I mean, almost everything in d&d opens with one sentence of mechanically unimportant flavor. And there are changes to the mechanical text here.

How about whole books for 5E? Finally live after a year and a half of development! www.kickstarter.com/projects/som...

Songs of the Spellbound Sea: Nautical Adventures for 5E!

Explore the Spellbound Sea with naval combat and ocean travel rules, 3 new classes, 20+ subclasses, 100s of spells, and more!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/som... !

Local FB groups for Adventurer's League. Every part of that sounds terrible, and is. But it's good for meeting folks, inc. ppl in the same boat, lots of new or shy people who don't go ham on the RP. (Could also try some online games, to get experience but put yourself a little less out there).