Before you even start playing Gothic, you should probably take a look at either the game manual or the guide page that describes the controls because the controls are not explained in-game. The most basic thing you should know is that you interact with the world using the USE key plus a direction, usually up. This may seem obvious to any experienced player, but a new player can easily wander around for a long time, wondering why "USE" doesn't do anything.
When you start a new game, you'll be talking to Diego. You can safely exhaust all dialog options here. Gothic has one of the best tutorial levels in videogame history, because it doesn't have one. After talking to Diego, you're on your own. Diego isn't going to hold your hand and you're in the open world of Gothic, free to go wherever you want.
But the world is cleverly designed. You are in a canyon, a natural barrier that's hard (though not impossible) to get out of. So you follow the path. On this path you'll find some starter weapons and the easiest monsters in the game: Juvenile Scavengers and a Juvenile Molerat. Practice swinging your sword before you take them on. Don't fight any other monsters yet.
When you arrive at the gate of the Old Camp, be aware that picking a rude or sarcastic dialog option rarely works out in Gothic. Inside of the Old Camp is a relatively safe environment. If you run into Bloodwyn and/or Jackal, don't refuse to pay protection money. It's okay if you can't afford it yet, but don't refuse. If you somehow get into trouble with Thorus or Diego, Gravo can help you. (but at a price) Using a pan on a fire (USE + up) will convert any Raw Meat you collected from (juvenile) scavengers and molerats into Grilled Meat.
You should do some quests here to gain XP. If you need money, go to the smithy. You can also barter any items you find, including plants and food. When you deal with merchants, you can buy items for the value they have and sell them for half of their value. Despite what the dialog may suggest, all merchants charge the same prices and all merchants will buy all goods from you. You should get the Map of the colony from Graham or Dexter.
When you level up, you'll get 10 skill points. When you level up the first time, talk to Diego and put all 10 points into strength. You already got 10 strength for free when you started the game, so now you have 20. The game is generally a bit balanced towards combat with melee weapons anyway. For melee weapons, the damage you do is calculated as your strength plus the damage your weapon does and you also need the extra strength to equip better weapons. When you level up again, find a trainer for one-handed weapons like Scatty in the old camp and learn one-handed weapons level 1.
Around now you should get some armor and a better weapon. In the Free Mine (at the new camp), Swiney hands out some armor for free, but if you have the ore you should buy some better armor from Fisk or the templer at the entrance to the swamp camp. In addition you can start Vanished Guard. There is no strict time limit on anything, so you can hold on to the amulet you found for a while. A Bloodfly can kill you by stinging you just twice if you don't have any armor. If you leveled up just once, got the free armor from Swiney and the amulet from the vanished guard it'll take getting stung 4 times to get killed.
When it comes to a weapon, some easily obtained starter options are:
- Buy the Digger's Discipline (20/10) from Fisk in the old camp.
- Take a free Crude Sword (20/20) from the chest in the smithy of the old camp. (you'll need 10 more strength to equip it, level up once and talk to Diego)
- Get the Axe (29/12) from the chest in the smithy in the swamp camp. (you'll need 2 more strength to equip it)
- Get the Short Bow (20/10) and/or Rider's Bow (24/12) from Cavalorn's cave and the guard tower in the new camp.
When you feel like checking out one of the other camps, either start Recipe of the Sect and ask Baal Parvez to take you to the swamp camp (it's particularly magical at night!) or start Thorus' Quest to get Mordrag to take you to the new camp. They will kill any monsters on the way, so you don't need any fighting experience for that. And you get the XP!
That's the end of this introduction. If you need more help or details, check out the walkthrough.