Doesn't really matter, I'd say. The most important thing is a good vibe between the players, if that's established pretty much every system will be fun. Unless you really like to try out something specific, say a certain setting or a rules heavy or light system, I'd recommend choosing your fellow players first, for example people of your age group, system second. Once you've gained a bit experience (I take it from your post that you haven't played before), you might wanna try out something different or have a better sense of which game exactly you're looking for, who knows.

D&D is surely the most popular system, but of course there's the big question of which edition to play. Pathfinder seems to be quite popular as well.

Best thing to do is probably joining a lively community, like the official D&D boards or EN world or whatever, google's your trusty friend here as it always is, and make a thread in the appropriate section. These guys know best how a newbie should tackle things.

I highly recommend writing down all the things you have a passing interest in. I personally love dogs so I used to volunteer with a pet rescue group and found it extremely rewarding. I like to hike - not strenuously! - and found a couple of hiking groups on meetup.com and another local site but there are all kinds of groups doing different things. If you're interested in books, your local library can usually put you in touch with book groups. The pen and paper group idea sounds interesting - ask at your local game store if they know of any groups.

I guess what I'm saying is get creative in where you look!

Join a biker gang. Or, lacking a motor vehicle, join a cyclist gang.

I never made any friends by playing tabletop games; depending on where you are, finding gamers is more difficult than making friends with lolrandom people.

Pathfinder has long since surpassed D&D in popularity, what with the lack of official support for the latter.
IKnowThisBecauseOfMyLearnings.jpg

You have a point that a lot of gamers, are anti social and aren't interested in making new friends. I'd love to join a biker gang but don't have the $$$ for a decent bike. A cyclist gang? Never heard of such a thing.

Good point. Never seen an Aikido class near me; where I live now is solely Karate.

One thing though OP be careful of classes that are called something along the lines of Self Defense, Street Fighting or other generic names. A lot of them are utter rubbish and impractical, and whilst they may seem a good place to meet people you'll be committing moves to your reflex memory that are potentially dangerous.
If you do choose to go in for one then cast an analytical eye over it: Do the moves look good or are they simple and fast, how exposed do they leave you (this is especially one to consider if they're claiming knife defense techniques.) does the tutor make outlandish claims or have a laundry list of titles etc.

Agreed. To further what serpantino says, choose a real well-established style like Krav Maga, Combat Hapkido, Classical Jujutsu, Aikido/Aikijujutsu, or Ninjutsu. Especially with the last style though, whackjobs are abound, both in students and instructors (Simon Yeo comes to mind as one), so make sure the instructor is well-established himself and well-connected with Hatsumi or whoever the grandmaster is. Otherwise it'll be like this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzh9koy7b1E&feature=youtu.be&t=24s

You're lucky to have that even much people in your area :P

Sports ......... I heard.

:)


oh, and moderating gog forums...

You know about my home? I mean apart from what I've posted in here.

StarCraft 2. Especially with the fun Barcrafts that get organised in countries were SC2 is being played a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lTcI1AHfqU