Quick Attempt at Money, Armor, and a Weapon

*This is first ever guide I have made. It may contain bad grammar and advice that may not be on par with those that played the game better than I have, especially those who may know better attempts at getting equipment early on.

Within Gothic 1, you'll find out that the magic ore mined within the Valley is acts as currency. There are various ways of making ore, from looting chest to enemies you beaten in combat. A quick way to make some ore (and equipment that can be traded away for ore and other equipment) is to have some decent strength and a weapon.

Within the New Camp, you'll find out that there is no law within it unlike the Old Camp and Sect Camp. That means you can fight others without a guard intervening. With your decent weapon and stats, you can fight the rogues of the New Camp. Each rogue should have a small amount of ore along with anything else they have (longbows which can fetch a decent price, along with assorted food and whatever low level one-handed weapon).

A few tips before tackling any of the rogues:
there is a rogue named Butch who'll attack you due to being a new guy. He hits harder than other rogues, especially since you are, assuming this is done with a new game, low level.

Sharky, a weapon merchant among the rogues, carries a few other things with him. Since he restocks with better weapons in the next chapters, it's a good idea to beat him down if you want to get a damaging weapon without having to pay for it
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The only armors available when you begin are the novice loincloth (500 ore), digger trousers (500 ore), digger dress (250 ore), and scrapper trousers (free, speak to the named scrapper outside the free mine near the old camp). It's best to get the scrapper trousers due to being free and on par in defense with digger trousers. Only the novice loincloth provides slightly better protection but that's more in magic than in weapons.
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If you're willing to save scum and abuse the npc AI, you can bait one a named mercenary outside the Free Mine. Baloro, a quest giver who plays on your ignorance, has a one handed mace that is damaging than most one handed weapons (at 37 damage) you can get in Chapter 1 (it's second, as far as I know, to the Orc Hammer which does 50 damage and is more dangerous to obtain due to hard hitting enemies on the way to it).

Baloro is likely to one shot you so this is where save scumming comes in. To bait him into attacking you, hold your weapon. It's best to do this behind the wooden fence near the ledge (the one behind him across from the hut). His AI will try to chase you but it won't be able to actual jump up around the wooden fence. Eventually, he will end up falling off the ledge and to his death. Another mercenary might take shots at you but will eventually give up since the AI leaves you alone once you're at a distance. Loot Baloro's body for his inventory and his mace.

If the method with Baloro doesn't work or it makes it too easy to cheese Chapter 1, there is an alternative for a weaker weapon that is decent if you find Baloro's weapon to feel like a cheat. In the Old Camp, there is a digger named Herek attacks you if you refuse to pay a guard protection money. Herek wields a nail club as his weapon but at times he will use a nearby whetstone to sharpen a sword. The nearby whetstone essentially gives him a crude sword which does 20 damage. Beating him down will allow you to loot his inventory for any crude swords he has (he may have more than one. Keep one as your main weapon if you don't have anything better. Sell the rest to merchants for more ore).

*This guide may be updated in case I got things wrong and/or there is interest in it.

[Glorb]

First time player here!
You can easily jump your way to the big southern castle and with enough luck climb all the ladders to the uppermost floor where you can loot a 46 dmg 1h sword (all in chapter 1!). There's also a 2h axe somewhere south-west around some elementals or whatever they call them in gothic and it's 67 dmg.
I found it all whilst fooling around.