Jeff

Podcasts, For Your Ears

I’ve been involved in several podcasts over the summer, and had a blast each time! If you want to hear my meat-voice discuss nerd shit, you can!

Podside Picnic episode 230 – BOLTGUN

I join Karlo and Kurt in the grim darkness of the far future to talk about the 2023 Warhammer 40,000 spin on classic DOOM gameplay, Boltgun! Hear me do an impromptu space marine impression, drop nuggets of buck wild 40k lore, and talk about the true star of the game, Sassy Nurgling. It is your duty to listen to this podcast, and only in death does duty end.

Syndicated with Lesley & Ben S3 E6 – Better Call Saul

I return to reclaim my title of “most guest appearances on Syndicated” and also gush about how good at making TV the folks behind Better Call Saul are. We talk the brilliant use of visual metaphor, fantastic characters, and if BCS is the Only Good Prequel.
Wandering Monster Plays BURGERPunk!

I’m not actually on this one, but the Wandering Monster podcast played BURGERPunk, and you can listen to the absolute chaos that followed (or watch it on their YouTube channel).

BURGERPunk: The RPG is now LIVE ON KICKSTARTER!

In the dark future/past of 1997 America has been destroyed, a victim of its own hubris, unchecked consumerism and the Living Meat™. Amid the ashes of the Cola Wars, shell-shocked survivors struggle to piece society back together while fighting for survival against burger-clown cultists, meaty monstrosities, mutated maize and cola-addicted blood thieves. It’s not the apocalypse anyone was expecting, but it’s the one that happened — welcome to the world of BURGERPunk: The RPG

FINALLY after months of preparation, the BURGERPunk TTRPG campaign is live on Kickstarter. I’m sure my regular readers have seen me mention it already, but for anyone new (or who just reads the comics and ignores these posts), BURGERPunk is a 2D6-based tabletop role-playing game and setting written/created by my partner, Cait, and illustrated/designed by yours truly (with rad cover art by Łukasz Kowalczuk). Inspired by dystopian sci-fi, 80s action films and vaguely-remembered fast-food advertising from our childhoods, BURGERPunk is set in an alternate timeline where the Cola Wars were a very literal conflict that have brought about the end of the American Way of Life™ as we know it.

We’ll have more to say about it in the next few days, but for now I recommend heading over to the Kickstarter page to read more. And if you want to hear us talking more about BURGERPunk with our flesh-mouths, you can listen to Cait and I chatting about BURGERPunk and a goofy 80s post-apocalypse film starring pro wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper on this episode of Podside Picnic (which was very fun to record).

It’s only on Kickstarter for a limited time, so go check it out now!

Rent-A-Thug – La Cosa Glasnostra is being published on Patreon

Yes, you read that right, my glorious but doomed return to Rent-A-Thug is now being published on Patreon after ignominious and wholly predictable defeat in the Webtoon Call to Action contest. The platform that prioritizes manga art styles, shonen action, and romances isn’t going to get my weird, ultraviolent, Eastern Bloc crime comedy with characters who look like angry potatoes? Weird. Who would have thought.

Anyway, it’s being reformatted for potential print release, and I’m posting those pages on Patreon. The first five are available for free, and $5/month and up patrons will be able to read them as I go! The current plan is for these to lead up to serializing the Rent-A-Thug graphic novel like I did Hockeypocalypse: Slashers.

Click the image to check it out!

Hell, Inc. is now also available on GlobalComix!

In my endless quest to make Hell, Inc. inescapable and replace Dilbert as the ubiquitous office comic, I go to where the eyeballs are. Then I try to get those eyeballs to come here, because I’m in charge here.

That said, if you prefer to read your comics on GlobalComix, you can now do that with Hell, Inc.! The first two books are currently available (strips 1-84), with the rest being added a book at a time until caught up. PDF copies of the books will also be available there in the near future.

LAST DAY for Hell, Inc. The RPG on Kickstarter!

That’s right, this campaign is almost over! This isn’t an update so much as a last call-to-action for folks following the project who haven’t gotten around to pledging, as well as for everyone to continue sharing the campaign link on social media and with friends you think would be interested. The last stretch goal is very close, and more backers = more stuff for everyone, so it’s a real win/win/win situation to help boost the campaign.
Once again, here’s a handy short-link that you can copy and paste to send folks – http://kck.st/3KgUKnf
But you know what? Let’s make this an ACTUAL update, and reveal one of the finished pages from the rules section!

A page with RULES on it!? GASP!

A page with RULES on it!? GASP!
The initial design process for the book leaned toward corporate sterility, but that started to feel bland instead of thematic. During discussions about the graphic design, the idea came up of treating the book like an actual employee handbook that someone had been drawing in instead of paying attention at orientation. That IMMEDIATELY grabbed my interest, and I started making notes about where I could fit doodles, and what those should be. They’re all red, because that is the only colour of pen available in Hell.
– Jeff & Cait

Last 48 Hours for Hell, Inc. The RPG!

With Kickstarter now counting us down in hours instead of days, we’re close to the end of our ZineQuest! Considering that when we launched the campaign we thought that we’d maybe top out at $1000-$1500, I can say without a bit of exaggeration that the positive response to this campaign so far has blown us away. We are extremely grateful to everyone who has already pledged their support, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still need your help!

If you supported the campaign and you think that this is a project that deserves to be seen by more people, we ask that you share the link to the campaign on your social media platform of choice (or even just text or email someone you think might particularly appreciate it). We don’t have an ad budget for this project, but I’m a big believer in the power of good old-fashioned word of mouth. I can tell people to support this project and how great it is until the cows come home (we don’t have cows, so that is an infinite amount of time), but a recommendation from almost everyone who isn’t me holds a bit more water when it comes to my own work.

Here’s a handy short-link that you can copy and paste to send folks – http://kck.st/3KgUKnf
 
If you’re following the project but haven’t gotten around to backing it yet? Uh, do that, please. We really want to unlock all of the stretch goals and clear 200 backers. The former is because we’d love to be able to set everyone up with the resources to set up very flavourful online play experiences. The latter is kind of arbitrary, but how cool would it be for our game that we didn’t think would reach nearly this level of support to be the first thing we’ve ever done to cross not only 100 backers, but 200? I think that would rule.
 
As Hell, Inc. The RPG will be our first official, full RPG product, we figured that our publishing “company” should probably get a logo. Behold, Guinea Pig Press!

Guinea Pig Press' new logo! Hell, Inc. The RPG will be the first book to use it.

Guinea Pig Press’ new logo! Hell, Inc. The RPG will be the first book to use it.
 
– Jeff & Cait

One Week Left! Hell, Inc. The RPG on Kickstarter

There’s one week left in the Kickstarter for Hell, Inc. The RPG! It’s very exciting, as there are already 2 stretch goals unlocked, with a third very close.

If you like Hell, Inc. but would prefer there to be more of it, and maybe a schedule that doesn’t require you to wait for me to draw stuff, Hell, Inc. The RPG is for you! Create your own demons and go on business casual adventures with your friends (or the co-workers you can stand!). Avoid your boss’ ire, explore the server rooms where I.T. keeps all of the internet ghosts, take Cerberus for walkies, and maybe even leave work early enough to stop in at O’Hellihan’s!

At this point in the campaign, every pledge tier is coming with: Hell, Inc. The RPG Employee Handbook (all of the rules, plenty of GM advice and tools, NPC generators, a pre-written adventure, and loads of art) either as a PDF or in print, blank character sheets in PDF (and pretty close to the stretch goal that will make them digitally fillable!), a pre-written adventure PDF about paperwork errors warping reality, 6 pre-made fully illustrated character sheets to use in said adventure, and The Soup Drawer PDF (a Hell, Inc. themed cooking ‘zine with recipe adjustments for mortal consumption).

So check it out by clicking on the images below to start your tabletop trip to Hell… Inc.

Hell, Inc. The RPG Week One Update: “Well That Escalated Quickly”

It’s hard to describe the first week of this campaign, because it still seems surreal. I’ve run a handful of crowdfunding campaigns now, and they’re usually pretty stressful. Lots of planning, press outreach, and what seems like infinite time spent battling social media algorithms in hopes of informing your followers that you’re doing a thing. This campaign didn’t have a very high goal, so we weren’t concerned about funding, and weren’t even all that surprised when it funded in the first day. But now we’re a week in and the campaign has gotten more backers than any of my previous ones have gotten in their full month.

This might be why?

We’re absolutely delighted with the response, including being featured on the Kickstarter front page (which we weren’t aware of until we started investigating why a random Sunday nearly doubled our backer count). We’re also a bit stunned by it, if we’re being honest – we made this game in our living room because our last game project, the work-in-progress sci-fi RPG FAIL MARINES, got a good response and we got it in our heads to do something for ZineQuest. At no point did we expect that nearly a hundred people would be on board, let alone in the first week. Thank you all very much!

If you haven’t gotten on board yet, you should! With the first stretch goal unlocked, for as little as $5 CAD you can get PDFs of the Employee Handbook (32+ pages with the full rules, weird Hell lore, and a pre-written adventure), the character sheet, and a second pre-written adventure about reality being rewritten by paperwork errors. That’s a lot of stuff! Further stretch goals include The Soup Drawer (a really weird cooking ‘zine that Caitlin has come up with), a fillable form version of the character sheet PDF that you can type directly into, and a graphics package for online virtual tabletops (like Roll20 or Foundry). If you like Hell, Inc. enough to be reading this, you’ll be getting way more than your money’s worth on this RPG.

And finally, we’re running the first ever public play session of Hell, Inc. on Sunday, September 4th, so next update we’ll be including some photos and exploits from that.

Now on Kickstarter – Hell, Inc.: The RPG Employee Handbook!

After years of working on-and-off on concepts and ideas for turning Hell, Inc. into a game, the big day is finally here! The Employee Handbook is now available to pre-order on Kickstarter as part of my newest crowdfunding project.

Based on the webcomic hosted on this very site, in Hell, Inc. players assume the role of demons working in the labyrinthine bureaucracy that runs Hell. Your job is mostly to work together (or not!) with your new coworkers to fix your boss’ problems for them.

Using a custom rules-lite system evolved from a Powered by the Apocalypse hack originally written for our previous RPG mini-zine (Fail Marines), Hell, Inc. is a 2d6-based role-playing game with a twist— players must aim for mediocrity as both high and low rolls have the potential to create problems! Roll too low, and your incompetence will draw the ire of the boss. Roll too high, and you unfortunately just singled yourself out for coworkers’ jealousy and the boss dumping more work on you. If your favourite tabletop gaming moments have been the times when failed rolls with hilarious consequences turn into role-playing gold, then this is the game for you!

The Employee Handbook is a 32 page, full colour, saddle-stitched book with the complete Hell, Inc. game system, advice for running the game, random NPC generators, and a pre-written adventure (along with some other stuff)! We also have stretch goals for a second adventure module to be sent to all backers as well as the Soup Drawer digital zine. What is a Soup Drawer Zine? guess you’ll have to click the image below to head over to the campaign page to learn more!