One thing I should make clear is that when I talk about advice for playing roll playing games from zero I don’t necessarily mean Dungeons and Dragons. RPG is the generic term for a Roll Playing Game. Dungeons and Dragon’s is A roll playing game. It is by no means the only Roll Playing Game. There ARE others. D&D may have been the first, but didn’t take long for competitors to come out.
Note that it’s now been over forty years since the first rules were published and just like in baseball where new rules are invented over time (like the designated hitter). So you’ll hear things like D&D, Advanced D&D, fifth edition rules, etc. And just like with the designated hitter, some people don’t like the ‘new’ rules and don’t play the latest edition.
I’ll give my recommendations later, but for now just know there’s a reason I use more generic language. For the record the closest I have ever been to being on the payroll was a magazine article I wrote for an obscure system called Tunnels and Trolls.