Quote from: ReaperWeAre;1018738My IRL friends aren't into stuff like this at all

Your IRL friends suck! Get new ones! You need friends that like space ships, mythology, and dinosaurs!

Ok, another, more clear suggestions. Join two or 3 campaigns at the same time, for the start have them all use the same system (like 5th Edition D&D as example) so you get quicker used to it. Just make it sure not to have session time overlapping, and try to make wildly different characters for the 3 campaigns.

Build different personalities for your characters, one of the traps in RPG is that a player makes either all characters with the same personality, or they have none (and use the player's own). Creating characters for multiple campaigns at the same time allows you to be more aware of the similarities and differences the characters have as you prepare them. This is harder at the beginning, but as time passes while you play pnp it will get easier and natural.

A good, detailed background history for the character also helps you set character goals and personality. As example I have a pretty bad memory and just as everyone in my previous RL group I also got used to make detailed histories for the character. Unlike them I always used the background as something I can read through again and again before sessions to 'get into role', it helps me remember the character and its quirks, intentions. Just be sure not to dig holes for yourself with writing the history as it is too easy to do. As example I can't suggest you to write that a dragon is prophesied to kill your knight as divination is often incorrect anyway (a prophecy background wouldn't save you from getting killed by goblins before you ever meet a dragon) but you could include semi-detailed allies and enemies in your history which could then be used by the GM. (just don't write that you're friends or enemies with well known characters, like from books in a Forgotten Realms setting)

A very simple example could be how your halfing street urchin from the city had to flee once a rival gang took over the territory with the aid of their dragonborn leader. You could greatly expand on how your halfling even got into a gang, maybe the way he became an orphan, describe your corner/district of the city, what your relation with your own gang was, and how the gang war started/concluded. It may grant you in the future appearing friends and enemies (others from the gang you assumed dead but weren't, ect). I noticed there are some GMs who dislike long background histories but a page long history can easily be written for even a level 1 character who just starts adventuring. Everyone has families, they have jobs (or 'professions') and a community, and a place in those societies. You can just as well write in great detail about your orphaned rogue halfing as you can about an elven noble and its own struggle in the family for respect and feuds with other noble Houses. A gnomish merchant history of smuggling can be just as interesting as that of a drunkard dwarven military officer, and while it may not seem intuitive to write about an officer's history starting at level 1 remember the guy also had to go through training and gain experience to even get that one level, and rank is often not tied to ingame level. With recommendation, shortage of officers, family ties, or friends with benefits he could get the rank too. In the case of the Church of a god(dess) the highest ranking priest of the city (bishop, cardinal, ect) might also be a low level character compared to an abbot who answers to that man in the region.

Quote from: ReaperWeAre;1018369I live in South Mississippi, aka the place isolation goes to get away from people XD

As someone who lives in rural Georgia, you have my sympathies.

While there are plenty of sites that can accommodate online play, such as rpol.net, the best thing to do is to grab some friends who are at least somewhat of the geeky persuasion, and offer to run the game yourself.  Get yourself a set of rules that you would be interested in running - Wizards Of The Coast has the basic version of the current ruleset available for free on their website.  I know running a RPG sounds intimidating, but the rewards are more than worth it.  I *strongly* recommend Matthew Colville's channel 'Running The Game' on YouTube... His advice is what gave me the courage to start my first RPG campaign last year, which I'm still running.

Quote from: ReaperWeAre;1018369I live in South Mississippi, aka the place isolation goes to get away from people XD

There was a very large club at Southern Miss and I have been told recently it's still there. You might search for USM RPG. USM is not alone. I think most colleges have clubs - even community colleges...

If Gary Gygax can find 15 to 20 players in the goat's anus that was Lake Geneva, WI in 1972, you should be able to find one or two.

Quote from: Tulpa Girl;1018984As someone who lives in rural Georgia, you have my sympathies.

While there are plenty of sites that can accommodate online play, such as rpol.net, the best thing to do is to grab some friends who are at least somewhat of the geeky persuasion, and offer to run the game yourself.  Get yourself a set of rules that you would be interested in running - Wizards Of The Coast has the basic version of the current ruleset available for free on their website.  I know running a RPG sounds intimidating, but the rewards are more than worth it.  I *strongly* recommend Matthew Colville's channel 'Running The Game' on YouTube... His advice is what gave me the courage to start my first RPG campaign last year, which I'm still running.

I think this is good advice (assuming you have a couple somewhat geeky friends), the 5e D&D Basic Rules etc are here - http://dnd.wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/start-playing
I would probably recommend the hardback Tales from the Yawning Portal as the best resource for 5e D&D printed adventures (some maps are too small but you can Google larger versions), but personally I mostly use cheap/free stuff for other versions of D&D and use 5e stats for the monsters, eg the adventures at basicfantasy.org are great as is Dyson's Delve, Goblin Gulley and all Dyson Logos's stuff.

Quote from: tenbones;1018594I say thee nay! Otherwise how did this illustrious group of GMing badasses self-assemble? Necessity is, and always will be, the mother of blah blah blah.


If you want to GM you gotta want it. Like anything else good in life. Then you gotta get off your ass and get on the dance-floor.

The OP didn't say he wanted to GM, he said he wanted to play and 'try it.' I agree GMing isn't rocket science but the OP seems to be looking for a game to join not GM. It isn't like when we were kids and the only way to find a game was to start one yourself. That is one of the few advantages of online play.

Quote from: ReaperWeAre;1018350I've always heard stories about D&D and how fun it was (especially the pen and paper variant), but I've never had a chance to actually play it. Recently I've been looking around trying to find people to play with, but the only games I've been able to find are days or weeks off. Is there no place online where people play daily? I'd really love to give it a try, so any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Welcome to theRPGsite!

Quote from: ReaperWeAre;1018738The only experience I have with this is what I've seen of it on Twitch. My IRL friends aren't into stuff like this at all, but my online friends expressed interest in trying it out if I could set it up. I've been checking around on Roll20, but haven't found one that would line everyone up to play yet. I am, however, on the hunt

Stick with it and eventually you will find a game.

Then, you can decide that it  isn't for you after all, or is something you liked but might want to play again, or become hooked on a lifetime of fun.

Most of us here had the third experience.

Quote from: ReaperWeAre;1018738The only experience I have with this is what I've seen of it on Twitch. My IRL friends aren't into stuff like this at all, but my online friends expressed interest in trying it out if I could set it up. I've been checking around on Roll20, but haven't found one that would line everyone up to play yet. I am, however, on the hunt

Welcome to the site Reaper.  While in person play is always the best, I've gotten a lot of mileage over the last few years with Roll20.  It's kept me in touch with some of my best friends and allowed me to make some new friends, and I've had the same group playing weekly for nearly 2 years now.

If you've got a couple online friends interested in playing, you're most of the way there.  Just need to pick a system (there are so many good free ones available) and decide who is controlling the monsters.  It grows from there.

If your group is really wanting to experience play before someone tries DMing, I'd be happy to run a simple one shot on Roll20 for you sometime.  2 hours, straight into the dungeon, kill some goblins, steal some treasure.  I'm on EST and have most evenings free with a little notice.

Yeah, ideally if you're not living alone on an island or something, you should find a group to play with. If one doesn't exist, why not try to make one? Maybe there are people around you just as interested, and just as uncertain about how to get into it.