Posted September 19, 2019
babark: It is interesting how when such questions arise, so many people automatically go for their favourite RPG, rather than cater recommendations to the question. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, for example, are probably not good suggestions for someone new to the genre.
morolf: I hadn't played that many rpgs either when I first played Baldur's Gate 2 back in 2000 (iirc Albion was the only rpg I had played before), and I didn't have that many problems. Most "real" rpgs will be overwhelming at first, unless one is willing to invest some effort into learning the systems, there's no point to playing them. TentacleMayor: I actually recommend against the Baldur's Gate games, as good as they are. They take their gameplay straight from a complex pen & paper game (with unintuitive systems like THAC0) and have you managing an entire team at all times. It's one of the worst options I can think of, actually.
morolf: THAC0 isn't that hard to understand, it's just the lower, the better...there's no need to grasp the mechanics in every detail. Any complex party-based rpg will take some effort to get into, if one doesn't want that, one should play something else.