If they're giving you gear, I'd be willing to bet that they don't need it *at all*, and are doing it so you're a stronger groupmate. So don't sweat that, just think about what your CHARACTER would do. If you're a conscience-bound paladin, for example, you could insist on paying them back someday, give the eq back when the fighting is done, let their generosity inspire you to be the most humble paragon of charity Thera's ever seen, etc. etc. etc. Don't worry about how you, the player feel about it. Oftimes, you'll hear on death/deletion how a player hated to do a certain thing to another character, but they HAD to, since it wouldn't have made sense for their character to give mercy, not loot, etc etc etc.

So the best thing to do is to pay attention to where people take you, pay attention to what they're wearing, which skills/spells they're using to fight creatures vs fight players. Eventually you'll learn (slowly) how to walk places, and (eventually) you'll be able to gather your own gear, instead of relying on charity (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). One thing that could be a goldmine for you is to ask questions IN THE GAME. Might not work if you're a haughty, know-it-all elf, but if you're willing to eat some humble pie or play stupid, you can ask endless questions: "I saw some dwarf toting an axe with an opal blade, and I wanted one, but didn't have the chance to steal it. Know where I can get one?" ad nauseum. If you start annoying your groupmates, they'll probably let you know, and you can cool it. But seriously, one of the best ways is to get over the awkward shy stage and ask as many questions as you want/can.

Then, for PK, studying up on other classes skills/spells and capabilities will help. Then, finally, once you get enough levels, just start walking around and finding stuff. You'll probably get killed lots of times by crazy monsters, and find many death traps, but it'll be worth it in the long run if you keep your eyes and mind sharp, because you'll know where NOT to go... but you're a newbie, right? You don't care if you lose your crappy stuff... then you'll probably find some nice stuff, and always know where to get it.

And don't run around with brief descriptions on, except on the Eastern Road, perhaps. Look at everything when you're exploring. You can look at, and interact with lots of things that are in a room description, so it really pays to read and react as your character.

React to things like your character would. Perhaps he used to be a beggar, and almost died on the streets. Does he give beggars money and food? Does he mercy-kill them? Does he kill them to escape the painful memories? Has he totally forgotten that part of his life? Your character is as complex as you care for them to be.

I'm a great pedant, aren't I? That's enough for now, I guess. Oh, if you don't have detect invis from your class, find a potion/pill/staff that will give it to you, watch out for assassins and thieves, and always, always, always, always, always, always type who pk and where. And watch out for those Imperials

PS- Don't be a dark-elf necromancer (they're really, really, really fragile. So you die LOTS. And that's frustrating) Best bet is to be something that's hardy, able to hide, and has a low xp penalty so it has a smaller pk range (ie. less people able to attack you)
Arial (and human, half-elf) assassins are very survivable and popular, human rangers, and HUMAN BARDS are all *great*. If you're hell bent on being a mage, everybody *loves* transmuters, if you're hell-bent on an empowerment class, paladins are super tough. But I'd stick with the assassins/rangers/bards.