I heartily recommend The Quest on the iPhone. It's a fantastically generous and surprisingly deep RPG. Think of it as one of those old-school Bard's Tale, Wizardry, or Might & Magic games, but built by people who understand the appeal of Oblivion. But it can be discouraging early on. You're going to have a hard time getting your feet under you.

For instance, I used to have a real problem with guys like that orc shaman up there. In fact, bumping into one meant pretty much reloading the game. The Quest isn't very forgiving when it comes to attracting the wrong kind of attention. Once a monster starts chasing you, it is impossible to shake him. I was the tender young level of 5 when I encountered my first orc. I tried running back to town, but the guards did nothing. I ducked into a building, but the orc was waiting for me as soon as I came back out again. I even ducked into the tavern, booked a room, watched a few Pay-Per-View movies, got a good night's sleep, and enjoyed a leisurely mana-restoring breakfast in the morning. But as soon as I stepped out the front door, there was that same damned orc.

So early on in The Quest, merely seeing an orc means reloading the game. What the heck kind of adventure is that?

After the jump, I'll help you get past that point.

One of the great things about The Quest is also one of the potentially discouraging things. It's open-ended almost to a fault. There are few quests early on that might give you a hint about where to go, but there are no real warnings about where not to go, or how powerful the monsters are going to be. Blindly traipsing off to solve the first quests you get is the quickest way to heartbreak.

The key isn't necessarily to level up, although that helps. Instead, your first order of business is to get better equipment. Once I got a decent weapon and a few nice pieces of armor, I was able to go toe-to-toe with an orc shaman, even if he brought friends along. However, it's going to be a while before you can afford to buy anything decent, and there are far better ways to spend your money. So I'm going to give you a minor spoiler I wish someone had given me when I started playing The Quest.

Here's the minor spoiler: go directly to the Dungeon of Blood, where you'll find some better equipment.

The world of The Quest is built out of of squares, as if it were drawn on graph paper. You move one step at a time on an invisible grid. At a macro level, there are various square regions. You start in the village of Matras. If you head three "squares" south along the road out of town, you pass through the Garden of Matras and the Passageway, and then you enter the Bushland. From here, head one "square" east, into the Forest of Blood. In the northeast corner of the forest, you'll find a dungeon entrance. Spelunk down there a bit to make your life a lot easier.

Tomorrow: the consequences of misbehaving in a brothel