I've always wanted to try out a table-top game but it's a little daunting. Giant rule books that look like they take ages to go through. Hard core table-top vets that are lightning fast at the game. All these factors are a little scary to me. Plus there's so many, I don't even know where to start to be honest. Any suggestions? For a beginner of course.
The suggestion you are searching for is pretty much the following one.
In all honesty though, it is the people you play with, which determines the quality and difficulty. Some people get hung-up on rolling the dice and micro-management of every damn aspect... While others actually focus on the actual "story creation", which was most games intention... Then others throw all that out the window, and just go free-for-all, only taking note of "rules". (Those are the real fun ones. However, you don't actually get much content, just a lot of laughs.)
My advice would be to find some likely-minded people to start with (possibily as beginners as you), and a nice Game Master who knows his job. Agree on a RPG the Game Master knows, then organize a 4 hour meeting with everyone. Before the meeting, skim the basics of the Player Manual, just to be able to have an idea about the world you will be playing into.
Then meet with your group, and let the Game Master introduce the world, races, classes, and help you define who would you be. A nice Game Master is able to fill your first character sheet just by asking you some questions about your desired character. Otherwise, he could just prepare some characters himself and let players choose their role.
Agree on a day to start your adventure, then just play listening the Game Master and declaring what your character wants to do. Let the Game Master explain stuff when those will be needed.
At this point, you just started playing without "Giant rule books that look like they take ages to go through", then your level of fun/involvement/curiosity may or may not trigger your interest about knowing better the rules.
