Mentorship
I remember Scythe seeming overwhelming and too complicated for a simpleton like myself as my friend Alex explained it and just thinking I would never get it. I also remember watching my friend Jay take the first steps off a ledge over a vast expanse of air and jam his hands into a crack in the rock to pull himself up and over a roof crack disappearing above and I was up next to follow him! Both cases felt like I was in over my head but luckily I had great mentors to guide me along the way.
In our journey into the tabletop gaming world we’ve had several guides with different roles along the way. First, our friend Bonnie, the ever gracious and amenable game night host. Her friendly and welcoming demeanour and exceptional snacks made us feel welcome and happy to partake in game night, even if we were a bit intimidated by the caliber of games they played. Her husband Julien was the ever patient and exceptional at explaining game rules. He is also French and taught us the difference between Euro games and thematic games, while influencing our tastes towards more strategic and less luck or dice-roll based games. Our friend and roommate Alex allowed us access to his game library and introduced us to dungeon crawlers via Gloomhaven. Collectively they encouraged Kate in the early conception of First Ascent and encouraged us to attend PAX Unplugged, nurturing our burgeoning hopes for creating a game.
In climbing, mentorship is key to growing as a climber especially when it comes to safety, awareness at the cliff, and stewardship. In the climbing gym I had an early mentor we called “old man Dave”, he taught a free weekly class at the gym where I learned basic climbing techniques that helped me progress rapidly. Kate met Jay at a Meet-Up group and instantly clicked as designers. Jay has been a great mentor with an unfounded faith in our abilities that gave us confidence and loves showing us the road less-traveled. However his safety advice is not always the most useful, when I asked him about anchors, his response was “you know they said about anchors in my day?....have one”. Lastly our friend Brian, he’s a certified guide, but would climb with us as friends and teach us all about safety, great spots to climb, tips and tricks, and the Access Fund.
The commonality is that these mentors spend their time freely giving of themselves to bring us into the community and share their experience. Now, in turn, we do the same for others when possible. We’re trying to introduce new games to our “Catan-centric” gaming friends and one goal of First Ascent is to open up the world of board games to climbers everywhere, drawing them in with the theme and keeping them with the strategy, competition, and fun. Finally, Kate has made significant contributions to the advancement of mentorship within the Philadelphia climbing community by creating a mentorship group through the Philadlephia Chapter of the American Alpine Club. The hope is to help others gain access to great mentors since others were so generous in their mentorship of us.
-Garrett Gibbons