Playing the Game
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When it comes to advice on learning how to play roleplaying games, there are countless online resources such as Blogs, Reddit threads, and You Tube channels. This chapter will explain the basic concepts and expectations for you as a player at the table but certainly don't assume that this is all you will ever need to know. Playing roleplaying games is a rewarding hobby, and the more effort you put in the more fun that everyone has playing your game.
How do I play?
You will be sharing in a game of pretend play with dice. You will make a character using the rules and assistance from the Gamemaster, and then you will personify that character in a collaborative story with a group of other people. The Gamemaster will present the story, describe the world, tell you about people and monsters you meet in that world, and generally narrate everything that your character experiences. You will be given tasks and challenges, and you will roll dice and add skill totals from your character sheet to determine success or failure. Sometimes your character will engage in battle, and you will have to make decisions turn by turn of what to do. You will roll attacks, you will suffer wounds, and hopefully each time your characters will be victorious. Below is a short example of play.
Example of Play
Rob, Alex, Emma, Skyler and Jace have all made characters and reviewed the rules. The Gamemaster has created their first adventure, where their five characters are searching around a chain of hills for an ancient dwarven tomb.
GM: “You have been hiking all day through the hills, and your characters are hot and tired. There is still no sign of the lost tomb. What do you want to do?”
Rob (Brawn, the human fighter): “We should find a safe place to camp. Calliope, can you scout around for us?”
Skyler (Calliope the Fairy): “I can do that…” she says in a lilting voice. Calliope will fly up a hundred feet or so and look around.
GM: “Ok, Calliope flies up a way. Make a perception check.”
Skyler (Calliope) rolls a d20 and adds her character’s perception skill. “Oooh, I got a 22!”
GM: “Very nice. You don’t see any structures, but with your extra elevation you spot what looks like a cave entrance about quarter mile up the trail and what might be stairs.”
Emma (Laurel, the human rogue): Laurel shouts out. “What do you see up there?”
Skyler (Calliope) excitedly responds. “I see a cave up ahead!”
Alex (Vincent the human magician). “I’m not a fan of caves. They are dark and damp and bad for my books.”
Jace (Baldrick the troll): Baldrick pats Vincent on the back and chuckles. “Let’s go little man and get out of this heat.”
GM: Do you all head to the cave?
The group: There’s some general nodding and agreement.
GM: Ok, you follow Calliope up the trail and reach what look like old stone stairs carved into the hillside leading up to the cave entrance.
Emma (Laurel): I examine the stairs. Can I tell how old they are?
Alex (Vincent): I was wondering the same thing.
GM: Sure, roll either a General Knowledge or a Crafting / Stonework check. 
Emma (Laurel): I'll roll general knowledge. I rolled a 6, plus 7 is 13.
Alex (Vincent): I can assist. I rolled an 18, plus 5 for 23. That should add my 2 ranks to her total.
GM: It does. With a 15, I'll tell you that you both study the stonework, and while you can't tell who crafted them, they are at least three hundred years old.
Emma (Laurel): "These are pretty old. Old enough to belong to this tomb!"
Everyone gets excited. 
GM: Do you climb the stairs up to the cave entrance? 
Everyone: More general nodding in agreement.
GM: You all climb the stairs, soon reaching a small plateau in front of the cave. It’s quite large, easily big enough for Baldrick to walk into. As the sun begins to set, shadows fill the cave entrance, but beyond there is only darkness.
Alex (Vincent): “Who is going in first?”
Rob (Brawn): “I will.” Brawn draws his longsword and steps forward.
Alex (Vincent): Vincent moves next to Brawn and carefully reaches over to touch his sword. “Hold still”. He casts the spell Torchlight on Brawn’s sword.
GM: Brawn’s longsword begins to glow brightly, driving the darkness farther back into the cave.
Skyler (Calliope): Calliope lands on Baldrick’s shoulder.
Emma and Jace announce their characters draw their weapons.
Alex has Vincent cast another torchlight spell on his wand just to be safe.
GM: Brawn carefully leads the way into the cave. Small insects skitter away from you and drops of moisture periodically land on your helmet with a splat. Otherwise, it is quiet except for your footfalls.
Rob (Brawn): Brawn keeps going in, but whispers back to the group, “We should stay quiet and close together.”
GM: If you are all going to try to be quiet, everyone needs to make a stealth check.
Everyone rolls a d20 and adds their subterfuge totals; Emma rolls twice and takes the higher number because Laurel is proficient in stealth. They all announce their results to the GM.
The GM considers their numbers and continues. “You creep farther into the cave, and it is deeper than you expected. The air grows cooler, and before long the light from the cave entrance is lost in the gloom.
Jace (Baldrick): I’d like to study the cave formation to see if I can learn anything about it.
GM: Ok, make a knowledge underground check and give me your total.
Jace (Baldrick): Baldrick has the underground proficiency, so Jace notes he is at plus one Edge to the check. He rolls twice and adds his skill to the higher number. Baldrick got an 18.
GM: “Baldrick studies the formation of the cave. You can tell it was originally natural, probably carved through the rock by a stream at one point, but it was worked smooth by crafter's hands.”
Jace (Baldrick): “This is an old cave, but it has been worked. Maybe a mine. Or maybe a tomb.”
Rob (Brawn): Does Brawn see any signs of life or use?
GM: “You could make a Read Tracks check.”
Rob (Brawn): Hmm. Brawn doesn’t have that, so I’d just be rolling Perception.
Emma (Laurel): Laurel can read tracks! She’ll offer to look around.
Rob (Brawn): Sounds good. Brawn stops to wait for her to check.
Emma (Laurel): I rolled a 12 and a 16, so 16 plus 4 is 20!
GM: Laurel looks around the floor while everyone pauses to rest. With a 20 Laurel does spot some fresh tracks in the dirt.
Emma (Laurel): Of what…?
GM: Goblins!
Emma (Laurel): “Guys, there are fresh goblin tracks here…”
Do I have to talk as my character?
There are two acceptable ways to roleplay. Brand new players may find it more comfortable to speak in the third person, using sentences such as "My character speaks to the shopkeeper and tries to talk him down on the price", versus speaking as your character and having a first-person dialogue with the Gamemaster playing as whoever your character is interacting with. You should do whatever feels more comfortable. You do not have to speak with an accent or use a funny voice, but you can imagine how your character would sound and try to express that if you'd like.
Learn the rules
To successfully play any game, you need to learn the rules. There is this assumption that learning how to make your character is enough because the Gamemaster knows all the rules, but this is simply not true. Adventure's Edge may seem daunting to learn at first, and you will get better as you play, but the more you know when you show up for your first session the better. At the very least you need to understand what your character is capable of, how to use your skills, attacks, special abilities, and spells. Read through the Rules Summary section in the Appendix for a concise breakdown of the system and then explore broader concepts in each chapter. Don't worry though, no one will expect you to know all the rules right away! 
Create a character that fits
At the beginning of a new game the Gamemaster should explain what the story will be about, what you should expect the setting and tone to be, and what types of characters will work best. If you are joining a game in progress, you need to be very clear about these expectations before building your character. It is easy to get focused on a specific idea or backstory that may conflict with the current game. If you aren't clear on the expectations, speak to the GM before spending a lot of time making a character that won't fit in. You should also consider what the other characters are. Adventure's Edge is less role-based than similar roleplaying games, but if there are already one or two of the same class and specializations you or the other players might be frustrated if you feel like you are competing over niche activities in the game.
The setting and tone of Adventure's Edge
If you will be playing in the world of Tellus, in general the game will have a serious tone. That doesn't mean that you won't have jokes or silliness at your table, it means that the world will feel realistic and consistent; your characters will always feel vulnerable, danger will stay real, and success will be determined by smart and creative play and requires good teamwork.
Creating a backstory
Unless you are starting at higher-level play, a level 1 character's adventures begin in the first session. Don't write pages worth of adventures that you imagine your character to have already shared in. Instead, focus on the simple things that define your character; where they were born and raised, who their family is, and what they have been doing up until now. Most likely this involved working in the family business, having an apprenticeship, or in rare cases getting a formal education. Your character should not be an exiled noble from a foreign land who spent months as a pirate captain before getting shipwrecked, then saved by a traveling caravan that you then protected from marauders, before journeying hundreds of miles to the starting city. The other players don't want to hear all that and your GM doesn't want to read all that.
Not everyone is an orphan
Speaking of backstory, it is ok to have a healthy living family. Too many players think a tragic backstory leading to being an orphan is what creates a hero. That doesn't mean never have a tragic backstory. The world is a hard place but use it sparingly. Having roots literally provides your character connections to the setting and gives your GM opportunities to introduce familial NPC's and to introduce storylines that are important to your character. 
That's what my character would do
Don't ever say these words at the table. You should have some ideas about your character's motivations but going back to "create a character that fits", those motivations need to mesh with the story. Your character doesn't exist outside of you, you define their personality, interests, and motivations. Roleplaying is a cooperative game, which means you all need to work together. Showing up with an Edgelord character with a tragic backstory and no interest in working with a team is a non-starter and breaks the social contract of the game.
Your character is not the hero of the story
Also known as Main Character Syndrome, you need to know that your character might be the most interesting and important character to you, they are not the most important one to the game. Tabletop roleplaying is a team game. Every character should have opportunities to shine, but your character isn't the star, and you should not constantly try to hog the spotlight. Be respectful of the other players at the table; everyone should try to have a good time together. Take an interest in them and their characters too!
Don't Metagame
Metagaming means to use information that you know as a player of the game to benefit your character when they should not have the same information. The longer you play any one game, the more you learn about the world and the monsters and other threats in it.  If you are playing a new character, you need to remember that what you as a player knows doesn't automatically transfer to what your character knows. Obviously, you and your character share the same brain, which makes not metagaming very difficult sometime. Do your best and play in good faith. You should never go out of your way to read monster stat blocks of what your character is fighting, or to find and read an adventure that your Gamemaster is using. At that point you have moved beyond metagaming and into the cheating territory. Which brings us to:
Don't Cheat
If you feel the need to cheat at a roleplaying game, you shouldn't be playing a roleplaying game. You probably also need therapy. Even if you think it is harmless, you are detracting from the overall experience of everyone at the table, and you are taking away from your own experience regardless of what you think. Don't do it.
Fulfill your social contract
Speaking of being respectful, organizing and running a roleplaying game can be challenging. Your Gamemaster spends a great deal of time and energy planning the adventures and coordinating gaming sessions. For many people scheduling three to four hours a week, or every few weeks, or whatever frequency you have the fortune to play is a commitment. For some it may be the only time they get to play, and they look forward to the next game hopefully the same way you do. If you have committed to being part of a game, then it needs to be a priority. Show up on time, show up prepared, and don't derail the game with distracting behaviors. This isn't to say that life doesn't happen; people get sick, cars break down, unavoidable incidents occur. Don't confuse unavoidable incidents with poor behavior. If you are chronically fifteen minutes late, you are making other people wait on you, and you are communicating a lack of interest and respect for everyone else who is there on time. This is true for playing games, and for the rest of the events in your life. 
In short, have fun, but not at the expense of someone else's fun.