Robert Weston Thomson

Robert Weston Thomson was born September 29, 1969 in Maryville, Tennessee. He was raised a few miles south in Etowah, Tennessee. From an early age, Robert was a creative individual. He began roleplaying at the age of 7 when his father gave him the Dungeons & Dragons game. In high school, Robert appeared in significant roles in his high school's Junior and Senior plays. He and his friends also made stop-motion films using action figures and creatures made of clay. In college, Robert majored in United States History, with a focus on the history of the American West. After college, Robert took a job with the US National Park Service as an Interpretive Ranger. He worked at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site doing costumed living history for 10 years, including developing and writing or co-writing the site's "Candlelight Tours", an annual event featuring first person living history vignettes telling the story of some incident at the fort. While working at Fort Union, Robert also volunteered his time with the Fort Buford 6th Infantry Association, doing costumed living history at neighboring Fort Buford State Historic Site. Also while at Fort Union, Robert appeared in two Prairie Public Television documentaries, both in non-speaking roles. The first was Lewis and Clark Pathways where Robert appears in costume as an "engage" or hired labor, at the fur trade fort. The other was Fort Buford: Splendid Isolation where Robert appears in costume as an Infantry private in the frontier US Army. Robert would go on to work for several years with Montana State Parks and a brief stint with the US Forest Service before retiring from such work due to chronic illness. It was while with Montana State Parks that Robert appeared as himself (as a "talking head", as he puts it) in the documentary Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison. Afterwards, Robert and his wife, Connie, would found 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming, a small roleplaying game publishing company. In 2013, Robert and Connie sold 4 Winds to another game company. Robert continues to occasionally do freelance work for other roleplaying game companies. In the early 2010's, Robert attempted to return to work in the field of historical interpretation and worked a brief stint at the World Museum of Mining in Butte, Montana. It was this work that gave Robert the chance to appear as an unnamed extra in the documentary short The Orphan Girl (2014). Robert's interest in gaming led he and Connie and their friends Adam Pehl and Jeff Watson to found Great Falls Gaming Rendezvous in 2013. Great Falls Gaming Rendezvous is an annual gaming and pop culture convention in Great Falls, Montana and a 501c3 non-profit organization, with all proceeds going to benefit local organizations and international charities.