Food:
As in everyday life, food is of vital importance in the Dungeons. However, food doesn't always appear as often as you'd like. Use it wisely, and you'll last much longer. You use one food point for every move (more if you're wearing rings), and can hold a maximum of 2000 food points. A food ration can be up to 1300 food points.
The need for food has three levels: hungry, weak and faint. You starve to death about 850 moves after you start feeling hungry. Don't worry though, you'll faint long before then, giving nearby monsters the chance for a few free hits! Eating as soon as you get hungry probably isn't a good idea - you run the risk of running out of food on later levels. Waiting until you feel faint, however, may mean that you're too busy fainting to be able to fight a monster.

Gold:
Gold is very common on most levels, and some monsters (such as Orcs and Leperchauns) value it greatly. Collect as much as you possibly can, because it may make the difference between second and third place on the ranking list.

Weapons:
The weapon you wield largely determines how effective you are in your quest. Short bows and crossbows are great for shooting creatures far away (just wield them and throw the ammunition) but a two-handed sword is best for close combat.
Each weapon has two additional values, which can be either positive (blessed) or negative (cursed). The first number is the damage calculation if you hit with the weapon (just move towards the monster), and the second is the damage calculation if you (t)hrow the weapon. Note that missiles (arrows and crossbow bolts) will only give you decent hitting power if you are (w)ielding the appropriate launching weapon when you throw them!

Weapon types:

The numbers above follow D&D convention: xdy means select x random numbers from 1 to y and add them.

Armor:
Armor is very important, but be careful. Each armor type has its own class, as well as an added value. If the value is positive, the class goes up (blessed). If the value is negative, the class goes down. Often, armor that has a negative added value is cursed. That means if you (w)ear it, you won't be able to remove it if you find something better. However, not all armor with a negative added value is cursed: a run-in with an aquator can reduce plate mail to armor class 2, but you'll still be able to (T)ake it off.

Traps:
Traps are nasty because you usually can't see them. When you find a trap, hit F8 and point to it and Rogue will tell you what kind of trap it is.

Here's a summary of the various trap types:

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