Lots of good advice here, PoppaGator. I would echo what the Good Soldier said about experimenting and about not thinking in terms in standard chords, or in terms of chords at all. If you listen to some of the greats - Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson, Duck Baker, John Renbourn, Pierre Bensusan, Steve Baughman - you will rarely hear a chord (in the strummy strummy sense - if you know what I mean) at all. Instead you'll hear melodies, countermelodies, harmonisation. (I'm probably stating the obvious here.)

I would add one thing: playing in open D doesn't mean you have to play in D all the time, nor use a capo to play in other keys (though a capo has its uses, of course). I use open D to play in the majors and minors of D, C, E, F, G, Bb. Experimenting and finding out how to do this is a wonderful journey.

Have fun.

Stower