I was too young to play Dungeons & Dragons when it was in its heyday; by the time I reached high school, its ardent niche popularity had faded.  (I’ve read that tabletop role-playing games owed their decline in the 1980’s to the arrival of videogames.)

I do remember poring over my older brother’s “Monster Manual” without his knowledge, though.  (We shared a room; I wasn’t supposed to be touching his stuff.)

Dragons doubtlessly captured the imaginations of most kids who perused that book.  Older boys would probably have been fascinated by the succubus.  At the age of 9 or 10, I myself was most partial to “green slime,” the teleporting “blink dogs” and the basilisk.

I smiled when the below image of the “Monster Manual” cover began making the rounds among a group of my Facebook friends.  Believe it or not, there are still a few adults who get together to play D&D.