Welcome to Empire, and to Varushka!
The technical way to work out how much a personal resource is worth is to think of them all as equivalent: the amount of mana crystals you get would be roughly equal to the amount of money you’d get from a farm. The issue of course is when you hit the field - your money is a stable amount, whereas selling your mana crystals depends on what people are buying/selling for.
When I joined, I had a business (which also just gives money), and I did find it useful for finding my feet, especially as I didn’t immediately get into doing rituals. You absolutely can sell your mana, and would almost certainly get more money doing that than by having a farm, but it also depends on if you want to be doing that straight off the bat. Some people love the trading game, some find it a bit of a hassle!
It’s also worth considering how much you’ll use mana crystals yourself. I know some magicians (myself included) who only tend to cast magic for others, so ask for the mana to be covered. However it goes both ways; if you want someone to cast something on you, then they’ll likely want the mana in payment!
Also yes, you’re right that you can respec after your first event. After that, you can still switch your resource, but it’ll cost you 2 crowns (a farm produces 9 crowns, plus every player gets 18 rings on top of their resource).
There’s definitely a vibes argument to be had as well; sometimes it’s just cool to have the thing that makes the “most” sense for your character! And having a physical resource to trade or use is often more interesting - it’s the reason I switched from a business to a fleet. Having the money was useful, but having the stuff is more fun, even if it’s more work.
Other bits of good advice for Varushka: go to the Mages/Volhov’s Meeting (normally at half 6 on Friday), as this will help you see what’s happening in the magic game, as well as give you a chance to meet some of our better-known mages. There’s a number of Winter covens in Varushka which may or may not be accepting new members; they tend to do slightly different flavours of Winter as it has a few different aspects to it. Or you can work on saving up for a Volhov’s Robe, which allows you to work with other covens without officially joining them.
For all new players, I think it can be worth treating your first summit or two as a tourist. It’s a BIG game with a lot of players so it can be a little overwhelming at times, and I’ve known people to get discouraged when they couldn’t immediately do or get the thing that they wanted. Obviously if you’ve read through some things and have decided what you want to achieve then great! But it’s also fine to take your time exploring options.
One of the biggest things is just talking to people. It can be really daunting at first, but most larpers love to talk! The magic phrase is “I’m new to Anvil” - doing this lets people know that you’re a new player, so most will take their time to explain things or help out. Varushka is a pretty friendly bunch for the most part!
As a Varushkan Winter mage, I’m happy to help if you have any other questions, either here or via PM 