I've dipped in and out od the paper version of dnd for ages (presently out at the moment) though my old crew used to play the o.g. versions (before strangrr things got popular second and third edition materials were stupid cheap).
We'd get base rules books, partial moduals, and homebrew everything that was missing since there were gaps in the local supply chains were pretty drastic. We did AU ravenloft(war of azlin timeline, we had 2 dms, one reping strahd, the other azlin, and thier goal was to use us against the other d.m. and ours was to survive) star wars(crowning achivment, i randomized the gavity inside the deathstar and got it to spin like a hamster ball. Nearly offed vader from impact damage, fun times), forgotten realms(during a seige... well there was an incident with a dragon big bad, a tribunch, and some epic rolls that wound up offing the poor thing in less than ten rounds with no casualties, the poor dm had to stop the session to regroup) and one very wacky smash bros sci fi hodgepodge.
I prefer playing to dming since math really isnt my thing (damn you thac0), and the last edition i played was some fifth... but the daunting fact of "needs money for whole new sets" plus the fact lives were changing (the local scene was mainly a tightknit crew of nightshit persons from across many franchises throughout town) and the band broke down.
I'm not in touch with the local scene at the moment, and per tech limits not participating in the oline. But i still have my (really) old sourcebooks. They make good writing exrcise bait. And old notes from my running mini adventures day to give our dm a break.
In closing
Fav class: rouge, (anything not naiked down was fair game)
2nd bard
3rd druid
Race: i've played everything from human, halfling, centar, to orc. No one expects an orc thief.
Alignment: ran the gauntket of chaotic good to neutral evil though really leaning on the chaotic side of things
Fav magical item: portable hole and crawling rope. (I once tied the hole to the end and had the rope crawl across a dragons hord to skim off the top. Made a point of rubbing the thing in an enemies clothes. Easiest heist/political assasination ever.)