Recently got very interested in starting playing traditional pen &paper roleplaying games with my friends, but I have no idea on where to start! D&D is of course the most famous, but its seems to be a whole lot of rules (and rule books). Heard a bit about call of cthulu as well and after just completing vampire masquerade bloodlines i'm pretty pumped for that one too. So what do u think ? whch one is the most accessible when it comes to rules, rulebooks and game time and whch one is plain best?

I suggest starting with Pathfinder. You can view everything you need to play legally for free on the SRD, and then buy the books if you're convinced you enjoy them: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/

It's essentially a DnD style RPG that's actually begun to rival and even surpass DnD itself in sales (largely helped by the fact that they allow the SRD to exist- this essentially acts as free advertising, and contrary to the lies told about such things, actually increases sales as a consequence.. But that's a completely different tangent).

Now mind you, Pathfinder is not without its faults... In particular, multiclassing is a joke in the game- even prestige classes don't offer enough incentive to deviate from going full 20 levels in a single character class... But overall, I think it's slightly superior to 3.5, which is generally agreed to be the best version of DnD.

Long time standing DM here, so I kinda know what you're talking about. :P Though I understand the fear of rule books on the Dungeon & Dragons side, the 4th edition kinda stream lined everything to a simplified version of them - which to some is interesting and to others isn't. First off you gotta ask yourself what kind of game you guys are into - heroic fights, strategic fights, long dramas involving investigations and stuff... If you really want to start as the normal 'lets-fight-a-bunch-of-goblins-till-we-net-treasures' I can't recommend you D&D4th more. Reason? Head over to wizards.com/dnd. They have this inside area for members (You have to subscribe monthly, it's a small cost compared to buying a lot of books, trust me.) that almost completelly erases the need of books. In my understanding, you'll probably need to net yourself a playbook to learn the simple rules (Starter is a great one, Dungeon Master and Players Handbook 1 as well) but after that is a breeze. The insider area gives you access to a thousand monsters, created to the game, and a tool for creating characters that automates the process and gives you access to the whole stuff ever realeased (So you dont end up having to keep buying books over and over again.). Just save as pdf, print and you're ready to play. Plus, really, the 4th edition rules are soooo easy. I could even help you if you need them explained.

PS: Someone beat me to it. xD Pathfinder is a GREAT system, but it's a little more hardcore than the 4th edition. It's my preference really, I just love the Pathfinder classes, but try to make a grapple and you'll go through several pages of rules. Not for starters I'd say.

After Sundown. It's PWYW, too.

Did someone mention [url=http://darthsanddroids.net/comics/darths0344_bonus.jpg]rules?

Personally, I adore almost every roleplaying system I get my grubby hands on, from Pathfinder to Call of Cthulhu, so to me no single game takes precedence as "best". However, for a good, solid introductory roleplaying game, I cannot recommend Swords and Wizardry strongly enough: http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/

I have the hardcover edition of the Core rules and I love it. It's simple enough to run after one or two readings and yet with enough room for additional material as you see fit. It's a retroclone (a sort of remake) of the original Dungeons and Dragons rules, so it's a lot simpler than most, and it has a free version available.

I'd ask your friends what sort of game they'd prefer to play. Swords and Wizardry (and really any D&D style game) is going to be heavy on action for the most part, while a game like Call of Cthulhu is more subtle and creepy with a lot of bad things happening that the players can't face head on. As for Vampire...well I like it, but it's more of a storytelling game, with an emphasis on deeper plots and character interaction.

Many of the bigger companies offer "quick start rules", which are simplified rulesets that you can download as a way of getting your feet wet.

Here are some Quick Start Rules for Call of Cthulhu, though I don't know if it's really the best game for novices. It's one of my favourite game systems, but it tends to be very brutal and deadly, and focuses more on investigation than combat. I tend to pull it out with more experienced game groups who know how to "have fun losing". :)

I assume that DnD has something similar, though I don't have a link.

I also find Savage Worlds to be a fairly user-friendly system, good for pulp action settings. Plus there are lots of settings to choose from, so once you learn how to use it you can try out a lot of different genres.

To be honest, it's mostly about setting. The popular systems are usually easy to get into and flexible. If you want Tolkien influenced high fantasy, go for DnD 3.5e or Pathfinder. World of Darkness and Call of Cthulu have modern settings. Shadowrun is great for cyberpunk.

If you have no idea and simply want to dip your toe into PnP, go for DnD 3.5e.

I appreciate the thread/links too; also looking for new stuff to get into.

I can only speak to the second edition of Vampire as it is the one I own, but I don't think they changed a massive amount in the later editions.

The system has less of the game-like elements D&D has. No focus on leveling or mechanically bettering your character--even when you need to roll the dice it's often skewed in favor of character success. Instead, it's about personal plotlines and the setting's atmosphere, which is really, really Gothic vampire drama. It's very easy to learn, although the second edition is hardly the most clearly written, especially in regards to combat rules.

In some ways, it really is similar to Call of Cthulhu, although that one has a much more bleak feel and really stacks the odds against success. Whereas the core concept behind your average Vampire game is bad characters regaining some measure of humanity, CoC generally is about confronting something impossible to defeat to try and prolong humanity's existence.

Both games make predominant use of 10-sided dice, although Call of Cthulhu requires a few others as well.

Most of my Vampire experience comes from the original World of Darkness (all of it actually, I've just glanced at NWoD)
Vampire is great fun. The rules are not always quite as intuitive as they should be, but the setting is great, and the rules are not actually hard. If you want a game focusing more on social interaction and that sort of stuff, then Vampire is a good place to start.

As others have said, the most important part of a roleplaying game is the setting, so first and foremost find one that has a setting that appeals to you. That being said, some game systems are just poorly suited for certain forms of play, as they encourage the players to play a certain way. In a game where combat is very lethal, the players are more likely to seek out non-combat approaches, while in a game where a player character can take several bullets to the head, combat becomes a convenient go-to option.

I will go with Vampire the Masquerade too. I have yet to sit down for a proper session, but I've read through the majority of the V20 and I love both the rules and settings. It's great. Btw, you can find a lot of good RPG rulebooks and campaigns here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php

I've played a lot of Vampire Masquerade back a few years ago, far to the point of Live Action in fact. The system even go as far as having a side pack of rules to play on Live Action.

The beauty of the system of Vampire (At least the old one) is that it's not only for Vampire. I mean, it uses the Storyteller system, which basically tries to be effective on several drama-like situations... So if you like playing stories and dramas, you learn the system once and make small quirks and adaptations for the scenarios you wanna play.

Say you want to go from Vampire to a Call of Cthulhu game - it's doable on the Storyteller. Sherlock Holmes London style? Storyteller got you covered. The only point I'll start saying to watch out is combat, however, since the math side is quite chaotic and may leave a few players frustrated.

The system itself, though? Easy peasy to pick up and play.

Yeah I also found http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php. If I buy a pdf from there can I mail it round to my friends or do they have some kind of stupid protection that only lets me open it on my computer?