PnP RPGs are the best, and there's one for every style. I've had an IRL group for about 2 years now that meets about once a month, give or take, and we've been playing 3.5.

I had a very active online group a few years back and we played 2 times a week for about ... probably 2 years as well. That was some good roleplaying. We played 3.5 and then migrated to Pathfinder. We also did d20 Modern/Future for a while there too.

I do NOT recommend D20 Modern. The system is innately boring, to me. The classes are just dull, and it's not designed very well. It's a fine framework, but to make it a good system takes too much effort for my taste.

I recently found Roll20 and it looks really cool. I've played a session or two in it and I'm hoping to get a regular group going on on there.

I've played 4E with friends. For awhile we were quite into it.

The problem is we're all newbs to it, and while they'd constantly praise my DM'ing, I'm the type of person who can't get out of his own head. So I hated everything I pretty much did. :(

We've been tossing around the idea of getting it going again, using 4E or D&D Next or something, over Maptools. If your in the US (or can conform to US times) and are interested, feel free to hit me up.

After youve had your share of dragons, dare to give this a shot?

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/100243/STALKER---The-SciFi-Roleplaying-Game
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15588.phtml

Played AD&D a while back, but I'm notorious for junking rules when I DM. It's handy when introducing new people into D&D.

One of my friends fears D&D though. He thinks he plays one session, he'll be possessed by the devil.

I've been interested in playing a round, and even thought about signing up for one of the many Virtual Tabletops.

Although, I'm more of a Paranoia RPG type.

I played a bit of 3.5 in a little forum group, that was pretty fun. Though it fell through before too long since the DM got overloaded with work and stuff. Haven't been able to find another group since then, unfortunately.

Yep. Played 3.5 for quite a while and DMed for 4th. I'm actually really grateful 4E came out, my sister and her fiancé finally gave it a chance and had a blast. Good times all around.

AD&D was the first PnP RPG I ever played, back in elementary school. My mom had a vague sense that that "sort of thing" was "bad", but she seemed to figure out pretty quick that it wasn't doing me any harm. Over time, I've come to prefer other, less "heroic" games like Call of Cthulhu, but I still have a soft spot for ol' DnD, and I'm glad I never got around to selling my 2nd ed books.

I played and still own a ton of 1st and 2nd edition books. I lost interest after another edition came out, necessitating my wallet bleeding as I shell out my hard-earned dough yet again for essentially the same stuff with even snazzier art and the same content, albeit with the Thaco system reversed.

I do own a very original edition of D&D, sitting right above me. The 4th variation listed here :

http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/original.html

I also had in my possession 3 copies of the Deities and Demigods with the Cthulhu and Melnibonean mythos. I sold 2 of them for quite a lot of money on Ebay and kept the one in perfect condition.

http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/deities.html

I don't play anymore as the insidiousness of living an alternate reality and the people who tended to enjoy that sort of thing I found psychologically harmful. Some people can treat it as a game purely more successfully. I sadly did not know any of these people. I would play some tactical dungeon-crawling board games like Warhammer Quest, Space Hulk, or Talisman if I could find players.

I really like the game support paizo puts in on Pathfinder, which as I understand took up the 3.5 edition mantle, so i may run a PF campaign as well.I love published settings, as I am a history/culture buff, and love tweaking these settings to fit my own needs.
We are all 30-ish, new to the hobby, most with at least a smattering of past experience (I played two sessions 24 years ago, lol), who are all busy, and this is our social life. We all used to work together, I have moved on, everyone else works together, so it makes scheduling a little easier.

I have to say, I could forsee it being my main hobby for the rest of my life (social hobby, hiking is by far "my thing", followed by weightlifting).

Monks and Barbarians were also present in 1st edition.

Yes I started with 4th Edition too last year. I wish I discovered it sooner; it's amazing :D

Definitely depends on the players. I've played some DnD campaigns in college and everyone had fun and kept it a game without issue, but the DM's campaign was so long that it never completed and characters had to be handed off to new players until the DM graduated himself. Another group at my college though definitely had some of the 'weirdos' who seemed to have difficulty separating real life from the game. That definitely isn't limited to DnD though, some of the same people I knew who fell into that also had issues when they played Vampires and Cthulhu along with some others who were more into the horror genre.

Also played a fun DnD campaign with some guys post college, but the DM got busy with family and had to cancel and none of the other players felt up to starting a new campaign and being DM so the group fell apart.

Haven't ever had the opportunity to try playing with a group through an online virtual tabletop program though I've looked at some of them. My favorite pnp RPG though has got to be Rolemaster/Spacemaster, I know people love the d20 type rules; but, the 2d10 representing 100 as a statistical percentage modified by bonuses to your % from skills and such made a lot more sense to me with my proclivity towards mathematics. Plus the skills system in the _Master games was extensive compared to that in DnD, which allows you to tailor your character and make your own character class in a lot of ways; but, means a lot more rolling and more consulting of result charts by the GM (though the result charts were in themselves a lot of fun as there were many types of critical results sprinkled throughout with lots of flavor text about what was done to whom).

i my seem so out of it but i just got the stater pack and it still looks intriguing,

I haven't played any editions of D&D, but I've read through some old-school rules like Swords & Wizardry and DCC and can't wait to run a few games of those. That said, I have GMed one-shot adventures with Leverage (Cortex), Dungeon World, Mythic, Hero Kids and an extremely simplified version of Dread before (for my students), and had a lot of fun with those. I also think having stock art printed in colour and some occasional music helps build the atmosphere even better, but that's just me.

[EDIT: replaced 'retro clones' with 'old-school' since it's a better fit for DCC]