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PROFILE 2022
Trading in fantasy Goblin Traders provides home to local gaming scene STORY & PHOTOS BY MARK SHAFFER
T
here are constant battles in an unassuming building on the corner of Third and Jefferson streets in Ironton. Sometimes, it is squadrons of rebel pilots taking to the space between planets to battle their Imperial counterparts. Other times, it is vast armies in the far, far future in a battle of survival against dark magic. Some afternoons, it is a battle of digital monsters.
All of these battles take place on long tables with miniature spaceships or miniature armies or decks of cards. All to be packed up, put in boxes until the next battle next week. It’s just another day at Goblin Traders, a long-time fixture in the miniature table top and card game scene in the Tri-State. Owner Aaron Dillon and his friend, Cody Sloas, bought Goblin Traders in 2017 from the original owner, Bryce Martin,
who they both knew from Ohio University Southern. Martin had graduated from college and wanted to move on. The store was moved from its original site on Center Street to Third Street in January of 2020. And like many businesses in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic altered the way they did business. The gaming shop was set up not only for
