World of Warcraft tournament

I caught these kids playing World of WarCraft at the Boston North American WoW Area Tournament at the Hard Rock Cafe. Kids playing WoW at this age -- good idea or scary? (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

a world map

One of the maps that I drew as a kid as a setting for a D&D world. I must have drawn dozens of these maps, each a new world to imagine.

Character sheet

My old character Elloron -- a fighter I remember spending many a Friday night playing. This dates to about 1982 or so.

JP on the grass

JP, the dude who taught me D&D and inaugurated me into the world of fantasy and geekdom. Here he's lounging on the grass at our high school. I think this is from his senior year yearbook.

the D&D gang

From a local paper article about that mysterious, possibly dangerous, remotely Satanic new game fad that was sweeping the nation, D&D. That's me, second from right.

The cover image

The photo that got Photoshopped for the cover image of the book. Exact year unknown. 1980? I might be 14 or 15 here.

Chainmail game at LGGC

This is it -- Chainmail, the game that became Dungeons & Dragons. Here, Paul Stormberg runs the game at the Lake Geneva Gaming Convention. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Pennsic fighter dude

At the Society for Creative Anachronism's Pennsic War, 12,000 folk in medieval garb camp for two weeks in western PA. Here, a fighter strolls past the battlefield. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Sparring practice

At the Society for Creative Anachronism's Pennsic War, some "stick jocks" practice their art of war. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

War!

A field battle at Pennsic War. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Home sweet castle

One of the facade that demarcates one of hundreds of "household" encampments at the Pennsic War event (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Viscount Syr Bear the Wallsbane

Paul Acks, who for thirty years has been known to his friends in the Society for Creative Anachronism asViscount Syr Bear the Wallsbane. The real-world draftsman fromErie, Pennsylvania, had once been king. Now, the fifty-six-year oldAcks is a “simple country viscount.” (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Sir Gareth

Sir Gareth Nikodemos Somerset, the alter ego of David Randrup, at Pennsic. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Bystanders of war

Folks watch a field battle at Pennsic War (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf).

stick jocks on the sideline

Soldiers chat and watch a field battle at Pennsic War (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf).

Ethorain the baker

Ethorain (the author in his itchy period tunic) bakes bread at the Society for Creative Anachronism's Pennsic War camping event. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Orc attack!

A nasty orc from Moria battles a dwarf dude. Screen shot from the Lord of the Rings Online game (art courtesy of Saul Zaentz Co., under license to Turbine Inc.)

World of Warcraft babes

Sylvanas and Alexstraza, two not so nice hotties from the World of Warcraft universe.

According to wowwiki.com: Once the Ranger-General of Silvermoon, Sylvanas Windrunnerwas murdered by thedeath knight Arthas and brought back as a creature of undeath. After regaining her free will she rebelled against the Lich King and the Scourge and became the founder of the Forsaken faction of undead, who are currently allied with the Horde. She has styled herself the Dark Lady, Queen of the Forsaken, an expansion of her original title, "the Banshee Queen".

and: "Alexstrasza is one of the three Great Dragons who fought against the demons during the War of the Ancients. Later, she helped create Nordrassil, the World Tree, by placing a magical acorn within the second Well of Eternity. .... Alexstrasza appears normally on the top tier of the Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight in her 12 feet female bloof elf-ish form." 

Your get the idea.

want fries with that?

Ick. A disgusting orc from Moria battles a dwarf dude. Concept art from the Lord of the Rings Online game (art courtesy of Saul Zaentz Co., under license to Turbine Inc.)

Hobbiton in the rain

Visitors check out Hobbiton (aka a sheep farm in Matamata, New Zealand). That's Bagshot Row up at the top in the distance, home to Bilbo and Frodo. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Say "Sting"!

On the Wellington Rover Lord of the Rings tour, tourists pose and pretend to be an elf and get their photos taken by the tour guide (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

The road goes ever on and on

Leaving the location in where the famous "get off the road" scene was filmed with the hobbits and the Black Riders in Wellington's Mount Victoria. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Horse's ass

On a Lord of the Rings tour, three tourists makelike a Black Rider on horseback, inthe exact place where Peter Jackson filmed the scene in October of 1999. Bent over at the back of the line, the author plays the horse’s ass. (Photo: Rendall Jack).

ch14_dscn3244.jpg

With Nomad Safaris, one of the first companies to offer Lord of the Rings tours by Land Rover in New Zealand's South Island. Here Brent Clements points out the sites to a guest, in Dart Valley—you know, where they filmed Isengard (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Kinder Figurines in Middle-earth

The author's Kinder Surprise figurines visit Rivendell, home of the elves, in Middle-earth (aka Kaitoke Regional Park). (Photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Get off the road!

"On location" in the park at Mount Victoria, Wellington--- well, on a movie tour with Wellington Rover Tours. Here a group visits the spot where the famous "get off the road" scene was filmed with the hobbits and the Black Riders. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Gino at WETA

Gino Acevedo, head of Weta Workshop’s prosthetics and makeup department, who the author a fleeting, behind-thescenes

peek at Weta movie magic. (photo courtesy of Weta Workshop).

Peter Lyon, swordsmith

Peter Lyon, Weta’s swordsmith, who forged the real swords and stunt blades for battle scenes in the Lord of the Rings. (photo courtesy of Steve Unwin/ WETA Workshop)

Rumay the champ

The 2008 North American World of Warcraft Arena championships, held in Boston, was won by a team that included a 17-year-old young woman named Rumay Wang, from suburban Boston, the only female in the whole competition.  (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Guard up!

Kids battle with padded swords at the fantasy Wizards and Warriors LARP summer camp, run by a martial arts facility in suburban Boston called Guard Up! (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

D&D dungeon

One of the author's old dungeon maps, from the 1980s, drawn on the game's ubiquitous graph paper.

Dice!

D&D dice, from the author's old collection, and other gear that surfaced from the "blue cooler." (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

in the orc cave

Mark Egginton in his converted cellar, or “orc cave,” filled with Tolkienalia like books, helmets, shields, wizard staffs, daggers, dwarven axes, and swords, among other items (photo courtesy of MarkEgginton)

Tolkien's home

20 Northmoor Road, Oxford, where J.R.R. Tolkien scribbled the first lines for The Hobbit—“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Bird and Baby

The Eagle and Child (aka "the Bird and Baby"), the seventeenth-century pub where The Inklings (including C.S.Lewis and Tolkien) used to meetto discuss their writings on Tuesday mornings, from 1939 to 1962. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

I attack with my battle ax

Gamers play D&D at the Lake Geneva Gaming Convention in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Here, the Dungeon Master is Steve Chenault, who runs a Little Rock–based gaming company, Troll Lord Games. Chenault collaborated with Gary Gygax until Gygax's death in 2008. (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Jack the spear

Jack of the Spear, a character played by Chris Jones in the LARP Forest of Doors. Jack is a fairy troubadour-hunter who writes songs about other characters. (photo courtesy of Chris Jones)

wolf in action

Wolf, played by Nick Perretta, a twenty-nine-year-old taxsoftware salesman, husband, and father from Atlanta. In the Forest of Doors live-action role-playing game, Wolf is a crude and outspoken character itching for battle. (photo: courtesy of Nick and Lynn Perretta)

A 2001 helmet

Mike Scott and his intricately detailed reproduction of the spacesuit helmet used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. At a convention called Wonderfest, 2001’s lead actor Keir Dullea donned the helmet, providing Mike with “another incredible geek moment.” (Photo courtesy of Mike L. Scott)

back to the future

A digital image of what the completed castle at Guédelon will look like in 20 years. (photo courtesy of Guédelon)

measure once...

Workers on the job at the 13th century construction castle project Guédelon, in Burgundy, France (photo courtesy of Guédelon)

making rocks

This is how workers carve stones for the castle at Guédelon --- with a hammer and chisel (photo courtesy of Guédelon)

Harry and the Potters at Middle East

Harry and the Potters rocking the house on their Unlimited Enthusiasm tour, 2008, at the Middle East, a top rock club in Cambridge, Mass.  (photo: Ethan Gilsdorf)

Harry Potter Year Four

Joe DeGeorge, aka Harry Potter Year Four, seemingly levitating as he plays. Magic! (Photo courtesy of Nathan Backous)

Teen angsty art

Yes, I was a bad artist then. Taken from the pages of my trigonometry notebook, a brilliant sketch of a dark tower -- and me probably dreaming some woman would come rescue me from my dark tower.

The author as geek

Yep that's me.

You won't like me when I'm mad

This is a plastic sword, not to worry.