I've only eaten cooked meat for ages and not had any issues, you can get away with it. The problem is you need to make sure your fullness drops enough to eat the next one, and get your timing right, to fill up.
Basically, any sheets of paper with drawings on are instructions we don't have. Blacksmith moulds (the big black plaques with pics of metal objects) maybe just leave, I think we have most if not all. Balls of rope, leather rolls, teleport potions, gold coins, dynamite, cauldrons, buckets (break them with a sword, and grab the iron), are all useful things to have.
Feel free to just play though. Go into a crafting area, use some materials and make things. Test it out. Don't worry about using wood, we've got plenty of leather at the moment too. So just have a go at making things. Have a wonder around the map too, I think it's only the rock men that can insta-kill you, but even then it's when they're digging at the ground and you have time to run away if you see them doing that (you can just run anyway).
Feel free to smelt some copper and make things from that, but preferably don't use anything else. We've got loads of copper and it's easy to get, at the moment, everything else is rarer
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After you make a mould, you often need to hit it on the forge, then hit it on the anvil with a hammer, give it a go
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EDIT - If you die, your backpack should just stay where it is, so worst comes to the worst, tell us where you dropped it, and we'll go together to get it back.