[DrKvothe]

Welcome! Troll SK has a really rough exp penalty. Most people who complain about exp penalty don't really understand how it works in groups (see front page server chat post), but at the end of the day levels 51-60 are going to be really, really rough for you.

Still, that's hardly a concern for a first char, imho. There's so much pre-50 content for you to explore. I recommend doing a "/who all X Y" where x and y are 1-2 levels below and above your level, respectively. This will give you a great idea of where people like you are leveling, and you can always contact them and ask if they'd like to group.

As far as money goes, you need enough cash for a solid weapon, a set of large banded or equivalent, and 2x 5/55 rings. Your first purchases will be your lvl 1 spells and 8 or 10 slot bags (recommend medicine bags and at least one large sewing kit), but you should be able to scrounge up enough cash from your newbie area to get those. For weapons, I'd recommend a Sword of Skyfire for ~200pp and possibly a wraith bone hammer for 50pp in the meantime.

Newbie moneymakers are:
bone chips (5-10pp per stack)
spiderling silk (20pp per stack)
HQ bear pelts (25-30pp each)
greater lightstones 10pp each (roughly the same from reward from quest, plus exp)