Qud is one of my favourite games. I'm currently playing the latest public release, in eager anticipation of the next version[1], which seems to add a bunch of interesting stuff. At the moment, I'm mostly playing mutated humans (lots of fun, although true men are also great, and an excellent way to explore the skill trees, for instance), always starting out with a defect and one offensive mutation (favorites include Electrical generation, Pyrokinesis, and Corrosive gas generation), and spending the rest on Unstable genome, maybe throwing in Night vision if I have a point to spare.
An good hint for starting players is to be a thief in Joppa. Cleaning out the houses is a no-brainer, and Argyve can be robbed every time (maybe because of a bug, actually). Relieving the dromad trader of his stuff demands the aid of certain items/mutations, with Irudad the elder being the hardest to rob.
As always,
Minotauros
[1] I might even be bothered to sign up for Steam just to get the prerelease for Linux, which is saying a lot.
