My advice is: if you have a group of friends, just ask them if they play, or if they ever thought about trying it out. DnD is very intimidating to get into, and I never would have attempted trying to join a group by myself. One of my friends just asked our friend group if we wanted to give DnD a try, and we all love it now!

Well, I don't really have any other advice for you, but good luck on your endeavor! :)

Go to the "Looking for Players & Groups" forum. You can post there if you're looking for players to DM for, or if you're just looking for a group to be a player in.

Oh, OK.

You could just go onto the PBP section and find one that's labeled as recruiting if you're okay with basically typing out what you want to do.

Quote from EchoIon >>

This only really worked in college and I was only able to hold the group together for two sessions. I'm pretty scattered from where most of my friends are now and had trouble forming a group even when I had a bunch of friends around. I don't have very strong social skills.

 It was easier pre-Covid, but finding a group really is the hardest part. Once the world has more-or-less returned to a state of semi-normalcy, one of your best bets is to hang out at your local game store. There you will likely find a number of folks who are likely interested in D&D and possibly already have a group and a game going. Not to mention, us nerds are not normally known for having an abundance of social skills, so likely you will have an easier time making friends there. Birds of a feather and whatnot.

Good luck! 

Quote from EchoIon >>

I've had a bunch of stops and starts in the last year trying to find a group, giving up, getting interested again and then my interest flagging when I can't find a group.  

 Find a like-minded group of people and establish consistency with getting together. Play board games. Play card games. Sit and talk D&D, but don't play. Talk Mandalorian. Talk geek life. Make characters, but don't play them. Figure out resources - who's buyin' D&D Beyond bundles? Who's bringin' snacks? Who's got the chops to DM. Who has to play. Do all of this, but don't play D&D.

At my table with ten like-minded individuals, nothing more needs to be said than, "I'm thinkin' of starting a game. Who's in?" Those that say "me" will commit. It won't fall flat. It hasn't in decades. I say like-minded because we're all on the same page with what's worthwhile to spend 6-8hrs per week on. If you know the crew, it's easy. If you don't, it's a lot more difficult (hence the like-minded part).

At my table of 10+DM, we've had a full table 95% of the time - and this is for 6 years. Folk shuffle life around D&D. Shit happens but if you can't shuffle life around those 6-8rs, you shouldn't be playing.

The Wizards site has a store/event locator: https://locator.wizards.com/?searchType=dnd. Adventurers League can be convenient as well (https://dnd.wizards.com/ddal_general) - that page also links to Fantasy Grounds and Roll20, the two main online platforms. Roll20 is free (though there are pay-to-play DMs there too), it's worth taking a look. Simply googling "dungeons and dragons d&d [insert your or a nearby city here]" can produce results as well.

I saw you're in AZ, which means I'm 8 hrs ahead of you - I don't think I can work around that, even for online play. It's not easy if you're the only/first in your group of friends to want to play, but you can do this. Best of luck!

Second the recommendation to look into Adventurers League in your area once the pandemic has subsided. Even if you don’t want to play that way long term, it’s a great way to meet other local players. After a few sessions, ask the people that you get along with best if they’d like to play a home game with you instead. They will likely jump at the chance. Almost everyone prefers a home game to DDAL down at the FLGS in my experience. 

Quote from EchoIon >>

This only really worked in college and I was only able to hold the group together for two sessions. I'm pretty scattered from where most of my friends are now and had trouble forming a group even when I had a bunch of friends around. I don't have very strong social skills.

The following worked for the friend who got me interested in D&D. He made a post to facebook asking does anyone have any interest in playing D&D? To his surprise, 4 of his friends from years back all said yes. They live all over North and South America (literally) but they made it work via Roll 20, Zoom, and the like. They played 2 full campaigns, one with him as DM, one with the other guy as DM. They'd still be going, I think, if he hadn't ended up with some family emergencies that also took him out of my group just after it formed.

My group was him getting a bunch of people he knew wanted to play D&D but had no one else together, and I roped my friend into it and he roped his friend into it. None of that original guy's friends  stuck, so it is now me, 2 of my friends, and one friend's friend... and another is planning to join us. 

But I think the best way is to just make that social media post and say you would like to start playing D&D and who is interested? And see who bites. However, if you do that, be prepared to DM it.

I GM 40k RPG. One of the players in my Black Crusade campaign invited me to play in his DnD game. As forever-GM I latched on the opportunity. The GM burned out after the first story that spanned 7 sessions, but some of my other 40k players picked it up and along with half of our original party I transferred my character to her story (others made new ones). She also burned out before even finishing her story, but I found yet another of my players to pick it up. God, now I know why they keep singing me praises after running years-long campaigns when most other GMs run out of fuel 5 to 10 sessions in.

Family is a great way to get started.  Once a month my mom and I get together and play.  I’ll also be running a group for coworkers once a week after we all get vaccines, one of them is already getting character ideas and I don’t have a campaign figured out yet!

As someone who, truth be told, suffers from a level of anxiety and the constant fear of rejection, all I can recommend is that you take a plunge.  Put yourself out there and be relentless.  If you have a very clear idea of what you want to run and how you want to run it then consider DMing - not everyone is going to be a fantastic DM from the get-go but they will invariably have strengths and weaknesses... the trick, as with many things in life, is playing to your strengths and trying to address your weaknesses.

From a personal point of view; I love the ideas side of things, the over-thinking that can sometimes be a burden but actually helps with DMing, and the over-analysis side of things.  However, I struggle with pacing (to the ire of many a player!) and I am frankly terrible at acting and accents (how I envy the likes of Mr Mercer!).  Centrally I try and be approachable - should any players not like me, my DM style, or the pacing of a campaign I would hope they could air any grievances...  Ultimately it is about being blunt about the type of campaign you would like to run, how you aim to run it, and being open to self-reflection and change if appropriate.  Though this can be more pronounced as a DM, it also goes with being a great player, being able to adapt to others and engage with others - even when its hard! - is an important part of D&D (and arguably life in general).

I can say that as a DM what I really appreciate are eager players, that do not rub others up the wrong way, and are willing to contribute / have fun.  Courtesy and thoughtfulness go so far in D&D you might be surprised.

ALSO - let me just give a shout out to the 'Play by Post' section of this forum.  It can be a great way of experiencing D&D at a relaxed pace.

Quote from IrRy0 >>

... I am frankly terrible at acting and accents (how I envy the likes of Mr Mercer!). 

 Matt Colville is a fantastic DM, who doesn't do accents. Chris Perkins is equally great, doesn't really do voices either beyond a little change in tone. I'm not saying special voices aren't awesome if you can do them, but you can definitely be a bang-up DM without. Professional voice actors being great at voice acting is cool, but that's not the standard all groups should set. DMs who try to be evocative and engaging usually get an equal response from their players, and that's all you should really want. I enjoy Critical Role a lot, but it's not a template for how things have to be - as you say, play to your strengths and address your weaknesses.