Hello and welcome! The first place I'd tell you to go would be the "Looking for Group" tool. Try looking for short or one-shot games that "welcome new players". Be honest about your experience level and what you want to play when you apply. DMs tend to be wonderful teachers and are generally pretty passionate about be games we run. You should be able to find someone happy to show you the ropes. One great thing about RPG's is that they are really low cost for players. Yeah there are 1000 books, but you don't need to buy them. Most DMs have PDFs they share with their players that have everything you need to start. Some games might even start with pre-generated characters, which can be a nice first taste. I'd recommend you start out looking for D&D 5E games. A lot of it is available online, and it's a very new-player friendly system without being simple or watered down. Pathfinder also has a lot of free online content, tons of people run it and know it very well, but it's a crunchier, more complicated system. (Don't play a first character that grapples things if you try this one) Both of these are available on the Roll20 Compendium, too. Dungeon World is another great system to start out with. You can start with only one book, it has super simple character creation, and a strong tendency to bring out the comedy improv in everyone. I'd start with one of those three. There are lots of other systems, and I too want to try em all, but one of these would be a safe, cheap entry and give you an idea what to expect. Great systems I love and you should definitely eventually try, but that I would nonetheless avoid as a brand new player; Exalted, Dark Heresy, Any edition of D&D before 3.5, Tales of the Floating Vagabond, Shadowrun, and tentatively 13th Age. For a combination of complicated or unique rules, daaaaark themes or a generally steeper player knowledge curve. Edit: also, try some Lets Play podcasts or Twitch Streams. Listen to a few different DMs and you'll get a feel for how games play and what's gonna happen when they tell you to "Roll for Initiative". Roll20 has great ones on their YouTube channel! I also enjoy How we Roll, which is Call of Cthulhu, and Godsfall which is custom D&D. Critical Role sort of sets the standard and has famous people and stuff Good Luck and have fun!!
