Goblins Surviving the Gig Economy in a Cyberpunk Dystopia.
Odd Gobs is a stand-alone tabletop RPG for 2+ players, fully contained on a single double-sided folding pocket map.
Taking place in a near-future cyberpunk dystopia, the Goblins (that's you) have to make ends meet in any way they can. What better way than signing up for an app that allows you to take jobs as they come up and do what Goblins do best? (What do Goblins do best? Introduce chaos to any given situation!)
Each game will consist of one player (the GigL Master) creating gigs for the Goblins. The Goblin players will then travel through the liminal spaces of a sprawling cyberpunk metropolis to reach destinations, perform whatever tasks they need to, return to a safe space, and then negotiate their pay, all while avoiding getting burnt out by too many stressors!
Utilizing its own system that allows you to roll whatever sort of dice you have on hand, Odd Gobs is geared for quick pick-up and play. Goblins have tags called Benefits and Stressors that can improve (or hinder) how they do certain tasks. These tags can be modified through shopping, getting paid, getting hurt, or the ever-present CHAOS TABLE.
The map will feature:
- A Z-Fold Design, making it easy to pack up and store!
- Covers that are laminated and durable, making it safe to carry with you to whatever area of the city your GigL jobs take you!
- One side with rules, random tables for creating jobs and Goblins, and the Chaos Table, which helps the GigL Master add more and more chaos to the game as things go on.
- One side with a map of the city, which features locations for tasks and random tables that display events, threats, obstacles, and treasures.
- Easy hackability into other Cyberpunk-themed roleplaying games!
- The map of the city is player-facing so you can share the beauty of dystopia with all!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
New Brutal Fantasy from John Baltisberger set in MÖRK BORG
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Mar 26, 2025 at 07:37:10 PM
A Growing Darkness on the Horizon
Hello friends, and thank you again for your support on this project. First let me apologize, if you've backed multiple of my projects before, you're getting multiple of this update. But, promotion and repetition is the name of the game, so please forgive me!
My latest MÖRK BORG novel, Howling of the Unfortunate Dead, is now live on Kickstarter. A follow up to both Whispers of the Dead Saint, and the short story Screams of the Necropolis in Journey Through the Dying Lands, Howling is a brutal grim-dark fantasy you won't want to miss. Dodz Bringare, a hunter of the undead is drafted into a war against the legions of the Valley of the Unfortunate Dead by his estranged brother. But beyond the deadly dangers all around lies an even more sinister mastermind pulling the strings.
This novel includes a cover by Simone Tammetta, a foreword by Christian Eichhorn, an adventure from Kevin Welch, and game content from Nate Southard, an all star cast to be sure, with more surprises attached to various stretch goals.
As part of this campaign, you'll be able to grab both Whispers and Journey in paperback or ebook along with a whole slew of other Mork Borgy goodness. There's even a tier where I will write a short story about you (or an original character of yours) meeting their grisly doom in the Dying Lands of MÖRK BORG.
We've already passed three stretch goals, which means this book will be made into an audiobook (and given to every backer), and that the novel will include several spreads worth of game content for MÖRK BORG! And if you don't yet have MÖRK BORG? No worries, you can download the rules for free here.
So thank you for all of your support, and if you want more brutal fantasy from me, please consider backing HOWLING OF THE UNFORTUNATE DEAD!
--John Baltisberger
A New Game Emerges from the Swamp
almost 2 years ago
– Thu, May 16, 2024 at 11:32:20 AM
The Past
Last Zinequest I launched a new folding map game called Overgrowth, and it just didn't soar the way I was hoping. But I knew that Overgrowth was something special, the game had an incredible amount of promise, both from a gameplay perspective AND from a world building angle.
The idea of twisted and deranged nature wizards taking on corporate pollution and industrial greed is just too good to let it slide away into the ether, so, Simone and I talked at length about what we should do, and we both agreed that the best course of action would be to relaunch the campaign. Instead of trying to go the "Folding Map" route, which necessitated a huge expenditure for production, and limited the amount of lore and content, we would instead go with a full-length TTRPG core book.
While Odd Gobs was a game about Anti-Capitalist Goblins working the gig economy to make ends meet, Overgrowth is about Anti-Capitalist nature wizards fighting corporate warlocks. Think Captain Planet, if Captain Planet was a deranged wizard.
All that said, we are now ready to bring Overgrowth to you, please click the link below in order to follow the campaign and join us in bringing this brutal game of pyschotic druids and sociopathic CEO's to the world.
Back Again with Unfolding Chaos
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Feb 07, 2024 at 03:23:17 PM
ZineQuest is upon us once again!
Odd Gobs was an amazing project, Rollin's art combined with John's storytelling and over-the-top mechanics led to a game that saw a lot of success at cons and other events. But we're hungry for more.
As you know, John has a passion for gonzo, chaotic gameplay with an anti-establishment and punk rock feel. You also may know that he loves working with Simone Tammetta, an established Mork Borg artist who specializes in macabre and grotesque art.
Well, Simone and John Baltisberger have teamed up together to bring you a new ZineQuest folding map project... OVERGROWTH!
Overgrowth is a new ttrpg game about deranged nature wizards fighting back against corporations polluting and destroying the environment fully contained on a pocket-sized folding map. OVERGROWTH uses a simplified version of the BADASS System first utilized in SPLATTER LEAGUE.
We hope to see you over there and look forward to bringing you more deranged TTRPG goodness!
New Game Incoming
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Aug 08, 2023 at 08:03:43 AM
Hey everyone!
I hope everyone has been getting into the chaos of Gobbers and enjoying the X-TREME silliness that Rollins and I unleashed! I just wanted to stop in and say I, John Baltisberger, and Madness Heart Games, have a new game coming out soon, we'll be using Kickstarter to fund the first printing, so I'll hope you'll check out...
Welcome to the Splatter League
This is a SUPERS tabletop roleplaying game, and like Odd Gobs before it, the core mechanics of the game are built upon the idea of getting as wild and chaotic as quickly as possible. It's built on a brand new system called the BADASSFACTOR system, and I hope you'll all check it out!
It launches on August 15th, and you can get notified HERE.
Gobs Invade Cy_Borg and CyberMetal 2012!
over 2 years ago
– Fri, Jul 14, 2023 at 06:33:54 AM
The Time Is NOW!
Happy Friday! As you all know, chaos is inevitable, especially when cybernetic goblins emerge from the nano-dessert and bring forth the bacchanal of madness! I say all this to say that as of this morning, I have sent out the PDF for the CyberMetal 2012 and Cy_borg Odd Gobs material.
You can access your files on Backerkit, or through your itch library.
If you've had a chance to play the game, it would be amazing to get a review on our itch page if you liked it! Let me know if Rollin and I need to do more games together, do Odd Gobs Part Duex, or never speak to one another ever again.
The final bit of business is running the games for those backers who pledged to have me run them through Odd Gobs, I'm coordinating that now and will hopefully have something in the books pretty quickly!
More Upcoming Stuff from Madness Heart Games
That said, we have two more games coming up, and neither will be on Kickstarter, so if you are interested you can follow us on itch or Twitter.
First up, REDROOM, a solo journalling game about running a snuff film business. This one is dark, brutal, and for mature audiences.
Then we have WELCOME TO THE SPLATTER LEAGUE, a supers game that uses new-fangled mechanics to ramp up ridiculous chaos and action as quickly as possible. (Something we here at MHG are very fond of).
We expect both games to come out this summer, and we hope you'll give them a try!
