Hi, the biggest bit of advice I can give you is find songs you like and learn them.
I've been playing guitar for over 10 years and that's the advice I give anyone I teach. If your not playing song you enjoy you will get bored.
I decided to take up 5 string Banjo last year mainly because I love the tunes Cripple Creek and John Hardy I learned them both pretty quickly but then ran out of tunes I knew to learn so I quickly got bored of putting in the hours needed to get better.

If you can, get a teacher or at least find a friend who plays banjo to show you some tunes, another reason I don't play as much as I'd like is because it's a lot harder to find online resources with Banjo tabs then it is guitar ones.
There are so many version of the same songs and different ways to play them it can get very complex if your trying to do it on your own. I think so far I know of at least 5 different ways to play Cripple Creek.

Make sure you enjoy what your playing and stick at it and you'll do great! 

The playing chords over rolls idea is great!
I played rolls a lot when I first started banjo but because my left hand wasn't up to speed yet I sort of gave up and started playing claw hammer style.
I learned a lot of the chords from playing claw hammer style but never thought to put chords n rolls together.

Thanks! 

Banjo is always something I've wanted to learn. I have no first hand advice to offer, but you might try what Steve Martin did. It's rumored that he taught himself to play by listening to records (you know, those round plastic things  ) at a slowed rate of play. Once you develope the "small muscle memory", just pick up the pace. Good lock!