TTRPG Mentoring

Light thoughts on the past 2 years of TTRPG Mentoring

Hey everyone!

October is approaching, and with it comes convention season. This means plenty of excitement for my work life and my hobby life, so I wanted to shoot off a quick gamesletter before all that hecticness!

First we talk about birds

Ah yes, let’s not forget the birds. Here in Australia, Spring has sprung. This is the time of year that I notice high energy, ripening fruit, baby birds, and lots of birdsong.

So far I have managed to spot a few Noisy Mynar nests, a Raven nest, and a Currawong nest. I haven’t seen any Magpie nests, but I know there must be a few out there given my local Magpie population.

This Spring I have seen, for the first time, baby Ravens. They’re so floofy! Next to their sleek parents, baby Ravens look a little goofy to me - in an endearing way! Their heads and bodies are black and fluffy, and the finer feathers around their beaks don’t seem to have grown in yet. Their wings are big and powerful, almost in contrast to the rest of their body. The wing feathers glint a deep, deep dark blue in the sun.

These past 2 weeks I’ve also been catsitting! Please meet Lulu, the shy, snuggly, scrungly princess:

Next we talk about games

Or in this case, game design mentoring!

After designing my own games for a few years, I’d had people come to me for advice, pointed questions, and critical feedback on their games. I enjoy reading a game, considering the experience and feelings it creates in me, and reflecting that back to the designer asking, “is this what you intended?”

Last year, supported by ARC (the Australian Roleplay Community), I took on 2 mentees for 1 year’s worth of mentoring. While one of the mentees did have to step back from the mentoring due to personal reasons, I consider this first mentoring program a huge success. The ongoing mentee has gone on to create not just the 1 game they had been considering when we began, but 4 completed games on itch with more on the way. He also appeared at local conventions running her game for the first time ever. Awesome!

This success enabled ARC to receive a small amount of funding from a local government grant to properly fund a 6 month mentoring program for 2 new mentees. This time, both have been able to meet regularly and work on their first ever tabletop roleplaying game. And now both of them are appearing at PAX Australia!!

From speaking openly with my mentees, they have listed a number of benefits:

• Accountability and encouragement to keep designing

• Access to resources

• Learning about games and mechanics they hadn’t heard of before

• Smoother onboarding to the wider TTRPG scene, including local conventions

• Specific / tailored feedback and advice

I share all this because it excites me. It’s super enjoyable for me to learn about and support new games being created, especially by marginalised creators. At the end of this year, multiple new, legitimately incredible games will exist that never existed before! That’s pretty exciting right!?

What’s more, each game that each of my mentees has created has been vastly different to all the others. No two mentees are creating similar games. The TTRPG scene in Australia is small. But it is growing, and I am very happy to be able to help that growth however I can.

And I will say, the aim of mentorship is for it to end. I speak often to my mentees about the idea of ‘graduating’, of moving from the mentor-mentee relationship to a peer relationship. I don’t want the inherent power dynamic of a mentor-mentee relationship to exist forever. It’s like the saying about reaching down from a height to pull someone else up. That’s what mentoring is to me. I’ll reach down and help someone up and then we’re on the same ground. Ok, who can I help up next?

My dream is that with the success of this year’s mentorship program, next year it might expand. I’d love to have multiple mentors in 2024 so we can take on even more mentees - I’m just one person with one perspective and limited time after all!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on TTRPG mentorship and other forms of mentorship you’ve experienced. Feel free to leave me a comment or reply!

Convention season

The big conventions and events this month are Melbourne International Games Week, PAX Aus, and SXSW Sydney.

MIGW has a slew of different events all over the city for all manner of games. I’m hoping to be at a few here and there, maybe we’ll bump into each other!

I’ll be at PAX all weekend. I’m running Preparing for Paris on Friday and Sunday, and a Queer Games Showcase on Saturday night, 5pm at the PAX Together Lounge.

I won’t be at SXSW, but my Amble Studio colleagues will be, hosting an Actual Play of TAG: The Adaptation Game on the 18th.

Ok, I think that’s all I wanted to say. Take care everyone!

Logan