Re: Recommendations for a newbie?
Hello! Community's a great show huh? You mean the most recent father and son roleplay episode?
That one was primarily based on Dungeon's and Dragons, though they skipped using any real rule elements, pulling out made-up ones as suited the comedy. It was an homage to roleplaying in general, made more funny when you know game systems like D&D to begin with, and how they deviated from the norms.
In practice, you could probably say that Abed's Game-Mastering (or Dungeon-Mastering is the pronoun for D&D) is closer to what is called "free form" story telling in practice, meaning that the majority of issues are resolved by the game master in collaboration with the players, with generally few or no solid rules. Dungeons and Dragons is typically more rule-oriented, with dice used to resolve most issues that crop up.
It may be good to find videos online of some different game systems and sessions that players record and upload. Browsing through the games on this site (the publicly visible ones, some games are hidden by the creator) can also help you get an idea of what games you'd be interested in. The Penny Arcade D&D 4th edition podcasts are pretty funny and light.
Some players prefer more serious games of course, which I'm sure you can find as well.