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Hi, I'm new around here (yeah origional title eh?)
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So yeah Im new and intrested but here's the thing; I don't have any gaming experience.
Roleplaying seems great but I'm not sure how to start, especially since I don't know how things work and my character(s) and writing will most likely not be very good.
Right now any help would be very much apriciated and if anyone is going to start something for total newbies...well, I might just be intrested :P
Welcome to the OP. It's great seeing new faces around here, especially ones who are new to role playing in general! I remember when I first started gaming, i was also a bit confused about how it all worked to. What really helped me was meeting up with a group of folks who had gamed for years, and joining in on a few games with them. If you have the chance to do so, I would definitely go that route. If not, I would look into Dungeons and Dragons 4e. I don't have much experience with other games, but I've heard 4e is a great beginners game.
I wouldn't worry so much about the rules when it comes to thinking about characters and adventures (if you are planning on DMing). Having little experience in the rules will let you imagine things first, then think of the rules later, something that more experienced DMs sometimes have trouble with :)
Let me lead by stating my biases: I think gaming is primarily a social event, and I don't mind the occasional table talk or sidetrack or out-of-character smartaleck remark. I am happiest in a game when I enjoy my GM and fellow players as PEOPLE. I very strongly prefer face-to-face games over online / play-by-post campaigns. I think some rules should be bent for the sake of a story, but I also think it's very easy to take that too far.
You need to keep all that in mind when reading anything else I write, especially if someone else comes back with something quite different.
Honestly, since you're totally new to gaming, the best thing to do is just go ahead and find a group. Make it very clear up front that you're new to gaming in general - not just new to whatever game system they intend to use for their campaign. If your confidence level allows it, try to find a group that's already well-versed in the game system to be used. I know it will probably seem less intimidating if there are a whole lot of other newbies there with you. One of my friends got into gaming using 4th-edition D&D for this very reason; even the gaming veterans are having to learn it with her. But I've found that gaming with experienced players helps me learn the rules faster - there are fewer instances of "can I do this?" because odds are I've seen one of them already doing it! Also, experienced players are a great resource for making sure you build a character that can do what you want him to do. I have yet to find a gamer that wouldn't happily drop tons of advice on me with but a whisper of provocation - and I'm pretty sure that's not *JUST* because I'm female. ;)
This leads to: when coming up with a character, don't worry too much about the details, and definitely don't worry about numbers right away. Come up with the main ideas, and let the GM and other players help you figure out the details. Even something like "I want to be able to run headlong into people and knock them over like bowling pins" - once you have that goal in mind, you can make choices which support that goal.
Finally (for now): As the Obsidian Portal slogan says, the story is the game. And your character is your means of interacting with the story. So make the effort to get to know your character and how HE would react to a given situation, rather than how YOU would, because that's 90% of the game right there - the dice are just there to keep people honest about what their characters can and can't do. And this may sound silly to you, but I occasionally sit down and close my eyes and imagine that I'm having a conversation with my characters. I find out lots of interesting little things about them that way. You might even do this before you finish building the character, to see if he prefers a sword or a mace - or maybe he's actually happiest with a polearm of sorts.
Thanks.
(If you have any comics or gaming shops in the area, sometimes people will post handbills saying they're looking for players or GMs. You'll want to meet at least some of them ahead of time to make sure you'll get along, but I actually had a pretty positive experience with a GM we met that way.)
I have made a character, without any level or stats just yet, but if someone wants to read it and give his/her opinion about it I'd appriciate that very much! http://www.obsidianportal.com/character/16344
Also is there anyone here familiar with playing the game online, because I have searched the web to get to know more about it but now I'm confused as how to play a boardgame like this via internet. If someone can tell me something about that, please do.
Thanks in advance.
First off I can't imagine really playing the game online. I think playing online really would take away from the whole experince. Femme was totally right to say that its about the people who you play with. If you check out enworld.com or meetup.com or wizards of the coast should all have message boards to help you find a group located near you that might have a chair open at their table. And of course another great way, just like Femme said is to hit up your local game store and talk to some people.
I just started playing 4ed. a few months ago. I've always been a video game nerd and my husband finally talked me and some of our other friends to play. Needless to say we have religiously met every week to chuck some dice, kill some monsters and enjoyed lining our pockets with gold. Let me just say that all 6 of us were beginners with a seasoned player as our DM and it didn't take long before he had us learning. He even went so far as to do D&D trivia where we would get gold for correct answers. By the time you get to 4th level you can toss those dice with the best of them. So don't worry about the rules so much and how in depth and perfect your character is. Find a group you like and they'll teach you faster than you can roll initiative.
That said, I've reached a point in my life where face to face games are very rarely an option. At 41, married with a child I find I have very few times I can devote the hours I need to really get into a game. Also, the folks I grew up playing with - and the ones I really enjoy playing with - have largely spread to the far corners of the U.S. We've found online gaming an acceptable substitute. It's not quite the same, but you settle for what you can get. We supplement our online gaming with annual or semi-annual gatherings and spend an entire weekend glutting ourselves on face to face gaming.
We use ENWorld (www.enworld.org) for our online campaigns and Invisible Castle for our dice rolling. A couple of members of our group are co-authoring a campaign and have set up a wikispace for their background/world information, and I've about decided to do the same thing here on OP. If it's online gaming you're interested in (or if that's what you have the time/resources for) I'd give ENWorld a try - there are games running there in about every system you can think of and the folks are quite friendly.