The expression was indeed intentional - the original script reads as follows:
Steve (evil grin): "Well, you COULD go back out into the blizzard..."
I believe that miss Lyra nailed it.
What's the biggest inspiration? My experiences gaming. All of the characters in the group are (loosely) based on a real life gaming group. Understand, these are not meant to actually BE those people - they are caricatures based upon them, reduced to comic characters. That being said, every one of the people in question immediately knew who was based off of whom, and every one of them has loved the comic.
Thanks for all the kind words!