Goblin Friendship Club

By

Avery Alder

Welcome to the goblin village! The air is damp, laughter echoes between ramshackle buildings, and something peculiar is always afoot. We're making strange and wondrous things. Perhaps you belong here!

My name is Avery Alder, and in addition to being a queer goblin I'm a game designer with a curiosity about how to build community and tenderness in the margins of a scary world. Goblin Friendship Club is my latest answer to the question: Avery, how can I support and participate in the work you're doing?

Specifically, joining the Goblin Friendship Club means you'll support me in:

• offering low-income discounts (30% off) on all of my products,
• completing my labour studies degree,
• training to become a graphic facilitator and art therapist,
• releasing small, free projects on occasion,
• traveling to conventions and game events,
• local activism and peer mental health support,
• raising my own goblin family,
• tending to chronic illness and practicing self-care.

Once per season (marked by the equinoxes and solstices), I'll send out a goblin newsletter, with a little gift included in it!

The Goblin Friendship Club functions as a seasonal subscription - you pay now, and then every three months to the day. The only question remaining is: what sort of goblin are you? A friendly rogue, eager auntie, or offbeat inventor?

FRIENDLY ROGUE

You're always bringing in coins and trinkets, sharing them with the community. And in return, we share our stories and hearth with you.

Friendly Rogues keep the work sustainable and interesting, providing me with a financial buffer so that I don't have to fixate on profit in how I design and distribute games.

Once per season, I'll return the favour by giving you something for free - one of my PDFs, an exclusive supplement, a new micro-game, or something similar.

EAGER AUNTIE

You're never hard to find - cozied up on the porch with tea, spreading gossip round the knitting circle, or wiping muck off some scoundrel kid's face. You work magic behind the scenes of our community.

Eager Aunties support the hours I spend with the remaining participants in the Emerging Designers Mentorship Program. They also support me in completing my degree in labour studies, training myself as a graphic recorder and facilitator, and working toward the goal of becoming a licensed art therapist. They also help support all the work that I do, both in games community and locally.

In short, Eager Aunties help me toward the training and development I need to be the best possible asset to my community. Thank you!

OFFBEAT INVENTOR

What strange things are you working on today, in your little tinker shack? You're always making and breaking and making again, bringing new possibilities into the world.

Offbeat Inventors are signing up for personal, one-on-one design consulting. You'll share your work and questions with me, and I'll engage and extend my hard-won knowledge about design, development, and publishing. Every season, you'll receive 3-4 consulting hours.

Offbeat Inventors also support me in all the things that Eager Aunties do: school, training, local engagement, and transformative growth.

"Avery is a brilliant game designer and her feedback is invaluable. She has offered detailed and actionable critiques of my current project (Circles of Power), both to address the complex social issues associated with the game and the mechanical systems it uses. Her design consultancy is worth it's weight in gold." - Jason Pitre, Genesis of Legend Publishing