Dungeons Dragons

If you've heard of the fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, you might expect his lair to be a faux-medieval fortress, complete with moat, turrets, and an impenetrable iron gate guarded by a stone dragon. Yet the House of Salvatore is no castle. One of fantasy's most popular authors - and one of Massachusetts's best-selling scribes - lives in workaday Leominster, where he keeps the real world close at hand. "I think I'm a pretty well-kept secret," Salvatore, 52, says with a mischievous smile.

Although this weekend's PAX East gaming convention, now drawing thousands of fans to Boston, is known as a showcase for the $60 billion video game industry, many of the visitors will never twitch a joystick or click a computer mouse. Instead, they'll deal cards and roll dice, as they compete against each other in old-fashioned tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons. PAX East, continuing through Sunday at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, has become one of the nation's largest gatherings of tabletop gamers, where players meet face-to-face in contests where luck and good strategy count for...

MILWAUKEE - Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died yesterday at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69. He had been suffering from health problems for several years, said his wife, Gail. Mr. Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.

If you've heard of the fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, you might expect his lair to be a faux-medieval fortress, complete with moat, turrets, and an impenetrable iron gate guarded by a stone dragon. Yet the House of Salvatore is no castle. One of fantasy's most popular authors - and one of Massachusetts's best-selling scribes - lives in workaday Leominster, where he keeps the real world close at hand. "I think I'm a pretty well-kept secret," Salvatore, 52, says with a mischievous smile.

Dave Arneson, 61, pioneered fantasy role-playing games MINNEAPOLIS - Dave Arneson, one of the co-creators of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game and a pioneer of role-playing entertainment, died after a two-year battle with cancer, his family said Thursday. He was 61. Mr. Arneson's daughter, Malia Weinhagen of Maplewood, said her father died peacefully Tuesday in hospice care in St. Paul. Mr. Arneson and Gary Gygax developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures.

Although this weekend's PAX East gaming convention, now drawing thousands of fans to Boston, is known as a showcase for the $60 billion video game industry, many of the visitors will never twitch a joystick or click a computer mouse. Instead, they'll deal cards and roll dice, as they compete against each other in old-fashioned tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons. PAX East, continuing through Sunday at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, has become one of the nation's largest gatherings of tabletop gamers, where players meet face-to-face in contests where luck...

People love to blah-blah-blah about how no one has imagination anymore, how Americans are losing the ability to fantasize due to the great brain suck of TV and the Internet. And yet we tend to raise eyebrows about those who engage in fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons - games that are like attending an imagination aerobics class. As kids, the players are pigeonholed as "nerds" and "geeks," and when they're older, they're seen in less affectionate terms, as a kind of creepy fringe.

Last Sunday, LaDainian Tomlinson rumbled over the Patriots, recording 134 rushing yards and two touchdowns as the Chargers dropped New England to 2-2. Still, there probably were thousands of New England fans doing fist-pumps when Tomlinson sprinted into the end zone. Each week, millions of NFL fans who participate in fantasy football live through such circumstances, a madness that Boston writer Mark St. Amant captures in "Committed," his first-person jaunt through the pastime. In 2003, St. Amant quit his full-time advertising job and kicked off a year-long quest to...

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists , By Neil Strauss, Regan Books, 464 pp., $28.95 The thing about pickup artists is that they usually don't know how to put women down. They drop them, although the ladies in Neil Strauss's new book about conquering the fairer sex aren't as fragile as the dudes scheming their way into their beds. Strauss used to cover rock music culture as a reporter for The New York Times. This book, "The Game," is his account of two years he spent after leaving the paper's staff learning how to seduce and, on occasion,...

If you've heard of the fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, you might expect his lair to be a faux-medieval fortress, complete with moat, turrets, and an impenetrable iron gate guarded by a stone dragon. Yet the House of Salvatore is no castle. One of fantasy's most popular authors - and one of Massachusetts's best-selling scribes - lives in workaday Leominster, where he keeps the real world close at hand. "I think I'm a pretty well-kept secret," Salvatore, 52, says with a mischievous smile.

If you've heard of the fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, you might expect his lair to be a faux-medieval fortress, complete with moat, turrets, and an impenetrable iron gate guarded by a stone dragon. Yet the House of Salvatore is no castle. One of fantasy's most popular authors - and one of Massachusetts's best-selling scribes - lives in workaday Leominster, where he keeps the real world close at hand. "I think I'm a pretty well-kept secret," Salvatore, 52, says with a mischievous smile.

DUBROVNIK, Croatia - I eased my way across slippery rocks into the sea and floated on my back, pregnant belly bobbing like an apple on Halloween. How French, I thought, to have traded the Paris pavement for pebble-strewn shores on summer holiday - only this wasn't the Côte d'Azur or the Amalfi Coast. The tranquil scene was in Dubrovnik, on the underrated Croatian Riviera. About two hours from Paris and Rome by plane, the city is worth the additional airport hassle as a quick side trip.

In his debut, freelance journalist and “avowed, out-of-the-closet geek’’ Ethan Gilsdorf embraces his love of J.R.R. Tolkien, Dungeons & Dragons and all things fantasy, embarking on a quest to discover what motivates those who devote significant portions of their lives to what many others dismiss as escapist fantasies. The book is also a journey of self-discovery borne of a certain amount of fear, as the author seeks to reconcile his many adult responsibilities with the not-always-latent desire to re-engage with D&D and other elements of his...

Dave Arneson, 61, pioneered fantasy role-playing games MINNEAPOLIS - Dave Arneson, one of the co-creators of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game and a pioneer of role-playing entertainment, died after a two-year battle with cancer, his family said Thursday. He was 61. Mr. Arneson's daughter, Malia Weinhagen of Maplewood, said her father died peacefully Tuesday in hospice care in St. Paul. Mr. Arneson and Gary Gygax developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures.

MILWAUKEE - Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died yesterday at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69. He had been suffering from health problems for several years, said his wife, Gail. Mr. Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.

Who needs varsity-sports stardom when you can shoot fireballs from your fingertips? As a teenager, playing the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons gave me a vicarious sense of mastery over my world, even if that world was imaginary. Fighting orcs was preferable to taking on the jocks who taunted me during gym class. Unfortunately, my obsession with D&D also branded me a geek. But since the 1980s, so-called geek activities have gone more mainstream. Computers are ubiquitous (even if we have to call the Geek Squad to troubleshoot them)

In his debut, freelance journalist and “avowed, out-of-the-closet geek’’ Ethan Gilsdorf embraces his love of J.R.R. Tolkien, Dungeons & Dragons and all things fantasy, embarking on a quest to discover what motivates those who devote significant portions of their lives to what many others dismiss as escapist fantasies. The book is also a journey of self-discovery borne of a certain amount of fear, as the author seeks to reconcile his many adult responsibilities with the not-always-latent desire to re-engage with D&D and other elements of his “geeky’’ adolescence.