I really enjoy pen and paper RPG's, so I'm arguably biased. That being said, I think more people could enjoy them and potentially would, if it weren't for a few different things. The aspect I'd like to touch on today is the approachability of the Tabletop RPG's as a story-telling group game.
The systems involved in playing many of these games are very... complex. The reason the systems are there is to help create a structure for storytelling which actually helps in writing the story that the players and DM/GM/ZM will be writing together. This doesn't come from them always being poorly developed, but more so because creating such rich and detailed stories with so many potential aspects to manage simply requires so much depth. The core concepts of these games aren't difficult though.
Here's an attempt to simplify -
When attempting to perform an action or task, the player of the character rolls a dice(or die), representing their chance to succeed or fail at that attempt. The required result is higher or lower based on the difficulty of the task. The character has stats and skills which add to the result of the roll, increasing chances of success, where as things which make an attempt more difficult can either be given as penalties or added to the difficulty "check"(that number you need to get to succeed).
Just about EVERYTHING in pen and paper RPG systems is set-up to allow this testing method to "accurately"* model and predict outcomes of events based on skill, talent, and circumstance. Oh, and the DM's temperament.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
*I put quotes because accuracy is more about working storytelling models than aiming for perfect realism
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