Deshwitat, everyone else has offered some wonderful advice, but I'm going to take it in a different direction. I play pathfinder, and I love it. I'm not sure what game you're looking to play, but there are websites dedicated to most of the big ones where you can get the rules for free. For pathfinder I use <a href="http://www.paizo.com/prd" rel="nofollow">www.paizo.com/prd</a> which is the Pathfinder Reference Document. Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 offers their System Reference Document at <a href="http://www.d20SRD.com" rel="nofollow">www.d20SRD.com</a> if that's more your style. You're new and people understand that, but you need to have somewhat of a grasp on the game before you join. I've got a player in my group now that I love to death, but he doesn't know the rules, and is showing no interest in learning them. Drives me fucking nuts. Whatever game you play, go to their core rule book, and look up the combat section of the game. Combat (in my experience, at least) makes up the VAST majority of the rules you will NEED to know. The rest of the stuff either doesn't come up often, or comes up in a situation where you are a little less pressed for time so you can look it up when you need it. The combat chapter will spell everything out for you (typically with hyperlinks to unfamiliar terms) so that you're not slowing the group down to a halt. Once you've read the combat chapter two or three times start looking for a group. Tell the DM that you're new, and while you want to learn you don't have the best grasp on the rules. Ask him to help you set up some macros on your character sheet. I use <a href="http://www.myth-weavers.com" rel="nofollow">www.myth-weavers.com</a> to host my character sheet online, I suggest you do the same. That way you can give the link to your character sheet to your GM and ask him to look at it and tell you if you did anything wrong, or if he has any suggestions. Once you have a functioning character sheet, and your GM has helped you set up some macros you should be golden. You'll be in a situation where all you have to do is move your token and hit the macro buttons for whichever attack is applicable. While that's not where you want to be, that will be enough to let you contribute to the group in a meaningful and quick manner. Then just sit back and start absorbing the things the rest of the group is saying and doing. Watch and listen to how they play. Don't be afraid to ask questions about how or why they do things a certain way. Now you can start learning the rest of the rules. Take your phone with you when you poop or something, and just start reading the rules. Read a chapter a day, or a page a day, or hell, whatever you're comfortable with. The more you play the more you'll understand what it's talking about, and you'll build your system knowledge slowly, but surely. You've got this man. This is a WONDERFUL community, full of very helpful people. Just be honest, be polite, and put forth effort. Doing those three things will take you a LONG way here.
