Help Joe Escape Debt, Get Spinal Treatment, and Create Again

Who are we?

My name is Jade Catthey. I’ve known Joseph Richardson for nearly twelve years, since I was 14 and he was 11. He’s one of the most creative, most kind-hearted, most charismatic and outgoing people I know, and in the last few years, he’s been through a near-constant string of misfortunes—he’s been forced to:

•Run a business by himself after his once-mentor left their publishing venture;

•Tend to his family’s worsening health, including recovery from multiple surgeries;

•Roll from his moving work car as its engine lit on fire.

Work-related expenses, including debt from replacing his car, are piling up, and the recent worsening of a previously-undiagnosed spinal defect has hindered his ability to work to pay them off. I want to reach out to others to try and get him out of the hole, to prevent him from becoming stuck in a cycle of debt and to allow him to focus on his own recovery.

The Full Timeline:

In late 2022, Joe was one of the two proprietors of FableTop Productions, a board game studio that he’d started with a longtime friend. By making deliveries for DoorDash and Postmates in his spare time, he was able to contribute half of the up-front costs of formatting and illustrating his first book, Dread of Night, and a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier in the year allowed the two of them to get the rest of the way across the finish line for a physical printing. This gave him the confidence to try to push the envelope with his next project, Agents of Fate, on which myself, Joe, and his previous business partner began work in the spring of 2023.

Throughout that year, I watched as Joe struggled with the limited number of hours in the day. Between the first of a handful of major surgeries in his immediate family (for which he effectively served as a live-in nurse during recovery), coordinating the various contractors working on Agents of Fate, and attempting to keep in touch with his then-partner, he was working upwards of 16 hours a day on average, sometimes six or seven days out of the week. By the end of the year, due to his own personal difficulties, Joe’s business partner became entirely unable to contribute financially to the project, and was becoming more and more difficult to contact with work matters. Eventually, the two of them were forced to part ways, leaving Joe with effectively double the monetary obligations he’d had up until that point.

By March of 2024, Joe was saddled with a number of debts for which his partner was supposed to be partially responsible, as the loans were initially taken out to pay contractors on Agents of Fate. He was mostly able to keep pace with their payment until a number of repairs on his car—his primary source of income—culminated with a botched fix for his transmission, which led to loss of control of the vehicle and the engine catching fire. Needless to say, he was out of work and the car needed replacing, leaving him relying more heavily on credit and ultimately deeper in debt.

Although we’re proud to say that, despite all of the difficulties he was facing, we were able to digitally publish Agents of Fate at the beginning of 2025, neither the initial Kickstarter in April 2024, nor the Backerkit campaign this past month, have done enough to alleviate Joe’s financial distress; the former barely broken even, and the latter failed to reach its goal.

Although his prospects are somewhat brighter now than they were at the same time last year—he’s seen some success on YouTube , somehow finding the time to consistently put out videos amidst all his other responsibilities, and it’s given him a bit of additional income—his family’s medical issues continue to need more attention, and he received a diagnosis for worsening chronic back pain that has been increasingly limiting his ability to work. As he is needed at his family’s home more than ever, and has been able to sit at his computer or behind the wheel of his car less and less, his opportunities to earn money are becoming more and more limited, and the interest payments on his automotive and publishing debts have snowballed to the point that he’s barely able to pay down the interest, without making progress on the debt itself. This is a young man working three jobs as a publisher and videographer between making deliveries, and even with a fourth, there’s just no way he can escape the treadmill of debt without your help.

How can YOU help?

•Donate: We can’t thank you enough for your generosity. With Joe less and less able to work, even a single dollar brings us closer to paying off his debts and allowing him to focus on his health!

•Share: Spreading the fundraiser helps, but please also consider checking out his YouTube channel!

•Support Joe’s creative endeavors: You can find him on his YouTube channel and on Twitter.

What will the money be used for?

All of the proceeds of this fundraiser will go directly to either paying Joe’s bills (credit card payments, the cost of replacing his car, etc.) or fulfilling his obligations to his creditors (artists and formatters for Agents of Fate, family who loaned him money to assist him, etc.). Any excess money that we receive will be put toward the medical bills associated with treatment for his spinal defects, including medication and consultations with an orthopedist.