The long overdue RPG post

I hinted at it in the Dio post, then got sidetracked again by Avenue Q, but now it is time. In all honesty, I am not an RPG guy. In the East Cobb suburbs where I grew up, I didn't know or know of anyone into pen and paper RPGs. By middle school, someone did turn me on to the Forgotten Realms through some licensed novels (the works of R.A. Salvatore, naturally), but I still couldn't have named one person playing the game behind the setting. Despite that, I became what I call a lore whore.

I've never experienced a campaign and wouldn't know anything about the mechanics of various systems, but I can recite 'historical' facts from certain settings all day. Something about constructed worlds has always fascinated me, whether speaking of an RPG setting or background for a series of sci-fi/fantasy novels. No matter how dry the presentation, I never get tired of reading even the most minor of minutiae defining a new setting and its history/culture. It ties into my love of history, I imagine; I reap great enjoyment from reading up on real civilizations far removed from my own. I took four years of Latin not for the language itself, but for all the Roman cultural and historical lessons mixed in.

I've finally reached a point where I'd really like to try my hand at the underlying games, but everyone I know is either completely uninterested or an old hand. I guess I feel like I'd be a burden on my few experienced friends by trying to get involved with their games. Maybe I'll find a group that can tolerate my newbie ass. Someday.