New guy, looking for advice in general.

[Darearkin]

First off, I'ma start with a nice, huge disclaimer; Sorry if this is in the totally wrong place. I'm new to this.

Anyway, I just wanted to ask, since you lot're the people to ask; say I wanted to get into DnD. I've got a copy of 3.5, I even bought dice. But I can't find a realside group; when I asked the locals, one wanted nothing to do with me for not having played before, One wanted to do story-free-combat, and the others mostly didn't want a new player at all.

Is there an online option other than post-per-day forums?

[Elemental]

To begin with... Welcome to the forum! No, I'm not that evil and I rarely bite.
I hope you enjoy your time here with us.

And this question probably does belong in a different sub-forum, but oh well...
I'll answer anyway because I'm nice.

An online solution would be to try and see if you can find people to play with over Skype. I've heard that people do that.
If you decide you actually want to spend time with other players face to face, consider asking your other friends who have also never played.
Sure, you'll probably get half the rules wrong, but you'll probably still have fun anyway.

[Darearkin]

I -knew- I was gonna botch the placement of the post, thanks for letting it slide :)

I've tried getting my 'realside' friends into it; most of them either never liked it or gave up years ago, sadly. (Somehow my collection of nerdy friends is actually a collection of normal people. Go figure.)

[Sneaky Weasel]

Welcome, welcome. Glad to have you with us.
So you actually bought dice? That's pretty serious.:smalltongue: I too have found it hard to find a group to play with. For online options, there's Skype as Elemental said, but again you need friends to play it with. I've heard of some abomination called DnD Online, but it might be just rumors. I hope so at least.:smallyuk:
I would suggest you try a Play by Post game, they're actually pretty fun. They are more conducive to RPing than tabletop games, because for one thing combat slows them down a bit, and for another you can think things through before posting and show your character's thoughts. They certainly are not for everyone, though.
Oh, and for a Gaming Question like this, it should probably go in the Gaming subforum. Just for future reference.
Anyway, good luck in finding some solution to your problem.

[Story Time]

Welcome to the site! :smallsmile:

Advice. Hm. There are ways to play with voice-chat if you're able and into that kind of thing. I probably can't personally help you with the real table issue for your role-play wants. At any rate, if you snoop down to the Finding Players forum and start looking through the threads I'd seriously consider how well / much you post per post to be a consideration of yours before you join up. Seriously, take some time to think about how much role-play, combat, exploration, puzzle, and adventure you want before you join something.

You might be able to find a GameMaster willing to run a newbie game, solo or not, but I'd advise you to learn about the Big Sixteen Questions before you do that. They're in the Guide To Play-By-Post Games thread in the Finding Players forum.

Hm. That's some general advice. Also, you might want to check out MapTool (http://www.rptools.net/index.php?page=maptool). That might interest you.

[thubby]

look around a local college. theres always groups looking to pick up people.