#crowdfunding shenanigans

[forgedbondspod]

And we're live! Our crowdfunder for the show is officially launched on indiegogo

I'm so excited to be able to share this show with yall and your support helps me pay the phenomenal cast I have because gods yall they're amazing. Tiers go from $5 to $200 and include things such as doodles, early access to episodes, stickers and postcards, and me reading myths of your choice! The bulk of the funds go to my cast, with a bit budgeted for the platform fee and the physical perks. I don't take a cut of this money at all! My cast for this show is absolutely astounding and I can't wait for yall to hear what they've been working on

This story is a misuse of my degree. It's a love letter to the gods. It's a dozen love stories in a trenchcoat. It means the absolute world to me and I hope yall will join me in making this show possible

[thefringespod]

It has been an absolutely awful week at my day job (which is saying a lot given that it's only Tuesday) and it has me thinking about why I do the work I do at my day job and questioning if it's worth it. I do that job so I can make *this* job (writing, podcasting, creating) possible. Day job provides stability so I can keep creating things and creating things that are free to access

When I was a kid I wanted to be an author

Now I just want to be a creator

I dont need to be paid to create, I just need to be able to create

Day job makes that possible! But it also drains me a lot. It's a give and take that has been taking a lot lately, especially since I really really care about this show. I say all of this not for pity but for context for what yall see here and for my reason for crowdfunding. Day job let's me pay my cast some! But like the energy it takes from me it doesn't leave me with *enough*

My cast is incredible and talented and makes doing what I'm doing possible. Trying to balance full time job with solo podcast work last year was rough. Even just in these early days of season 2 production I've had a lot of support from this cast and from this community. I told Tot today that physically I was at work and mentally I was on the Fringes and thats often true

Day job makes this possible

But community support makes this *manageable*

We've got 10 days left in this crowdfunder. 10 days to give this cast all they deserve and my gods they deserve so much. Check it out and donate if you can! And even if you can't, thank you for reading this and for supporting this show in whatever ways you can. More than anything else YOU make this show possible. I'm eternally grateful to everyone who has listened to/interacted with this show. When day job is terrible, I can live here on the Fringes with this incredible community of audiodrama folks and that makes everything a lot better

If you've got some coins to spare, please consider our indiegogo campaign

I promise my next crowdfunder push will be less sad/sappy but for now

Thank you <3

Your humble Keeper,

Pine 🌲

[catpriciousmarjara]

Getting a PHD literally anywhere else: Wow! Congratulations! What a great achievement! Amazing!

Getting a PHD in Gotham: Wow! Amazing! You're now on several Government, Civilian, and Bat watchlists.

So if any of the Wayne kids get a PHD, then the entirety of Gotham would be squinting at them suspiciously. They're rich, so resources, and most likely already insane with all the shit they pull.

What I'm saying is if Jason went and got himself a Doctorate in Literature, the whole city would anticipate the appearance of his villainsona called the Dead Poet(emphasis on the dead) or Bookkeeper or something else similarly nerdy and themed like that for sure.

I just know that it would turn into some Gotham inside joke with memes abound, and everytime Jason would, I don't know, give more funding to the neglected Arts Departments in Gotham University, or go to a school for read alongs to encourage kids to read, Gotham social media would go crazy and be like:

"The Dreaded Villain Dead Poet Reads Alice in Wonderland to Children! How Despicable!"

"Villain Dead Poet Lambasts Government on Banning Books! Leads Librarians to Riot!"

"Dead Poet Ramps up his Villainy by Establishing Educational Programmes in Crime Alley! Uplifting the Poor! What a Dastardly Villain!"

"Dead Poet Goes on Live Ranting About his Favourite Books! Favourite Author is Jane Austen! Is this the Feminist Agenda?"

And so on! It's a meme that refuses to go away. His siblings actively participate, and make the situation worse.

Dick held an online Gotham Villains and Anti-Heroes Poll and Dead Poet came out on top, over Red Hood. Jason is an actual Gotham crime boss, but his crowdfunded villainsona is more popular. No he's not salty about it at all.

Duke would create a montage of Dead Poet sightings.

Stephanie would make a Dead Poet meme compilation.

Tim would arrange Wayne Enterprises to donate to local libraries after allegedly being threatened by the heinous villain Dead Poet. (Jason did ask Tim to do that but not like that)

Barbara created an extremely popular Villain Watch account for Dead Poet.

Cass tweeted out Jason's favourite books as the villain Dead Poets reading list telling people to avoid them 'wink wonk', causing a massive uptick in the sale of those books ala Bigolas Dickolas.

Damian of all people tweeted out a pic of Jason playing with Alfred the cat accusing the evil villain Dead Poet of attempting to kidnap his cat.

And thats not to mention all the shenanigans they pull in their batsonas.

God bless Gotham and it's home grown, organic, not even remotely ethically sourced, free range chaos.

[zillychu]

i'll keep putting him in gacha games until I'm paid for my silence. this is a threat

[publishinggoblin]

While the ghostly story telling game What We Possess is the focus of the Kickstarter, Zoetrope's 2nd Edition, Death Didn't Take, is also having its soft launch on that project!

In this zany time travel TTRPG that runs on cards, you and your friends take on the role of time travel rent-a-cops, trying to solve time crimes. While players have their Actions, Gear, Time, and Weapon cards to rely on for informing their roleplaying choices and actions, Story Leaders are not left in the dust!

This is a game system that can run with zero preparation, even for the person running the game, thanks to Event cards!

These square cards have an Inciting Incident that can give you what the mission is for the session, but they also have a bunch of additional information you can use to inform details such as what time we're going to, where in the world we're going to, names for NPCs your players might run into, pop culture touchpoints that might relate or be used, weird Zoetrope canon events, but they also have something that any game can use...

Does it feel like the game is getting a slow point? Does it seem like the mission is being completed a little too easily?

Flip an Events card and choose one of the three Events to have suddenly happen to complicate things!

These are also great to use in response to weird actions your players might take, to see how the world might react.

So if time travel shenanigans sound fun to you, now is a great time to hop over to the What We Possess kickstarter today and pledge for a copy of ZOETROPE, or get both games together in a discount bundle! Each game is just $25, or grabbing both gets you them at $40.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played 13TH AGE ?

By Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet

Epic fantasy D&D-style shenanigans with cinematic combat and a free-form skill system. Includes a deliberately half-finished setting, hands you the key NPCs, and invites you to do whatever you want. 2e just successfully crowdfunded; you can still back to pre-order.

[franzis-frantic-thoughts]

G.O.B.L.I.N.S is fully funded!!!

The he crowdfunding campaign is slowly reaching the end of its run time, but any additionally raised funds will go towards merch production!!!

Oh, I can’t wait for the shenanigans and the chaos and the absolutely brain breaking task to transcribe it all!

@stellarfirmatim, Amy, and Sam who were just streaming, are going to have a well deserved rest, Tim promised to take Amy out to dinner tomorrow, and then they’ll get down to the rewards soon enough.

Stay tuned and follow #Goblins Pod for more info!!!

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Hello, everyone, I don't normally make these posts, but my dear friend Tara's cat did some adventuring she shouldn't have and needs emergency surgery. We could really use some help to get Miss Adventure back to her regular (safer!) shenanigans.

Waggle is a pet crowdfunding site where every dollar goes directly to paying the vet bill. Small donations will still help, and if all you can do is reblog, that helps too!

[varethane]

Kickstarter done!!!! This account will now return to its regularly-scheduled comic-related shenanigans instead of crowdfunding-related shenanigans.

(The Kickstarter may be over but you can still read my sci-fi action/adventure webcomic right here :D)

[storiesfromylelmore]

If you find the vibes immaculate you might love Stories From Ylelmore!

STORIES FROM YLELMORE IS CURRENTLY CROWDFUNDING FOR SEASON 2!

Stories From Ylelmore is an all-ages low stakes fantasy audio drama about a witch, a werewolf, and a curse-barer getting into shenanigans of all types! Season 1 features delightful things like

An immortal who speaks entirely in slang from the 1800s to the 1990s

An Oracle who tells fortunes in (poorly crafted) riddles (due to government regulation) and is really over the entire thing

A yeti who sets up an annual challenge to catch her as a winter promotion for her ice cream shop.

A school that sends you on spiritual adventures (results and message clarity may vary)

Ghosts of sad millennials in attics

Supportive parents

and Season 2 promises to bring much more!

[bekaterrier]

Happy Audio Drama Sunday! I listened to a few things this week (gushing and spoilers ahead):

@woodenovercoats S4: You know it's going to be a good season when it's already got me tearing up in the third episode! Madeline and her family!! 😭 Madeline and Rudyard besties! 🥰 I absolutely loved seeing Antigone continue to grow this season. She just wanted to be seen, to know she was strong enough to be seen, and she was!! We also got to hear Rudyard give more time to his life outside the funeral home, particularly his special interest in history! We finally got Chapman's backstory! Heartbreaking though. 💔 Holy shit that sound design when Chapman and Rudyard go over the falls was *chef's kiss*. My first thought re: the Funns running Chapman's was "Oh lord, how is Rudyard going to F this up?" It was really nice to hear them actually properly put on a funeral like we knew they could. Throughout the season, we heard Eric and Antigone grow closer and some feelings start to develop there. Then hearing Eric calling out for Antigone in his dream was...whew. "Sorry about the chloroform." 😂 Georgie's cycle of grief is so real. It hits you at the most unexpected moments. They're a town!!!! And of course he came back, he's home!!!!! This ending is so perfect, so absolutely satisfying. This show was incredible ♥️

@midstpodcast S1: I've been seeing so much about this show in my feed lately as its third and final season released, so I just had to jump into it. And wow am I hooked! The way the narrators share the story and the character voices between them is fascinating. The world building is absolutely incredible - the visual they painted of the fold sweeping through is just chilling. Combine that with the actual visual elements created by the podcast, seen in the YouTube videos...so so cool. Side note - I hate the Trust; the way that its systems ensure that those at the bottom are kept down, rewarding those already at the top...kudos to another podcast where one of the villains is capitalism. In any case, I was so absorbed in the stories of each of the three protagonists, trying to see ahead to how their lives would intersect, I almost forgot about the very first scene! The moon falls out of the sky!! Absolutely wild!! I'm very much looking forward to learning more about the consequences of this and the impact on Midst.

@midnightburgr Welcome to the Horizon Part 3 - The Wayfaring Stranger: God I love this town and these people. I laughed out loud so many times this episode! Frank and June's reactions to Verge's background are hilarious. I'm so glad we have Verge in this mini-series. It's also so fun to hear them flirting with Deirdre, especially after hearing their VAs as not so friendly in Moonbase Theta, Out (love you Cat and Tina). The news that we get from Trinkett about the comet is verrry interesting and concerning, so looking forward to seeing where that goes.

@tellnotalespod S1 & S2 (to date) re-listen: TNT is currently on their mid season break, so I re-listened to everything that's been released so far. I said earlier this season that it was going to be tough listening to all the S2 episodes in a row since many of them made me cry individually...and I was right! 😭 I am so looking forward to the rest of S2, and I really hope Leo, Riley and Julia all get the hugs they need, preferably from each other.

@storiesfromylelmore Winter Solstice crowdfunding episode: I love hearing the kids out and up to their shenanigans! It was also really sweet to get a glimpse of the parents doing their thing, but also loving all the kids (even though Elas can sometimes be puce). I also loved hearing more about their world's Winter Solstice story! The worldbuilding is so fantastic.

@hinaypod Episode 41 - Danny Boy (Pride Episode 2024): I'm glad I listened to this one during the day because I definitely would have gotten creeped out by some of the curse's descriptions if I'd listened at 2AM, as I sometimes do. We got quite lore dump on our favourite horrible old man, but I still have so many questions!!

[forgedbondspod]

Taking a page from the fine folks af Fawx & Stallion, we're gonna be sharing a small script snippet for each $250 raised! Somehow we are already past that which means SCRIPT TIME!

[thefringespod]

We've reached our penultimate Council member to shout out! Today we are going to be talking about the lovely, incomparable Michelle. Michelle Kelly (she/her) is lending her voice to Alexandria, our creator of worlds and everything else in the multiverse. Words cannot express how excited I am to work with Michelle. Not only did she have an absolutely stellar audition that pulled Alexandria out of my head and into the real world, but she also is just remarkably talented and has voiced one of my favorite podcast characters, Niyathi from @thekilda.

Michelle is a powerhouse of a performer and can be heard in other shows like Two Flat Eathers Kidnap a Freemason, The Silt Verses, Shadows at the Door, Connections, and more! You can learn more about her work by visiting michellekellyperformance.carrd.co

And of course if you'd like to support Michelle's work as Alexandria, you can check out our indiegogo campaign!

3 more ensemble members and 1 more Council member to shout out and 17 more days to go in our crowdfunder

If you liked season 1 and want to support the incredible cast joining me for season 2, please check out our crowdfunder!

[vestaclinicpod]

Audio Drama Sunday - 30th July ✨

Another great week of audio drama has kept my brain busy while my data collection is less busy. Happy Audio Drama Sunday, please allow me to share my favourites!

SPOILERS!!

🌲 @hellofromthehallowoods (127) Oh NO Mrs Wicker get your children away from that Church!!!! I love to hear the J-sibs starting to push back against her, long may it continue! I'm also still obsessed with the Raven-Writing Desk dynamic and it's only going to get juicier when Mr Writing Desk actually wants to follow Penny’s demands… And Danielle!! I love that she still gets to be an active help in the mission to the North in a way that doesn’t feel like deus ex machina because it’s just her. 

🎞 Tiny Terrors (022) this episode had me yelling ‘what’s the catch?!?!?’ internally and I’ve just seen that the wait is over to listen to the other side of the tape!! Angela, what are you??

🌍 @lastechoespod (7) As some of you may know. . . I am a huge fan of Drs in Space. This episode had me gripped, those poor people 😭 What a cruel scare tactic from the Collected for that to be played to the people trying to decide whether to join. I’m so tense to hear what the final archival selection is going to be! 

🧛‍♂️ @re-dracula Things are TENSE aboard the Demeter. Even in <60s of audio, the creeping dread is so palpable. And Mina, sweet Mina! So thrilled to have her back! Listening rather than reading has makes it so much easier to parse the long, chunky sections describing Whitby!! I have high hopes that I'm going to stick with it to the very end this time.

 💫 Wolf 359 (24-32) Oh fuck. I am so glad I have all the episodes to listen to at once. I could NOT have dealt with the wait between seasons. Ep 30, Mayday, is possibly one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard. I love that feeling of rooting for a character so hard that you forget that they don’t really exist and that you know they make it because there are another 30 eps of the show left. And the new characters - Kepler, Jacobi, Maxwell - wow, I LOVE to hate them. They’re fantastic in the worst way. 

🎩 @ethicstownpod (5) Things got a little creepy on the emergency broadcast this week. Memory is created as it is recalled?? What?? My mind is boggled. I’m very excited to hear how this, and what seems to be a growing discomfort between January and Artemis, plays out in the next episodes! 

🥾@doyoucopypod (3) Now. Hear me out. I know that being stuck up in a radio tower all day has got to be boring but I do think there might be a better time to flirt with your colleague than when 3 people are missing in a place called the ‘Dead Zone’ where strange ecological events are occurring . . . Just me?? Have I got the braincell here??? I’m so excited for these shenanigans to get even spookier. 

🏴‍☠️ Yeah. I listened to @levianpod again. What are you going to do? Support their crowdfunder? Good. Do it.

🎧 Such an interesting episode of The First Episode Of with @wirelandranch! The wireland vibes have always been immaculate and it’s so interesting to learn about where it came from and why it’s an amalgamation rather than a straight-up audio drama. 

🐬 Described as a weird mystery, @patterspod is exactly that. It’s batshit in the best possible way. Perhaps I hang out with strange people, but the main character is so normal in his weirdness, I feel like most people know a guy like Ryan even though Ryan is a liar ghostwriter trying to hunt down his thieving EX-boss with ?paranormal connections. It’s great stuff. 

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! My goal is to have season two of the show written by the start of August . . . So I should stop writing this and get to writing that . . . Right? Okay.

[sexwithsophie]

Kickstarter Smarter With Sophie: Scamtastic

EDIT: I actually turned this into an article, if you want to read it here: withsophie.co/post/scamtastic

Not sure if this happened to anyone else, but I was approached midway through my failing @kickstarter campaign by someone who presented themselves as a kindly man curious to know why it wasn't doing better when it looked so great. He said he was William La Mont and that as a collaborator on a wildly successful project with Vortic Watches that brought in over $350K, he wanted to apply his skills to help me in my campaign.

His profile appeared to match the collaborator from the actual page, because he has the same profile photo and zero backed projects, just like the William from the campaign.

Plus, it was all searchable from Kickstarter.com, so I knew it wasn't a fake or cloned page. Interested, but broke, I told him I had no money. He said, "Did I ask you for any money?" and acted like he wanted to take me on sort of as a pet project. His apparent previous success was tantalizing!

But things just seemed too good to be true, so I dug a bit. I asked him if he wouldn't mind me reaching out to the project lead, Robert Custer, and he said that he would be happy for me to do so. He even gave me Robert's email address! Only problem? It was a gmail address. So, I found the company website and emailed them directly, as well as emailing the gmail one. WIthin minutes, I received a glowing recommendation for William from the gmail account! A little toooo glowing. It looked like something hot off the ChatGPT presses.

That wasn't a smoking gun in and of itself, though, because Robert wrote as if English wasn't his first language, so of course their writing styles would be different. Still, I decided to find and add both William and Robert on LinkedIn. I figured that if it were really them, they could confirm. If not, I could make them aware of what was going on in their names. This all happened several weeks ago, and Robert just confirmed me as a friend yesterday. I wrote him a message about all this, but still haven't heard back.

I solidly figured out it was a scam though, because even though William's account is private, he wrote to me, so I can see the date he joined KS: March 2024. But look at the date the project he supposedly helped on was closed:

So what kind of help were you providing them five months into the past, sir? As desperate as I was about the poor performance of my campaign, and this being my first Kickstarter, I may have fallen for this guy's shenanigans had I not been a little savvy. I genuinely shudder to think about this dude preying on someone who doesn't happen to certified in the Management of Information Technology.

And how diabolical was this??? This guy either created a fake account and used William's name and image, or he convinced Robert to add him as a collaborator after-the-fact somehow. Can you even do that? And what would he have done? He was going on about doing TikTok and LinkedIn ads, so perhaps he would have asked me to entrust the management of them to him? Or tried to convince me to add him as a collaborator on my campaign, as well?

I don't know, but what I do know is that you need to SAY NO to any and everything that comes to you via Kickstarter's messenger. And report every single last one of those bastards.

____________________________________________________________

If you'd like to learn more tales about what I did wrong so that you don't make my same mistakes, if you'd like to be notified when I give crowdfunding another go, or if you want to learn more about my Adult Lifestyle Programs, CLICK HERE to join my mailing list!

[publishinggoblin]

ZOETROPE has just two weeks left, and we're so close to unlocking the final stretch goal! Will you join the Time Agency and help solve time problems? Or will you join it and just make everyone else's jobs harder because you can't solve a time anomaly to save your life?

Honestly, most days, it's probably the same thing.

BACK ZOETROPE TODAY

And while you're there, considering grabbing a copy of the 200+ card expansion set, ACROSS TIME!