You could play MTG: Arena for free, but I’d understand if online play wasn’t your thing.

You could also have a look at pauper decks, which are focused on being very affordable.

I must also admit that, as a longtime player, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the hobby right now due to how the game is managed and the insane amount of releases they put out.

At work a long time ago they played mtg with fake cards, like home printed.

I don’t know if they had the same or whatever extra rules surrounded it, but I sure do know that the scarcity thing is just a dark pattern to rob players of their money.

Neither can I, and I have 9 Commander decks. Very rarely do I spend more than a few dollars on a single card, and even then it’s been maybe $15 at most.

Those cards that are that expensive are good (provided they aren’t just special printings of cards that are otherwise less than a dollar), but they’re absolutely not necessary in casual formats. Most of the time, there’s a <$1 card serves the same purpose. There’s even a format called Pauper where only commons are allowed.

Standard is where it gets excessively overpriced, and it’s a big reason for its decline in players over the past few years. If you want to play it, play Arena, which is F2P.

I mean, you don’t have to buy those absurdly expensive single cards to have fun. I bought my first cards in 1997 and have been playing on and off since then. I have only ever bought pre made decks or booster packs, not once have I even been tempted to buy some stupidly expensive single card.

You can buy a starter pack that comes with two decks for you and a friend to learn to play with for like £15 - 20.

I won’t deny some of the shit it out of control expensive but you don’t need any of that trash to both learn to play and have fun with it!

The joke about drugs being cheaper isn’t a joke. The joke is the pain your wallet feels

If you don’t care about tournaments and want to play with your closer friends then you can all build simpler decks with budget restrictions or you can even prepare a “cube” which is just basically an independant game that uses MtG rulesets. There’s tons of cheap cards.

Yeah. I limit myself to sealed tournaments, Jumpstart, and a casual commander deck.

I’m in this same sort of boat. It’s not that I really want to play but I have a friend who wants me to play and I’m happy to go along with it. So like you, I can’t justify the prices for something that I might (and probably) won’t even like.

What I’ve found is what are called “proxys”. Basically you can just print the cards you want for free off the internet. I’m sure there are groups out there that aren’t approving of playing with proxies but if your group falls more on the side of playing and having fun rather than collecting and you’re not trying to pass off proxies as real cards then you should be fine.

It seems to me like a great way to get started and see if it’s something you like without much investment at all

Proxies my friend.

Not everyone needs to do the tournament thing. There is a format called booster draft where knowing how to build a deck matters as much as how well you actually play. But it works like poker in the sense that you buy in with a sealed booster pack and you keep the cards at the end. Depending on the local format, it can be winner takes all.

N scale is pretty small though there’s not as much available as HO scale.

Make it really mini.

It’s funny, I noped out of coding immediately after trying it when I was 14 for basically the opposite reason. It delighted my logical math brain and I wanted to know everything, and I realized I’d be really really good at it.

And just as quickly I realized that if I went down that path, it would consume my life. I would get a job coding, all my hobbies would be coding, and I would spend all day every day in front of a screen. That wasn’t a life I wanted, even if I would’ve been happy day to day.

I even avoid getting into the weeds on any technical computer stuff, because I know it’ll be a slippery slope.

Can I talk to you my lord and god… Skydiving?

Nothing you do in the air will ever be cheap, but jumping out of planes is a lot cheaper than flying them.

Hi! Lifelong climber (grew up on doing free climbs) and I have some thoughts.

First off, please go to a climbing gym or two and take a beginners class. I can’t account for someone being an asshole but I can tell you that older climbers are definitely excited when someone’s interested in their thing, like most usually are. With that said, I want to give you a fair warning. My number one concern for someone of your stature would be foot/ankle injuries and pulley injuries (fingers) with rotator cuff being second.

With that said, I completely think you could do bouldering and frankly the fact that you’re already a frequent gym goes/weight lifter means you have a, forgive the pun, a leg up on most who are gonna walk in that gym. Take it easy, don’t try and do anything absurd, and have a good time. If you’re renting shoes from the gym then keep in mind that climbing shoes are a WHOLE thing and finding a pair that work and don’t completely murder your feet is a project in and of itself even with average sized feet, your size 16s might be a bit of a secondary project tbh. But spend some time on a wall and see how you feel about it truly after having someone give you some pointers as it’s an activity that is closer to 75% technique and 25% strength so knowing some beta (climber speak for “meta” - knowledge of a route/problem) actually goes a long ways.

Edit: Seriously though, the difference between an everyday rental shoe and a shoe that is higher quality and fitted properly to your foot actual does make a tangible difference in how you “feel” and whether you get positive response from the wall/foot connection. Good traction will ensure you can get grip even on the face.

You’ll learn footwork over time. I would absolutely recommend going back a few more times and maybe sign up for a beginners class. I started climbing a few years ago and it has been the best decision I’ve made in a while

The shoes may be the only issue, as few brands even make climbing shoes in those sizes. But I see people of all shapes and sizes at the gym and at the crag, and everyone is there to have fun. It`s a very low-judgment sport, some just like climbing easy stuff, and others like pushing their limits.

CodeAcademy is pretty good for a free self-teaching tool, you should definitely take their course! The good news is that the stuff you learn in C# can easily translate to other languages like Java or Python. C# also has a lot of nifty synthetic sugar, it’s a fun language

Yeah, me too (with learning how to drift). Looks so much fun to do. That, and learning how to drive a motorcycle too.

Motorsport CAN be done relatively cheaply… drifing is not one of the cheaper options unfortunately.

Theres a hillclimb circuit near me and I’ve contemplated buying a cheap hatchback just to have something to take out, abuse and upgrade as I can.

Let me tell you, you dont need imagination. But a fun group is everything

As a 50 year old skater with a broken wrist, you will for sure break something.

Still skate a few times a week, though far more mellow than in my teens and twenties. Mostly just carving the park or some mini ramp.

I always wanted to get into wake boarding, but there was never a boat around etc.

Now with my knee injuries it’s too late to learn something new.

However, I’m pretty sure I could handle surfing.

The electric one wheel boards are a lot of fun, and are easier than a skateboard, but pad up and helmet for sure.

I too skated for years but was just an A to B skater because I could never figure out how to olly. Watched tons of videos, had friends try to teach me, but could never get up even a one inch ledge. But it was my preferred method of transport to get around town prior to getting a driver’s license. You could go into a store without locking up a bike, or some mean shop owner telling you no roller blades inside, you could take the bus or train easily, or hop in a friends or parents car easily. Though the train was the most common way I would lose my board by getting off my stop in a hurry. Eventually I fully switched to longboard, but even now in my forties I can’t do it. My child got one for Christmas and I felt like a fish out of water immediately and knew that one small mistake would put me out of work. I do miss it though and I look back on those days fondly.

Honestly, I find it to be miserable at first too, which really sucks. I’ve stopped and started exercising multiple times in my life and it’s always difficult for me to get back into for this reason. However, I’ve found that if I comfortably push through I get to a point where I’m struggling less and it becomes more satisfying. That’s when I start enjoying it because I can start setting specific goals and working towards them.

The secret to it is to learn which kind of misery to keep pushing through and which kind of misery is an emergency stop. You gotta get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Then… It kind of becomes more comfortable.