Yawn....38 special.. LOL.
Pretty forgiving, roll your own round. Where I got started.
What I would recommend, every new loader- or caster start out with. 38 special brass, and a 357 revolver.
If casting, a lee, Lyman, reding, whatever, mould. Kieth semi wadcutter, TC or wadcutter Any lead harder then 9bh, softer then 14 bh.
For black powder...
With whatever lube you can get your hands on if using lead. Hard to mess up too bad with that.
As they say,6 of one half dozen of the other, don't matter much.
I have aloxed, pan lubed, used NRA 50/50 powder coated, an used bll, with pretty much the same results. Heck I even used straight lanolin once.
However pan lube and Alox do leave some residue on the outside of the gun.Plus they can be smokey in a poorly ventilated environment. Of course Black powder you have that anyway.
However, when I pan lube my 38 special, Black powder or modern smokeless cartridges, it's the paraffin, Vaseline, STP mix Now just because I made like 10 lbs of the stuff a while back for about 5 bucks.