Let me introduce you all to Andwise Underbridge, chaotic good Halfling bard at you service.

I played a lot in from my teens through my early 20's. I lost interest in it as I got older.

Always wanted to play, but never got to. (Mom thought the books were "satanic"...)

I played a little 3.5, but I'm not crazy about 4.0. I prefer Pathfinder. It's sort of like D&D 3.75.

I play an ancient version of DnD with the latest monsters implemented. My family usually plays together with handpainted figurines my Dad painted himself, and a storyline invented by whoever is the DM as they go.

For solo DnD, has anybody ever tried playing Baldur's Gate? It's a rather old computer game (invented in the late nineties) that includes a dice simulator. It's got a great storyline, good difficulty, and all the weapons, potions and armour included in DnD.

I assume you mean "ancient" as in "original D&D" or the somewhat oldish "Advanced" D&D?

As much as I still love the franchise, the D&D world, the monsters, the mythology, the characters, the stories, the video games, and everything else, I'm often reminded of the reason I quit gaming into my 20s.....

Every time I meet another gamer, the only thing they seem to want to talk about is bragging about the last character they played....
"Hey, I hear you're into D&D!! Well, my last character was a level 15 drow archmage with a +12 sword of piercing, a + 22 attack, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah........"
and I roll my eyes pretending to care.

Honestly, D&D is an awesome franchise, and I always find inspiration from the whole D&D world and mythology.
But the whole "gaming culture" and gaming circles full of people who treat D&D like a "game" or a sports competition..... that's just not for me.

One of my friends is also a huge World of Warcraft nut, and he too can only ever talk about his character and how high his level is, which is enough to put me right off starting to play the game.....
Honestly, that's NOT the reason I play RPGs!!!!

I was never allowed to have a drow character. They were in the Monster Compendium and therefore not playable, according to my crew.

It was Drizzt Do'urden who changed all that......

I just remember the Norwegian black metal band Immortal singing about him in "The Cursed Realm of the Winterdemons":
"....lavender eyes had only known the Underdark.....
Eyeless in eternal time.
For I've worn the Moonshine
Burn away the daylight glimmer
With my nocturnal senses......"

The story of Drizzt Do'urden had such huge potential.
If I were a big budget film director I would have made a cool fantasy movie about THAT instead of the horrid movies they DID make.....
Sadly, R.A. Salvatore's writing style is some of the driest in the entire fantasy genre.... A great story ruined by utterly painful dialogue......

You had a really unimaginative DM.

Ah, D&D... Never played the game itself, though I've always wanted to. I still remember being about 5 years old or so and my oldest brother letting me sit and watch him play it with his friends in his room. I got into the Dragonlance books when I was in high school, then I branched into Forgotten Realms when I started to grow tired of Krynn. I haven't explored it all as much as I would have liked to. I've only read Knight of the Black Rose in the Ravenloft setting. I do remember a used book store I lived by having Vampire of the Mists, but it was in terrible condition.

Though I still want to play the game, I'm a bit shy about the idea. I'd have a hard time trusting someone I don't know to DM, and I don't like the idea of trying to gain acceptance into a clique-ish game group.

On a random note: I have an unexplainable love for Illithids. I have no idea why, I just love me some Mind Flayers.

My GM is similar. No dragons, vampires, or anything like that. One of his major concerns was having a party of good and evil aligned characters. Basically, he didn't want our characters killing each other. He was emphasizing a cooperative game style, which I can appreciate, esp. since some of us were new to table top RPGs, and he didn't want us to have to constantly generate new characters, get frustrated, and quit playing. I wish there was some way I could have played a vampire, for instance, but I guess that didn't fit our cooperative play style.

I just started playing 3.5 with some friends haha. Very insane and animated DM, which makes it extremely hilarious even if I'm confused most of the time. Half-elf druids represent!

I love the game, but I seldom play simply because I'm snobby about it. My favorite class to play is a cleric. I like making evil clerics. They are great fun.

I used to play it a bit, the problem was that I could never find people to play it with so I never got into it.