kayisking said:
The irony is that I'm not even a D&D player. I would really really really love to learn the game but I sadly don't know anyone that plays.
you can try a variation on what I did... I learned a little, emphasis on little, and then moved home... pointed at a small handful of friends and said "you would enjoy this, get your head out of your ass, table top gaming is more social/fun than many of the far nerdier things you enjoy and you owe me the chance to prove it" The stigma is the hardest part about recruiting new players.
In your case find someone who's played before and is willing to run the first game (those with patience to GM often have patience to teach those who are new... as both require a lot) and then pick a handful of friends who you think might be interested and get them to 1 session, bribe, lie, call in favors, just get them to sit down and give it an honest chance, and you'll likely convert many. With Split-screen coop dying out, it's one of the most social nerd activities out there. I just got back from my weekly session... I started learning to play 2 years ago, and today I just wrapped up the last session in a 4 month long campaign (once a week) that I've been GMing...
Also one thing that can impede a group from starting is cost but here are a couple cash savers.
1) for your first session, either borrow dice or buy them at a game/hobby/math/whatev store (Seattle folks, Math-n-Stuff on Roosevelt is a personal recommendation) you can usually find bins or whatev where each dice is like a quarter or something, don't buy a matching set you'll pay twice as much. Grab a handful of 20's, and hand full of 10s (make sure the 10's are not all the same color or have a couple with 00-90 marked instead of 0-9) a few 8's (which can pull double duty as 4's if you're really cheap) and then loot some sixes from any board games you have around the house.
2) Unless you have a friend who has all the 4e books and insists on playing that edition (this isn't about which is better etc. edition wise) play 3.5e... The reason is that http://www.d20srd.org/ is a free and legal website with all the 3.5 core books (the 3 you need to play) since they make old editions rules public domain.
3) Don't use minis, use coins, extra dice, whatever, minis are expensive. Also if you parties fighting 6 goblins, having 6 dice turned to a different number helps confusion.
"I hit the goblin"
"which one"
"the one near me"
"you're surrounded"
"the one to my left"
"from the direction your mini is pointing?"
"no I'm supposed to be facing this way" *turn mini*
"oh ok"
can become
"I hit goblin #3"
