Nostalgia and stuff I never got to play...

[Edge of Dreams]

It just hit me today that, despite playing D&D 3.5 for several years, there are dozens of classes, spells, feats, and other options that I never got to see in action. Many of these, I would have loved to get a chance to run personally. I'm very familiar with theoretical optimization, and I've read a lot of the source books. That's just not the same as actually getting to play that character, though.

I'm trying to think now of how I could possibly fulfill my nostalgia for 3.5 and explore some of the options I never got to. Sadly, none of my friends run 3.5 games anymore, and I'm too busy to start one up of my own. Play-by-post isn't really a great option either, since historically I've flaked out of most, if not all, of the ones I've been involved in.

The thought occurred to me to run a campaign for myself, with a party of classes I always wanted to play but never got to, like Soulknife, Shadowcaster, Psychic Warrior, Dragonfire Adept, and so on. Not sure exactly how I'd go about this, though.

Anyone else in a similar situation? Any thoughts or suggestions? What do you miss from systems you used to play, and is there anything you'd go back for that you didn't get to play the first time around?

[Marnath]

I think about doing that sometimes, but rather than go through the motions i just tell myself the story in my head, saves having to actually write a coherent campaign or roll up characters. But then, i'm lazy.

[panaikhan]

I've done similar things in the past.
If I've been given advance notice of a campaign, that starts above level 1, then I've basically run a 'random dungeon' for that character to level them up. It sometimes helps to have played through a little actual back-story for such characters, and may even help their development (such as a level-dip into Cleric for a sword-and-board to get a little solo healing).