I really like the idea of tabletop role-playing, because I am a massive fan of RPGs such as Skyrim and the idea of one which is simply limitless as per your imagination sounds amazing to me. However, as I've researched into things, I've struggled to find the right one for me and to a lesser extent my friends who I hope to play with.

Initially, because of its popularity, I looked at Dungeons & Dragons. I even went to a club for a session to see how character creation works. We were running the latest edition, 4E. The problem with this is that it is designed to be played with miniatures on a grid. I don't like that. It requires a greater cash investment from players, which makes it harder to convince people to play it with me, and also eliminates the chance of playing over Google+ Hangouts or Skype if I couldn't find people locally to play with. Whilst I have heard of converting the rules to work with narrative combat, it seems like quite a bit of work.

After posting around a few forums, someone recommended Dungeon World. It is a tabletop role-playing game inspired by old-school variants of Dungeons & Dragons, but with some of the ease of modern rules. I like the look of this game very much, because it's designed for narrative combat and is undeniably simpler than the latest released version of D&D. Gone are concepts such as Initiative, for example. There are two problems with this, however. Firstly, it isn't massively popular. Finding a club to learn the rules from is going to be hard and I tend to find tabletop games hard to teach yourself. Secondly, obtaining the books is going to also be hard. Their website only seems to sell physical copies inside the US, unless you pay to have it imported which can be expensive. There is a digital format, but I don't think a PDF is as nice as a physical copy that I can refer to without having to turn on electronic devices.

There were quite a few people on these forums with knowledge on this matter in the past. It was in fact here that I was advised to look into pen and paper role-plays, after all. With that in mind, would anyone be able to advise me on a suitable RPG to look into? First and foremost, it has to be easily obtainable in the UK. I don't want to have to get stuff imported and preferably not order from "shady" websites either. In other words, I'd like the materials to be easily available from a gaming store or a major online retailer such as Amazon. Secondly, it has to be playable without a grid or miniatures. I want something that literally only needs dice, the books and, as the name of the genre suggests, pen and paper to play. Being able to play over the internet is a big deal for me. Third, and finally, the rules need to be simple. The simpler the rules are, the better. So long as it is still flexible and not ridiculously limiting, I want ultra simple rules. Does anyone here know of such a game and is able to suggest it to me? Thanks for even reading such a long piece of text!

One thing about 4e, all you need is something to represent you, it could even just be a rock you find outside. And a some sort of a tile grid for combat that you can even just draw up yourself on a sheet of paper. And if you ever need to show something on the map like walls or a table you can get creative and use pencils and erasers. That's what my group did. So unless you really wish to be fancy and play with store bought maps and grids, you don't have to buy anything except maybe the handbooks. So I wouldn't say 4e has to be such a big cash investment.

It's not solely the cash investment that is putting me off though. I've done my homework and, from what I have read, I simply prefer the sound of narrative combat. My interest in tabletop role-playing games blossomed during YouTube's Geek Week, where I saw a video of the Yogscast playing their own game of Pathfinder. They used custom rules and did narrative combat. If you've seen that video, you'll know what I mean. Also, any form of tiled combat makes it more difficult to play over Skype or Hangouts, which if I can't find people locally to play with will be my only choice.

EDIT: I guess that, to put it more shortly, I'm looking for an RPG with narrative combat, simplistic rules and a way of obtaining within the UK.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Basic-Fantasy-Role-Playing-Game/dp/1482355124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376778754&sr=8-1&keywords=chris+gonnerman Haven't tried it meself, but at that price you (probably) can't go wrong.

I've been wanting to figure out how to manipulate D&D rules to narrative combat. Someone tell me how exactly this works? Also, can anyone tell me how to train my mind to be a great DM, because I tend to forget things.

Or just give me tips and such. I was going to make my own thread, but I think this one shall suffice.

If you live in the US, look at Dungeon World. It's basically classic D&D with modernized and simpler concepts. It has narrative combat. I like it, but it isn't very popular in the UK and nowhere even sells it.

I'll look into it, but aren't there other books I shall also need? DM Guide or Monster Manual of some sort?

I wonder if I can find D&D adventures, and ways to bend the rules as I see fit on the Internet. Not a booklet for sale, but just all the information needed about the adventure to play effectively, on the Internet.

Dungeon World is free to play, if by that you mean having all of the information available online.

http://book.dwgazetteer.com/index.html

It's released under a Creative Commons License.