Featured New Game Designer: Goblin

A new Tabletop Game Alliance newsletter/blog feature is an effort to shine the TGA spotlight on new and upcoming game designers, developers, publishers and retailers across Washington state. For June’s spotlight, we are pleased to introduce you to Goblin.

Goblin (she/her), a multi-talented trans author, game designer and lore enthusiast, moved to Olympia in 2020.  Goblin has been playing card games and tabletop games for over 15 years. “Since I could pick up a board game I ’ve been playing Candy Land and Hi-Ho Cheerios” Goblin added. However, what inspired her to step into game design primarily was her love of gaming mechanics. “I like looking at a game’s mechanics and wondering, ‘How can I break this?’ I like getting into the nitty gritty, especially on paper. I like knowing how everything works, which makes me a really big pain in Magic the Gathering.”

The game Goblin currently has in development is a fast-paced racing card game she calls “Untitled Racing Card Game” or “Drift” for short. “Drift” is a competitive 2-8 player card game pitting racecar drivers against each other while facing challenges generated from cards played from track, item, and racer decks. The concept of “Drift” is based on a one-shot Goblin GM’d for her friends a few years ago. “Crash Pandas”, a one-page RPG by Grant Howitt, is a game about a group of racoons racing in the underground racing circuit of Los Angeles.

Character cards for “Drift” are elaborate, hilarious, and have interconnected backstories. Each character card contains the character’s name, pronouns, and the year and type of vehicle they drive. Some examples of “Drift” characters include:

“Ms. Olive” (she/her) is an elementary school teacher who started racing because she wasn’t making enough money as a teacher. She drives ‘91 Civic EF. She claims it’s stock, that she’s never had anything done to it, but you know better.

“Dwight” (he/him) drives a 1970 Dodge Charger RT/SE which is based on “Black Ghost”, a legendary 1970 Dodge Challenger RT/SE notorious for dominating Detroit drag races in the 1970’s.

Each character has their own special play ability and stats relevant to their backstory. Stats in “Drift” are Speed, Turn, and Drift. Stats range from 1-3 indicating the number of D6’s to be rolled in various skill checks.

The card decks played in “Drift” include Item, Racer, and Track decks.

Racer Cards are drawn every round into the player’s hand and have instantaneous effects. These effects can be stacked on top of each other resulting in a chain reaction.

Item cards can be attained from the Item Shop deck throughout play. Item cards equip each character with bonus ongoing effects and are not discarded throughout gameplay, unless explicitly stated.

Track cards represent the metaphorical track that the characters are racing on. Track cards are pulled and placed into the shared game play area on every round of play. Players compete against each other to gain either Victory or Cool points by rolling a number of d6 dice (1-3) equal to the relevant stat number on their character card.

“Drift” has been play tested and is currently in prototype phase. Goblin also has several other game and writing projects in development including a Japanese-style fantasy RPG and she is writing a novel. Goblin also spends upwards of four hours weekly volunteering for Hugs Food Pantry – a mutual aid food pantry for queer and trans people experiencing food insecurity. The food pantry is supported by Gabi’s Kids, the charity founded by TGA member Gabi Trautman, owner of Gabi’s Olympic Cards and Comics in Lacey, WA.