Also, if a full-length campaign proves difficult to schedule, there are plenty of games designed to provide a satisfying story arc in a smaller number of sessions.
While I've had good success with text-only games myself (SE chat + shared GDoc), the person who's volunteered to GM here would like audio/visual and is considering Roll20 for the job.
They're mostly tabletop RPG specific, but one question is about RPG experience in general. Even if you've never done tabletop, video game RPGs can provide some meaningful roleplaying experience
i.e. you know what a bard is, what a ranger is, etc.
I don't like having players who have never tabletop gamed, but if they're willing to commit to a few games, i'm okay if they decide to drop out after that. its not for everyone.
it looks like it might be free, but I'm willing to pay a reasonable price for it if that is just a trial kind of thing. On the surface it looks very useful and immersive