Finished my first ever campaign of DnD yesterday–Tomb of Annihilation. We even survived after completing the objective and, more importantly, had a ton of fun while exploring the module and solving or bypassing the many puzzles in it.

So I wanted to give a bit of advice to people who thought of playing DnD but think it's too hard or expensive. Obviously, all that's below is my opinion, and if you think of adopting the hobby, you should consider watching a few games on YouTube or listening to more people who have just started out.

Option number zero is probably unavailable to you, but it's still worth mentioning. If your friends or acquaintances play, simply ask them if you can join. Normally, role-players are happy to help out people trying DnD or other tabletops.

Next, if you are reading this, then you probably live in a major city where gaming shops sometimes run Adventurers League games. Adventurers League is this super-accessible format of DnD that anyone can join. At least where I live, there are usually open slots you can sign up for, and you can join a game and try it out. Free simplified rules are provided, and you can add to this using the publicly available spell and item info (this stuff is made public by the publisher to help people create new content but you can use it to build your own character and play without having to by books before you can decide whether you need them). Basically, google it, and if there are Adventurers League games where you are, it might be the best place to start. I've never played this format myself, but people are quite happy with it. The games tend to lean toward efficiency as far as I heard, because people drop in and out of the groups all the time, and it's difficult to go for deep role-playing under these circumstances.

The option that I went for personally is playing on the Internet. It's different from playing at a physical table in a couple important ways (I game on roll20.net, but you'll probably also use it, because it's the most popular platform), so here are the things to consider.

Pros:

• When playing at a table, you need to drive somewhere, grab food, etc. While it adds to the fun, it also adds to the expense in both money and time. You can play online for free, and you need time only for the session itself.
• You don't need to by hardcover rulebooks. You can easily survive on the info available through the search function on the platform. And if you need access to the full Player's Handbook or anything extra, you can go and grab all those sweet assets in digital form on D&D Beyond, which I recommend. They sell entire books, they sell packages, they sell individual spells . . . It's very flexible and thus more affordable.
• Once you get the hang of the platform interface, the games are faster than games at a table, and this is especially true for combat. Combat encounters can last for hours, and at a physical table you'll be moving minis around a map, looking up spells in a hardcover book, and rolling dice. The time adds up.
• Smoother experience for the Dungeon Master. This is debatable, obviously, but the group I'm running with has a great DM who takes advantage of everything the platform is offering. A module released on Roll20 has all the maps, handouts, monster stats and abilities, and everything else. An experienced DM has all of this under his fingertips, so pretty much no time is spent on looking things up, keeping track of the initiative orders, and other technical stuff. Less menial work includes more time spent playing.

Cons:

You can also pay some DMs for the sessions they run. It's obviously optional, but in my limited experience, if it's not a drain on your budget to pay ten or twenty bucks for four hours, it's money well spent: it helps the DM put more time into running the game. But paying for playing is by no means mandatory; it just gets you into a more experienced pool of DMs on average and guarantees a much lesser player competition for the DMs.

Also, here are my thoughts on misogyny in tabletop gaming (this also includes elitism). I have played DnD with four groups and never saw any harassment toward female players or their characters, and this includes first-time players. I also played World of Darkness for years with hundreds of people and ran games under that system, and it was also never an issue. I was younger then and less aware of misogyny, but I'd like to think I wasn't willfully blind. That said, assholes exist. They are also people. So assholes tend to drift together and create these bubbles where they can have a good time and express their biased antediluvian views without censure. If you step into such a tribal group while being from a different tribe, just leave. There are plenty of reasonable people in this hobby who appreciate the fun that a diverse player group brings, but sometimes the elitist and the misogynist yell louder than the grounded majority. So find a better group, and don't take what happened personally. Some people want to belittle your gender or race, or they think you incapable of playing DnD and will try to hijack your decisions, but it's their problem and not yours.

If the open door of role-playing is tempting for you, try it. Maybe you'll like it here.