Money/Equipment

They say that money makes the world go round. Well, that's basically true. As a newbie you'll have little to do with money untill level 14. At the most you will need it to buy special pieces of equipment or train your skills and spells past 60%. However, do keep and save any money that you get. There are banks in almost every city, goto one and type 'deposit all' and you'll deposit all the money you have on you.	It's probably best to get anything you can free, since you'll need all your money for the rest of your expenses!
Get equipment. This is easier said than done. At this point, making friends can go a long way to helping you survive. Equipment includes armor, weapons, and food. Other useful items include rope, bags, torches, and tinning kits. There are also Charity Houses, sometimes known as Newbie Warehouses, which give out equipment. By utilizing the Retro channel, you can ask for help (HELP CHANNELS, HELP RETRO).
Before you quit, sell your equipment. Know your shops well, and your home city, and sell everything you get from every monster. Those small amounts of cash add up! As a "newbie", you can't afford to skimp on anything. Even better, follow a high level guy around. High level people, unlike you, CAN afford to leave stuff behind. These people leave veritable treasure hordes of equipment and cash around because they don't need it, but YOU DO, so pick up everything and run back to sell it as soon as possible.	You can only wield weapons and wear armor that is within your size range. So kill monsters that are close to your size if you can.
Newbies come with an autoloading set of eq, all sized just for them, including dues-gathering stuff in some cases. Also, a newbie should be more focused on getting exp/cash than getting eq, as the latter involves spending cash for rent rooms, repairs, etc, that are quite probably beyond a newbie's meager means.