I think a lot of players are too keen on leaving town to start fighting without fully realizing the literal wealth of experience and equipment that is in the starting town itself.
I think it is a bold move by design to put some much game time at the start working NPC relations in the city and keeping combat relatively thin. There was a point my first time through I was chomping at the bit to want to fight and stop trying to figure out so many quests in the city all at once. It was laborious. But as mentioned there is a lot of EXP and Wealth to be gained spending a ton of time in the city.
I still think the tender at the Crab should be the games "Tipper", the man with the connections and he would drive new players on what to do next.
