Favorite Monster (Animal/Vermin)
Monstrous spider. As I suspect is true for an awful lot of people, The Hobbit was the childhood gateway drug that got me mainlining fantasy in later years, and so giant spiders have an awesome sense of nostalgia for me. Plus, I remember that In Search of the Unknown (the first legitimate adventure I ever played) was filled with wandering-monster spider encounters that I still recall with a horrific sense of (virtual) post-traumatic stress. Plus, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (the second legitimate adventure I ever played) had a trapdoor spider encounter that I remember nearly killing me. Plus, I can neither confirm nor deny that spiders freak me out in real life, so imagining them the size of horses can reduce me to a quivering mass of panic attack in short order.(Archive post from the personal blog.)