i’ve never encountered this problem before, and i’m extremely confused. recorded about 30 minutes of audio, and when i went to play it back to start editing, i got an error box that says “error opening sound device, try changing the audio host, playback device, and project sample rate.” is there any way to fix this, or is my audio basically done for?
Probably not “done for” 
but to be of any help, you will need to give more information, including:
Which version of Windows?
Which version of Audacity? (look in “Help menu > About Audacity”).
What were you recording?
What were you recording from?
What audio devices are you using? (Recording and playback)
its a moot point now because two minutes after i submitted this post my computer decided to have a seizure and upon force restarting, the project was gone 
i’ll try to re-record and if i have the issue again i’ll pop back in.