Profile: Ron Blessing of The Game's The Thing

April 19, 9:45 PMPhoenix RPG ExaminerBerin Kinsman

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Phoenix RPG Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Originally from New Jersey, Ron Blessing has lived in Arizona for 10 years. He and his wife Veronica are best known to as the co-hosts of the popular The Game's The Thing podcast, part of the Pulp Gamer network. Ron also manages one of the largest game stores in the area, and is a member of the Southern Arizona Gamers Association (SAGA).

Berin Kinsman: Let's start with the obvious: When did you start roleplaying, how did you get started, and what was the first game you played?

Ron Blessing: I early 1985, a friend invited me over after school. He showed me his AD&D books. I thought it looked cool, so he had me make a character, and he ran me through a solo dungeon. We did that from time to time till I found out another friend had the D&D boxed sets. That friend also had the Star Frontiers boxed set, which was the first game I ever GMed. Notice I didn't own any of this stuff? It would be a couple years till I owned anything because, while my mom wasn't fanatical about RPGs being devil worship (this all happened at the height of the negative propaganda), she wasn't willing to buy them. So with paper route money, my first purchased book was Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

BK: You're deeply involved with Savage Worlds and seem to know a lot of the Savages. How did that come about?

RB: Like most Savages, I think, I got into Savage Worlds because it was the non-d20 follow-up of Deadlands (which was my all-time, favorite setting). I thought the system seemed neat. "Fast, Furious, Fun!" was the tagline, and it delivered. The problem was the first couple sessions I ran were total party kills, and it took awhile to convince my group we were doing something wrong. I started asking questions of other Savages and a little bit online to work the kinks out, and it soon became my go-to system.

In 2006, I started my podcast with the intention of covering all games, but it initially ended up almost exclusively being board games. My one attempted review at the time was of Savage Worlds. It seemed impossible to really cover whated I wanted to say, so I only recorded part one of that review (I still never finished it). I really wanted to find a way to cover RPGs, so I decided to try an interview. I had no idea how to get that going, but at GTS '05 I had met Shane Hensley. I won't pretend we became friends that day (I kind of fanboy gushed at the time), but he seemed like a great guy. So I contacted him and asked him to be the first interview. He accepted and despite my sound sucking it was the "highest-rated" show we'd done thus far (it was also my wife's first show). The day of or after the show released, we were contacted by Sean Patrick Fannon, who asked to be on the show. Our Savage Worlds interviews continued to be our hottest shows (until very recently, as two of our top three still are), so my relationship with the Savage community snowballed from there. Veronica and I have forged some great relationships with many of the folks in the community.

BK: What do you do when you're not playing games?

RB: Well, games are a big part of my life, to be honest. I manage a game store, my wife loves RPGs, I edit RPGs (something else that came about from relationships forged in the Savage community), and I have a podcast about games. I am a full-time student, in a degree program for a B.S. in Business Communications. Heck, even my daughter (five) is getting into games. So I guess even the husband/father "occupation" involves games. Go figure.

BK: Tell us about your favorite player character?

RB: That's a tough one. There have been many I've loved, though truthfully I've had more NPCs since I GM more than I play. But I was asked this question a couple years ago by Wiggy, and what he did with my answer has cemented it. His name was Jory Franz. He was a rogue in the Greyhawk setting from D&D 3.x. Jory had a lot of my personality traits, but he was much more agile. I gave Wiggy some details about him (like his Mithril arm and his gregarious personality), and if fans of Hellfrost check the upcoming Gazetteer, they'll find Jory lives on (though he's not so reformed in Hellfrost).

BK: Any sneak peeks on what's coming up on The Game's The Thing?

RB: I'm very excited about the future of TGTT. Recently my shows haven't been planned far enough in advance to tell you what's upcoming there, but TGTT is about to become much bigger than the show itself. Soon, listeners can look forward to more than just the podcast. The Game's the Thing will be a content-driven site about games that includes a podcast, and the TGTT family is expanding. More on this soon!