Okay, you're playing NEO Scavenger and winding up as dog-food for most of your early runs. You keep playing with different skill builds to explore the game, but maybe you need a jump-start to get your feet wet.

Here's a nearly foolproof strategy I've come up with that gets you a really good start right off the bat. I'm not sure how optimized it is for late-game, but it gives you plenty of starting power, especially if you're new to things.

Warning: minor spoilers for the first 2 minutes of the game.

This will get you a GOOD piece of warm clothing, a GOOD starting melee weapon with a 3-distance striking range, and a GOOD chance at starting loot, all in only 1-2 turns! Do note that this is basically "easy mode" and heavily combat-focused, which shows you only one slice of the game.

1. Pick Strong, Trapping, then either Melee or Ranged. Fill out the rest with whatever.
2. Kill the dog-man in the intro scene with (Strong/Melee), use Trapping + corpse + glass shard to take his coat.
3. Wear coat, put glass shard in hand. (DON'T FORGET THE GLASS!)
4. Go south to forest tile.
5. Generate forest resources.
6. Craft: medium branch + tinder + trapping = small campfire.
7. Craft: shred your hospital gown with glass for rags + string.
8. Craft: medium branch + rags = quality torch.
7. Craft: quality torch + campfire = lit torch.
8. Craft: large branch + glass = sharpened spear.
9. Craft: spear + string + glass + (Melee/Ranged) = broadhead spear.
10. Go northwest to town tile.
11. Scavenge. Use lit torch + strong for good loot.
12. If you have Ranged, craft: rags + string = sling, for good measure.

Now right from the start you have good clothing, a great starter set of melee/ranged weapons, and a good shot at nice starter loot from the town. Without the torch or strong ability, it's common to get nothing at all even from 4 scavengings in the starter town.

The only thing this strategy doesn't guarantee is containers, such as plastic bags, backpacks, etc. However, the increased loot chance makes even this pretty likely.

Really? I always end up getting injured in the fight, and that winds up to be part of my undoing later on.

Couple things about this:

1) Make sure you didn't take any traits that increase your chance of wounding or slow your healing (frail makes you take worse wounds, and positive metabolism can be dangerous -- yes it slows your food/water consumption, but also your healing)
2) NEVER bandage a wound with a dirty rag, ONLY a clean rag (produced by boiling with campfire + dirty rag + water + pot)
3) Find a source of water early on to make up for lost blood.

Usually the minor wounds from the initial encounter with the dogman should heal in a day or so if you're not especially prone to injury. Also always make sure to use light (such as a torch) when scavenging to avoid further unecessary injuries. Don't do too much, rest when you can (make sure you are concealed), and avoid unnecessary fights. I can post a combat guide too -- the key is to never try an attack move unless you have an advantage, and running away is usually the best choice.

I'd like to see that combat guide. I've been a lot more conservative lately about my combat choices, but all too often I end up taking on people with guns or knives wielding little more than a glass shard or a tree branch.

Very nice...I ended up taking Melee / Athletic / Medic / Hiding (I think something else, but ended up taking Insomniac as a Trait) for my first couple of runs. My last run went pretty well, found a sled, tons of food and water, got lucky on clothing, but I could never light a fire, and I ended up getting sick from something and dying cold and alone in the woods.

Is Trapping the only way to make a campfire? If so, I just wonder how you'll get anywhere in the game without taking that skill.

I was wondering how I could use sunlight... was bugging the heck outta me.

Yeah, I see it but I guess I didn't have glass with me. Usually I just click everything I have over and see what combinations pop up underneath once in a while :P

I was wondering how to get that sun to make a fire! I kept hoping I'd find some magnifying glass or something, should have thought of using the shards. I did randomly make a makeshift sack out of a mummy sleeping bag though, doubled my carrying capacity. Felt like king of the world until I couldn't run fast enough from a dog and it bit me to death, lol.

Combat guide:
http://www.gog.com/forum/neo_scavenger/uncle_larss_noobfriendly_combat_guide

If you pick both Melee and Strong, you can use them both for the first dogman fight and avoid the wounds.

Destroying the first dogman in a fight (with the right combination of abilities) is not only wonderfully satisfying and cathartic, but will give you a special item (data stick) that is VERY helpful later in the game (to avoid having to do a dangerous fetch quest for them).

Lock-picking is a GREAT skill for precisely this reason. My personal favorite version of the "power-start" strategy is:
Melee + Ranged + Trapping + Lockpicking.

I go for Melee rather than Strong because it gets you most of the same combat effectiveness (as well as the fur coat in the beginning), but without the high cost of Strength. Lockpicking gives me the loot bonus, and Ranged gives me more versatility with weapons. No negative traits required. If I wanted to be more of a specialist I'd throw in some negs so I could add more bonuses, but I like to keep it simple as I'm trying it out as an example of something to recommend to newcomers.