, line editing, and proofreading. If you don't have a style guide yet, can help you come up with one.
Writing: Adventures, setting, flavor text, or other game elements (characters, monsters, etc.)

More about what I do at www.arisia.work

Five Tiers of RPG Publishing Hasbro’s annual earnings came out this week, so I took a look. It is truly staggering how much Wizards of the Coast has changed the company since they were acquired; when looking at unadjusted earnings the Wizards of the Coast and Digital Games division was the only one that turned a profit in the entire company. Not only that, but Wizards is responsible for roughly 47% of the entire company’s revenue and over 90% of all revenue growth over the last year.

Five Tiers of RPG Publishing

Hasbro’s annual earnings came out this week, so I took a look. It is truly staggering how much Wizards of the Coast has changed the company since they were acquired; when looking at unadjusted earnings the Wizards of the Coast and Digital Games division was the only…

⚔️24 HOURS UNTIL THE CROWDFUND LAUNCHES
at 8am EST, Feb 12th🧙‍♂️

👉 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b... 👈

This is the other side of the double-sided poster every backer will receive! Thanks again to @emmastonephoto.bsky.social, and to @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social for bringing his friend to the party!

new handle (arisia.work) as I work on unifying/streamlining my online presence!

rest assured I remain committed to being both eldritch and cute

like, lighter than The Mecha Hack or Apocalypse Frame?

The first face grabs my attention more, but all the other elements on the new one look great. If the first one's halo and icons got the same treatment as the second's, I would decidedly prefer that one.

Wait... What ? 5 months without any update !!
A recent illustration, I hope you'll like it !

huh how about that

The Thassera quest was an absolute delight. Creepy, funny, and just plain *interesting* at every turn. While I agree that thus far, Lex Imperialis hasn't been quite as stellar as Void Shadows, this specific locale and its quest are right there at the top of what Rogue Trader has to offer.

I should probably revisit it then! Last time I took a proper look at it was in high school o:

The players were solving problems, but also kind of just kicking the can down the road to an extent, which meant tension kept building. The more they kicked sleeping dogs, so to speak, the more wandering monsters I could throw at them.

"This house is more haunted than it was when you started."

My players were admirably committed to not killing where it was unnecessary, which led to some amusing situations: at loose in and around the house, at one point, were
- a giant snake
- a smuggler
- two skeletons (who fled the room they were confined in when the cleric turned them)

I have Issues (TM) with how it was written for 5e (and how this clashes IMO with an O/NSR approach to gaming), and I intend to put this into words (for real this time T_T )

I wrote before about how Sersa Victory's Tomb of the Dusk Queen bothered me because the dungeon made no sense as a versimilar space. Not so with the Saltmarsh's haunted house! The house layout is very plausible, yet nonetheless an engaging space for challenges, decisions, etc.

This is a nice little "twist" for parties that might come in expecting only one or the other--and in a fantasy world like this, both are equally likely, right?

So I quite enjoyed part 1 of The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (as far as we got, which was most of it in a 3 hr session), especially it's take on the adventure serial haunted house. In this case, it is both *actually* haunted, but also *fake* haunted as a cover-up for a smuggling operation.

I played Anima one (1) time and the cannot say for certain what wisdom I gleaned, except perhaps that life multiple is a wild way to handle HP growth.

the players have rolled up a 3HP goblin fighter with a greatsword for their hireling

meet Gits

today: Shadowdark game, playing The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (part 1)!

playing Rogue Trader always leaves me wanting to run Wrath & Glory but then I'd need players willing to accept Space Marines never appearing because I refuse to learn anything about that most boring aspect of the setting

It's my birthday today!
If it's not asking too much it'd mean a lot to me if you could share my art so more yuri fans can find my work ☺️

piling my witch aelf in diagonally along my opponent's chaos chosen then lifting it off the board and claiming en passant

A split screen image. On the left side is a full color illustration of Jirel of Joiry staring you down, red hair everywhere, illustrated by @azuremeraki.bsky.social. On the right side is a photograph completing Jirel's face with the opposite side of Molly Tanzer's face, hair and dress styled to roughly match Jirel's.

👩‍🦰 MOLLY TANZER AND JIREL OF JOIRY ARE BACK!⚔️
Approved by the estate of C.L. Moore, @mollytanzer.bsky.social will have a new double-length story! @azuremeraki.bsky.social also returns with a new Jirel illustration.
👀 See more and sign up for the crowdfund here: 👀 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

my backer copy of Caverns of Thracia has finally reached my corner of the rest-of-world

at first glance, it looks and feels great.

as with most of my print pre-orders, I didn't dive into the PDF much, so I'm looking forward to delving into this later!

comm for @gyrsanes.bsky.social