I'm brand new to tabletop

So I played tabletop RPGs everyday at PAX. I knew I would like it and really did. None of my friends play tabletops so I came here. So what are the starting points I should get familiar with. What books should I pick up and what groups should I play. Any help to get started on this is great! I'm really looking forward to playing and getting up to speed.

To start you need to decide on a system, D&D 3.5e, 4e, 5e; Pathfinder etc. Then go to "Looking for Group" and input your variables like system, days, time of day etc. Hopefully you'll find a game that suits you and you apply. I suggest you carefully read the GM's information and application threads carefully. Good luck!

Yeah, depending on what you are looking for, you might not even need to consider system too much. There are games people run for beginners where they don't expect you to know anything.

Sounds good. When I pick up some books I should make some characters right? What's a good class to make for new comers. I assume a warriors a good bet for surviving. I find I can be a bit useless in some scenario but my armor check and charisma seem to make up for it.

Honestly, I'd probably suggest finding a group first. Often GMs will run little one shots with pre made characters, of help you make a character, etc.

I suggest putting your timezone in your profile. That lets GMs like me match you to our campaigns. I'm running a new player friendly 13th Age campaign in Sydney time (UTC+10:00) and have players in Australia, Saipan, and Manila. It's not a suitable time for players in Western Europe or the Americas.

Hello Ken O. From it sounds you are familar with a system (it sounds like 3.5 or pathfinder) so just go up to the blue banner above and click on the looking for group. This will take you to the search listings that you can use to find a game. Select your system, time you can start (including what days), and check mark welcomes new players then search. What shows up should be mostly games that having an opening for new players. Now I would not worry about the books just yet. I second Aaron about find a group first then worry about the books. Most gm's that are welcoming to new players will work with the player and help them build a character for their game. Now if it is 3.5 or pathfinder, you can get the character generation rules from a few sites: <a href="http://www.d20pfsrd.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.d20pfsrd.com/</a> (pathfinder) and <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.d20srd.org/</a> (3.5) Good luck and have fun.

I highly recommend taking a look through the roll20 wiki to learn more about the application in addition to all the other suggestions here: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Main_Page" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Main_Page</a> Especially useful is the "Getting Started" section on the main page there. Check out Kristin's awesome "Crash Course" videos to learn how to set up a campaign and also just how to use the app in general.

+1 Sarah, totally right!

Indeed...hopefully some videos designed for non DM players will be ready soon!

Really if someone can skype me and give me a walkthrough. A lot of this stuff for beginners is so obfuscated it's really hard to start. Even figuring out how to roll and write characters is a bit daunting as it's online. Usually when someone starts it's with people. Any help is great, I'm social and easy to talk to, so if anyone is open to it much appreciated.

I'll PM you with some info.

Ken I tossing up a one shot tonight with a simple basic system called Basic Fantasy . The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a rules-light game system modeled on the classic RPG rules of the early 1980's. Though based loosely on the d20 SRD v3.5, Basic Fantasy RPG has been written largely from scratch to replicate the look, feel, and mechanics of the early RPG game systems. My game post is called: Basic Fantasy one shot tonight (friday:sept 5th) . It will ran with the WebRTC voice option from roll20. If you are interested then drop by tonight around 7pm central for the character creation. It doesn't take that long, usually 30 minutes or less but answering questions can stretch it out so I slotted an hour for character creation.