When you enter the game, in a complete new character, you will have no coins, and no items whatsoever. I will cover what commands and such you need to move, and do the most basic things in the game.

Tile - The whole world is composed of tiles. Everything lays on a tile. Tents lay on many tiles, while you stand on one tile at all times, you can move from tile to tile by using the following commands.

N (north) - Moves you one tile north.
S (south) - Moves you one tile south.
W (west) - Moves you one tile west.
E (east) - Moves you one tile east.

So that covers walking around, now there are some commands for picking up items, and selling and buying stuff from shops.

Sit - Makes your character sit down. Sitting down helps regenerate BR and MV.

Sleep - Sleeping does pretty much the same thing as sitting.

Take (item name) - Picks up an item that is on the ground.
ex. take apple - Picks up an apple from the ground.

Take (item name) (container) -Takes an item from a container.
ex. take apple tree - Takes an apple from a tree.

List - Gives a list of everything a shopkeeper has in stock. *NOTE* You have to be in the shopkeepers tent to be able to read his list.

Buy (item name) - Buy's an item from a shopkeeper...Remember the shopkeeper has to have the item in stock for you to be able to buy it. :o)
ex. buy bread - Buy's bread from a shopkeeper.

Sell (item) - Sells an item to a shopkeeper. *NOTE* Some shopkeepers only buy certain kinds of items.
ex. sell bread - Sells bread.

That pretty much covers all the basic commands. Now for what you should actually be doing in the game.

First of all, you need money, so walk out of town, and look for an apple tree. One you spot one, go right by it, and type 'look in tree'. This gives you a list of everything that is inside of the tree. There will most likely be apples in the tree, so take two out (take apple tree), and then head back to town. Find the cook, and type 'sell apple'. If your having trouble finding the cook, look at this town map. If your having trouble getting back to town, head towards the Tall Obelisk.

After you sell your apples, you get some coins. Keep on getting apples, and selling them, until you have around 100 coins. Then go to the weaver, and type 'buy basket'. Go and collect more apples, but now you have a basket, you type 'put apple basket'. The basket can hold a fair amount of apples, so you can carry lots more apples back to town each trip. Now you can make more money faster, so save up, and head to the weaver again. But a white tunic. They help your BR regeneration and such. From here on, you just keep on collection apples, branches, reeds, wheat, and grass until you have a good amount of $$$. Then you can choose a favorite kind of job, and stick to it. Below are links to some pages with info on those jobs.