Wow you guys! That's both a huge opportunity and a huge responsibility to ask someone to take on. From being around these forums awhile I can tell you that there are many different styles of GM and not all are compatible. I personally do not have the time or energy to take on your group, but I feel I must make a few recommendations so early in your gaming career, so you know there's more than one way it's done... The primary two "schools of thought" that tend to prevail our game are "Role-Playing" and "Roll-Playing." Some people want to be the ultratough barbarian with the strength of two men and a whole host of combat abilities to tear through an army. That style of gaming is not for me and my group. We tend to be very combat-light with a whole host of our time spent actually trying to act as our characters. The other two sided thing I see is "Rules-Heavy" vs "Rules-Light." D&D is traditionally a very rules-heavy system. Lots of material to study and lots of combinations of rules upon rules upon rules. Again, this is not my group's style of play. We tend towards rules-light systems as much as possible. As well, where it suits us, we just rewrite the rules. Savage Worlds is a system that seems to particularly lends itself to this. As you get your feet wet, decide what you like, and don't let anyone else tell you that your style of wanting to do things is invalid. That being said, in game, your GM's word is final. Also, to the community -- these guys don't know enough to know what you're asking regarding the various rulesets of D&D. They wouldn't know 3.5 vs Pathfinder, and probably don't have the first clue what materials you'd need them to familiarize themselves with before hand. Sounds like they don't care, they just want to dive in somewhere and get a taste for it. Best of luck, guys!
