Indie Basics

Hello, all. I suppose being straight to the point would help me communicate my current predicament to you all. I am a university student with a story that I want to see translated into the medium of an indie RPG, but have zero experience in game development and programming; to make matters worse, I have no cash and, even when I do start working again, will probably not have as much money as I would like to fund my project.

What would you recommend that I do in order to begin learning game design and what are some economical options that I could use to practice game design?

Any help would be more than appreciated.