new to this site

hi i am new to this site however i am not new to D&D or roleplaying i would just like to understand how this site works in the character creation and such

Think of the campaign boards as the actual table you sit down at. The handout/journals should be looked at as blank sheets of paper, The diceroller is your pile of dice, the map section is the open table where you can place you handouts like pictures, maps (you can build maps there with tiles but usually recommended to build them in 3rd party program), and various other things you can do at your table.

Hi, aaron , and welcome to Roll20!  You might find the Roll20 Wiki to be useful for answering questions and getting a feel for how the site works.  In particular, I'd recommend watching the Getting Started: GMs and Getting Started: Players videos.  As Metroknight has demonstrated, people around here are happy to answer questions and very friendly so don't hesitate to ask about anything.   Roll20 doesn't support any one single system.  In fact, it tries to handle as many as possible.  Character creation is going to be entirely dependent on what game system you're playing and what sorts of house rules and such your GM has.  In order to join a game, you'll need to find a campaign to join.  To help with that we have a Looking For Group Listing and a Looking For Group Forum section.  There are tons of games for many different systems and settings being run at any one time, so there should definitely be something out there that would fit your style.  :)