Quest for Glory I: So You Want to Be a Hero/Gameplay

When you start the game, you'll likely be extremely weak and without much capital or combat skill. The first thing you'll want to do is go to the adventurer's guild and learn of everything you can obtain for the healer in town to earn some more money, and stock up on her potions to stay alive. The Goblin training ground is also a great place to go to build up your stats, every time you return to fight there, there will be an additional goblin, of up to ten. You'll build up a lot of strength and vitality and make some money to boot. You can also make money, let the time pass, and build up strength by hiring yourself out as a stablehand in the castle. Another thing to keep in mind is that it's almost always a good idea to rest for an hour whenever you're able to, to keep your health and stamina up.

Food and Shelter
You're best off sleeping and eating the fruit at Erana's Garden to the north most nights if you don't mind wandering through monster infested lands to get there. Otherwise, you can get a cheap room and meal at the inn, and it's worth seeing Abdulla Doo over there as well. Buying some rations at the market will also keep if you alive if you forget to run out and get a meal each day.

Combat/Survival
If I'm not mistaken, tougher monsters will gradually start appearing as you gain more experience. Pick on the goblins initially, cast spells from a distance if you can, and get used to running away from anything bigger than you.

Building up your Skills
Strength. Strength can also be increased by most activities involving physical exertion or consuming stamina, including running and fighting.

Attributes such as Vitality can be increased by taking damage and engaging in combat, Intelligence can be increased by casting spells and solving puzzles, and Agility is increased by most any thief related action or dodging. Luck is increased by most random events including combat.

The easiest way to practice the Climbing skill is to climb one of the trees repeatedly even if you don't succeed, you'll consume a little stamina and build up your climbing stat.

The best way to build your Throwing skill is to pick up a large number of rocks and throw them at nothing in particular. Keep in mind you actually have to have the throwing skill as a thief for this to be of any use.

Pick locks. You can practice on a lot of the doors at night, including the healer's cottage without fear of capture.

Stealth is hard to build up, but choosing to sneak will gradually increase it.

Combat based skills such as Dodge, Parry, and Weapon Use can be increased by going into combat and doing those moves repeatedly. Only fighters have Parry, which lets them duel in the castle grounds.

Magic Users can increase Magic just by casting any spell and can level up any spell by casting it repeatedly. Most all of the spells will need to be leveled up to be used effectively, including zap which charges your weapon, flame dart which does some damage on an enemy, fetch which grabs something from a distance, calm which relaxes an enemy so you can escape or quells physical fires, and dazzle which stuns an enemy.

For a more detailed list of spells and abilities, see the main Quest for Glory page.