I love role-playing games like Skyrim, but they all unfortunately have certain limitations as to what you can do with your characters. I heard about Dungeons & Dragons. Is it any good? How does it work exactly and how do I get started with it? A friend recommended it to me. They said it was relatively cheap and that it was, pretty much, only limited by your imagination.

To me it depends on which D&D game you're referring to as they can play differently

There's multiple D&D games? I didn't know that. My knowledge on D&D is that it's a role-playing game, but that's it. I'm just working off of a friend's recommendation.

Do you mean the Pen and Paper game or the computer games, if its the P&P game ive always enjoyed 1st ed AD&D and 2nd ed, 3rd wasnt to bad but it was a complete change of rules from the past 2, 4th ed was a killer for D&D, 3rd or 3.5 was much more succesful and the rumours are that they may be returning to that ruleset. Ive played D&D for longer than i can remember ive always enjoyed it, but it can become a bit same ole same ole unless you get a DM with a decent imagination.

Are you interested in pen and paper game you play with other people or the computer games based on the pen and paper ruleset?

I'm referring to the pen and paper game, not the computer games based upon it.

yep, D&D is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_video_games

I'm referring to the pen and paper game, not the computer games based upon it, and want to know how to get started.

This site should be able to help you get started:

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Default.aspx?takeme=new

3rd edition (specifically 3.5) is probably your best bet. Good mix of depth and user-friendliness. Players only need one book, the Players Handbook. Dungeon Master are going to want at least a Dungeon Masters Guide and a Monster Manual. If you don't want to buy a book, you can use the http://www.d20srd.org/, although the lack of context might be unhelpful.

You get started with it so that you play in a game that someone else leads. You don't need too much knowledge for your 1st time when you play it, DM (dungeon master, the one who creates all the situations and leads the game) is the one that needs to know all the rules. So I suggest you 1st organize one game, get someone to lead the game for you and your friends and see what it's all about.

Am I right in thinking that D&D is playable over Skype? Like, all it requires is talking mainly and dice rolling?

Well, the person who asked was a friend of a friend, who had the message passed on. Because I'm good at writing fiction, they were asking if I'd be interested in getting started and being the dungeon master. But, as for now, I'm just looking into it. Your idea sounds good to begin with though. How many people does a game need anyway?

Well. First you should know that there are several editions, with more or less different rules. The most popular is 3.5 edition. But there is Pathfinder, another Pen & Paper game, which is basically a more cleaned up, easier to get into refined version of 3.5 edition. Either way, there are three basic books, Gamemaster Guide-book(s) and Player guide book(s) and the Monster Manual/books. I say book(s), because people always come up with more ideas to add to the game and thus the Player's Handbook 3 might contain new player classes, like ninjas, samurais and killer robots.

People saying "D&D is vast" is an accurate description of the P&P as well, because the Gamemaster makes the game in the image that s/he has and then the players play it. It can be more or less rule-heavy, include more dice-management or be the opposite.

4th edition of D&D, which is the newest published version of D&D, is a lot more like a strategy game, with a very big emphasis on combat, them lasting for even hours.

You might want to look around at other Pen & Paper games as well, to find the type you like. There is GURPS, Generic Universal Roleplaying System, which has a _lot_ of optional rules to play around with, but it allows you to run basically any kind of game you want and in any setting, magic, high-tech, futuristic, fantasy...

New World of Darkness, a new version of World of Darkness, focusing on horror and investigation, with different books to play vampires, werewolves, monster hunters et cetera.

3rd and 4th edition both require a tileboard to play it on, but there are plenty of online tabletops made just for that and I mean exactly for it, just google "Online Tabletop". Skype and the one of your choosing work great together.

http://www.ttoprpg.com/TTopRPG/ is a good free one, I recommend it at first and then maybe looking at ones you actually have to buy.

Well, my friend discovered it through listening to a podcast, in which they played D&D over Skype? Was there a set of rules that don't require a board?

Probably. I've heard of people playing it via chat room and stuff. It helps being close enough to throw Cheetos or other snack food at your fellow players, however.

They really don't. A tileboard can be helpful, but you can get by with chicken-scratch on a piece of paper, or even just doing it in your head.

Which Pen & Paper game offers the most flexibility? We just want something where we can, pretty much, do whatever our imagination desires with rules simply there to help guide us from making unfair situations for one player or whatnot.

Playing D&D over skype is fine.

Don't do 4e. 4e svcks. 3e is best, 3.5 is ok, 2e's fine too but you probably won't like it.

D&D can get pretty expensive with the books. You can find some information online, but you'll probably want to at least acquire a rulebook and one DM expansion book to draw monsters from.

I ask because I only know a few people who live locally and would be interested in it. Internet means I can play with friends who have moved away or even just find a group on Google+. The Hangouts system is quite cool for P&P games.

Are there any pen and paper games which are less expensive? Just, it's going to be hard to convince my friends if they have to spend much money. They're not exactly financially stable at the moment, as is the way with too many people nowadays.

They might have also had an online tabletop, played an older edition or the newest, https://www.wizards.com/dnd/dndnext.aspx which is still in development, they do not really need a tabletop.

GURPS would be your choice then, but it has a lot of rules and I mean a lot. It has been infamous for its massive amount of complicated rules, but there is a free GURPS Lite version on the net, which gives you the basic idea. The newest version of GURPS, 4th I think, has also done much to make the game more accessible. GURPS has the best character creation thought, in my opinion, because you can really make anything the GM allows.

Actually, 4th and 3rd edition of D&D, plus Pathfinder, are so heavily tile-based that I really can't see combat being done without a tileboard everyone can see. It would get really hard and complicated without it, in my opinion. Of course, P&P games that do not necessarily rely of tileboard, you can easily play without one and can give a more storyteller like mood.

Well you only *really* need one copy of each book(handbook, DM book, monster expansion book). The books can be had pretty cheaply off of ebay and amazon. Just make sure you get ALL of them from the same edition!

That's because 4e svcks and focuses too much on combat. I've played 3E with the DM just having a map before and it works perfectly fine.

How complicated are we talking here? My friends are role-playing fans here, but some of them aren't fans of complicated rules. It's why they gave up with miniature warfare games like Warhammer 40K and switched to strategy games on the PC, because they couldn't be bothered with all the rules.