Zerocaliber
said:
do something unique and creative with your character (like a bow using cleric for example).
Actually, it's entirely possible to make a bow using cleric. Warpriests of Corellon are even *encouraged* to use a bow. One of the major advantages of 4e, in my opinion, is that it completely separates roleplay from combat effectiveness. Makes it a lot easier to play and get into since the character creation is simpler and action selection in combat isn't nearly as preordained, not to mention that there is a *lot* less accounting. Back to the OP, a lot of it depends on if you're looking more for a combat simulator (i.e. punch things and get loot/xp) or a roleplaying system (i.e talk to things and advance story with abstract mechanical rewards as a secondary concern). For a combat simulator, D&D, whether 3.X or 4e is pretty much the default that most people go for. 3.X has some excellent variants for non-fantasy settings (d20 modern, for example), while 4e is pretty much fantasy thanks to having classes that involve more design effort. There are a few others that place a lot of emphasis on combat (ex: warhammer fantasy, dark heresy) but combat is *much* less forgiving and generally tends to discourage acts of heroism/gallantry in favor of a more gritty/unforgiving mechanical construct (i.e. less "movie action" and more "real action" where being outnumbered is a *massive* disadvantage rather than the normal case). You pretty much have to choose where on the "realism v. gameplay" spectrum you want your game to be. For a raw roleplaying system, I honestly can't think of a better one than one of the numerous White Wolf systems, since, you know, they're some of the few that were explicitly designed to be more roleplay oriented. If you use the base ruleset (i.e. "Mortals"), it can easily be tweaked to account for pretty much any timeline/setting (swap out firearms for archery and you've got fantasy; change firearms to laser guns and you've got sci-fi). It's not even really intended to be completely combat balanced because combat isn't *supposed* to be a major part of it (in fact, some would argue that if you have a combat in most White Wolf games, you screwed up somewhere). Even those that *are* very combat oriented (Hunter) are actually more focused on discovery, planning, research, and preparation rather than the actual combat. Before picking a system, I'd first try to figure out what exactly you're looking for, beyond the raw camaraderie that you're going to get out of *any* PnP game (or, at least, *should*). If you want to punch monsters and grab loot with your friends, go with a system good for that, like any edition of D&D. If you want to spend less time punching things and more time playing social and political games, go with a system design with that in mind, like anything White Wolf. There isn't really an idiots guide to gaming anyways. The best thing to do is just jump in feet first. Any group worth its salt is going to be able to teach you the rules as you go. The most important thing is just *getting involved* in the first place. Just find a game in the proper time zone and start playing.
