In the midst of writing an extensive reply to a newbie, I realized it would be less effort to simply make a Steam Guide.

This is primarily a step by step guide intended for newer players, with extremely light spoilers (in universe common knowledge and character generation tooltips). My advice is targeted to three distinct playstyles:

Newbies
More interested in learning and fun, and are unlikely to survive until the late game. Feel free to ignore my advice in the name of !FUN!* and !SCIENCE!

Roleplayers
Ignore guides like this in favor of having fun, and are more likely to use mods.

Minmaxxers
This is a guide for newbies, but I'll be sad if I don't give at least SOME good** late game advice. For a more thorough and minmaxxy look at character creation and levelling, please see my other guide, "An Espers Guide to Physical Mutations".

*May or may not be fun.
**I may or may not actually be good at this game.

Newbie
True Kin to learn the early game. Great stats and gear.
Mutant to learn the mid game. Mutations are fun.
Both are fun late game. Both mutations and cybernetics have unique and interesting abilities.

Roleplayer
Mutant or Cyborg... or install mods that let you choose both!

Minmaxxer
Mutant's have better unique abilities and unlimited potential, but what they get is up to RNG.
True kin have more unique abilities but limited potential, but they can choose what they install.

Explanation
Compared to Mutants, True Kin start out 12 levels ahead on stats, get about 50% more skill points, start with slightly better gear, get more from injecting tonics (including +50% healing from Salve Injectors).

Those are mainly early game advantages; incredible at level 1, insignificant by level 36.

True kin have two unique abilities:

Rebuke Robot
An ability with a chance to stun, pacify, or outright recruit any robot, if your Ego + Level is high enough. Unless you have some very specific exploits in mind, this becomes reliable too late in the game to be useful.

Cybernetics
Implants that can be semi-easily obtained in the mid-late game. With 7 body parts, and 1 cybernetic per body part, that's up to 7 cybernetics. Each cybernetic is roughly equivalent to one mutation, so a maxxed out Kin is ~roughly~ equivalent to a level 12 mutant. Not all cybernetics have mutation equivalents, and vice versa.

A True Kin that installs the wrong cybernetic can (usually) just uninstall it. Cybernetics can also be 'uninstalled' by losing the limb it is attached to, a common problem in the late game.

Mutations
Mutants start out weak, but keep getting mutation points at every level. There's no hard level cap, though it's very hard to get past level 45. Mutants that survive that long become very powerful.

A mutant that is unlucky/foolish about mutation choices is permanently crippled. Note that there are late game enemies and hazards that can cause random mutations or even randomize existing mutations.

For both Minmaxxers and Newbies:

Consul
+3 Ego and early access to recruiting followers with Proselytize. Ego needs to be very high for Rebuke to be reliable.

Syzygyrior
+3 Agility if you're aiming to max out dodge early.

Child of the Hearth
+3 Strength if you're aiming to max out damage penetration early, or are aiming for an unarmed build (fists don't have a damage penetration limit, but require high strength to be useful.)

Fuming Child
+4 Willpower if you're aiming to max out ability cooldowns early.


For Newbies:

Artifex
+3 Int and early access to Tinkering (crafting and modifying items).

Praetorian
Starts with skills and gear for swords, shields, and rifles. Helpful for learning combat.

Eunuch
As above, but his... blade... and guns... are smaller.

Child of the Deep
+3 Toughness for lots of HP.


For Roleplayers:
Any. Or, install a mod that lets you change your character sprite, or gives a custom background.

Newbies and Minmaxxers:

Apostle
+2 Ego and early access to recruiting followers with Proselytize. The Proselytize skill requires a VERY high Ego to unlock if you don't start with it.

Maurader
+2 Str and early access to wearing faces with Dismember. The Dismember skill requires a VERY high Str to unlock if you don't start with it.


Newbies:

Arconaut
+2 Agility and early access to crafting with Tinker, and dodge with Spry.

Tinker
+2 Int and early access to crafting with Tinker, and traps with Lay Mine.

Gunslinger
+2 Agility and early access to Pistols.

Nomad
+2 Tou and early access to travel with Wayfaring. Friendlier with the raiders in the salt dunes, especially if your starting town is in the Salt Dunes.

Warden
+2 Str and early access to swords, shields, and rifles, and can use the water ritual to recruit one warden for free.

Watervine Farmer
+2 Tou and early access to cooking.


Roleplayers:
You know the drill by now. Pick your favourite sprite, or get a mod that lets you pick any sprite.

Mutants can choose an optional Morphotype mutation. Like all mutations, this choice is permanent.

Newbies:
Chimera - Grow new limbs when you mutate, in exchange for not getting esper mutations.
Esper - Gain only esper mutations, in exchange for not getting physical mutations.
Unstable Genome - Choose 1 of 3 random mutations. Can be selected multiple times.

Roleplayers:
Any, but Chimera is my favourite. There's nothing quite like become a multiheaded, multilimbed abomination wielding far too many weapons and wearing far too many gadgets.

Minmaxxers:
Unstable Genome - This mutation costs 3 points at character generation, but has a chance of granting mutations that cost 4 points. I usually select this once, sometimes twice.

My builds have at least one mutation from the physical and esper categories, so both Chimera and Esper - despite being thematically interesting - are unacceptable from a minmax perspective.

For a more detailed (and mildly spoilery) look at physical mutations, see my other guide, "An Espers Guide to Physical Mutations".

Newbies:
I'm sorry, but mutations are weird, situational, and infested with RNG. Mistakes and the !FUN! that follows is inevitable. Don't worry though, even the !FUN! mutations are still fun.

Roleplayers:
ALL mutations have RP potential. That's one of my favourite things about Qud.

Minmaxxers:
The only physical mutation I consider mandatory is Regeneration. Not for the healing - for regrowing limbs and immunity to decapitation.

Newbies and Minmaxxers:

Precognition
A lore friendly quicksave, mandatory for minmaxxers and helpful for newbies.

Clairvoyance
Not noticing a dangerous enemy is a common cause of death. Provides line of sight to sight based abilities.

Domination
Mind control. Helps newbies learn how enemies (and friends!) work, and has minmax uses that enter spoiler territory. It has a high point cost, so I usually don't get it at chargen.

Most of the esper mutations (except Disintegration) can be amazing, but a full explanation of the rest is beyond the scope of this guide.

For a more in depth explanation, see "An Espers Guide to Physical Mutations".

Newbies and Minmaxxers:

Amphibious (-3)
The easiest downside to work around. You can trade any old junk to merchants for water, and once you get fast travel (recoilers), you'll never be far from a merchant again.

Minmaxxers:

Brittle Bones (-4)
Grants one extra point compared to Amphibious. It grants vulnerability to one of most dangerous AND common types of damage in the game, but raw damage can be mitigated with HP, salve tonics, and (sometimes) a high dodge value.

Evil Twin (-3)
Even an experienced player will likely die to their Evil Clone long before they figure out how to 'duplicate' items by stealing from their clone, but it IS technically possible.

Roleplayers:

Any defect can be interesting, but most of them are far too painful to be fun using. You do you, though.

For a more in depth explanation of stats, see "An Espers Guide to Physical Mutations". The TLDR is that all stats are good, and you don't want to dump any of them at chargen.

Newbies and Minmaxxers:
Put all attributes to 18, except Ego, which get's the leftover points. Each attribute above 18 (NOT including bonuses from mutations or classes) costs twice as much to increase during character generation.

If you want to focus on a specific stat, there are plenty of ways to do that after character generation.

Minmaxxers and Roleplayers:
If you're aiming for a specific build, know you won't use a specific stat, or doing a challenge run, then feel free to dump some stats and boost others.

Everyone:

Joppa
Recommended to beginners for a reason, but it also contains newb traps. Includes 3 unguarded chests you can grab random early game gear from, starts you in the easiest region, and is nearby several early dungeons.

Also has 3 guaranteed quests. 1 useful and easy quest, 1 useful but difficult quest, and 1 deathtrap quest. Enjoy figuring out (and arguing about) which are which.

Note that even if you don't start in Joppa, the location of Joppa will still exist - it's only the people (and quests) that will be gone.


Newbies:

Salt Marsh
Same region as Joppa, but you get random quests instead. The +1 armor from Crocassins is helpful early on, and the random quests are usually (but not always) easier than the Joppa ones.


Everyone Else:

Salt Dunes
A dangerous region if you don't know what your doing, but starting with Fasting helps speedrun the early game by travelling to certain locations.

Desert Canyon
A dangerous region if you don't know what your doing, but starting with Wayfaring helps speedrun the early game by travelling to certain locations.

Hill Village
As above, but slightly more dangerous.

Any guide on character creation wouldn't be complete without briefly mentioning levelling.

Everyone:

You gain levels from killing things, and quests, including one repeatable unlisted quest. All starting towns have at least one quest giver who will point you in the right direction.

If you are a True Kin, you only get attributes and skill points. High tier skills require high attributes. You gain skill points at every level, an attribute point every 6 levels starting at 3, and a bonus to all attributes every 6 levels starting at 6.


Minmaxxers:

One of the best levelling methods is that one repeatable unlisted quest. If you aren't in the know, all starting towns have at least one quest giver who will point you in the right direction.

Eventually you'll find ways to gain attribute points without levelling, but opportunities to do so are rare, dangerous, and/or expensive.

If you are a mutant, you also get mutation points, AND get to boost one physical mutation at levels 5, 15, 25, etc. You want to have at least one physical mutation worth boosting by the time you hit level 5. You can also buy one new mutation for 5 mutation points, which you can do before choosing which mutation to boost.

Below is my favourite MinMax build. It has enough RNG to be interesting from an RP perspective too.

"Friendly Deadpool"
Mutant Apostle - lore friendly mind control
Brittle Bones - more mutations
Regeneration - decapitation immunity and regrowing limbs
Precognition - lore friendly savescumming
Clairvoyance - lore friendly sighthacks
Unstable Genome x2 - The rest is up to RNG
Stats: All stats to 18, remainder of 16 (14+2) in ego.


Below is an entertaining roleplay build that everyone should try at least once.

"Axbomination"
Mutant Maurader - dismember limbs with axes
Chimera - more hands to hold axes
Irritable Genome - mutation choices are completely random
Unstable Genome x5 - more mutations
Stats: Str 20 (18+2=20), all stats to 18, remainder of 14 in ego.


If I were to do True Kin, I'd do a variant of the following:

True Kin Consul - +3 Ego, aids robot Rebuking and people Proselytizing
Stats: 18 minimum to all stats (Ego will be 18+3=21 from consul), bump one stat of choice to 19.
Alternatively, 16 in all stats to max Ego at 24+3=27.
Alternatively, dump ego (12+3=15), remaining stats to 18, bump one stat of choice to 22.

True Kin + Any caste that grants +4 stats.
Stats: 18 minimal to all stats, bump one stat of choice to 19.

The most important part of developing a character happens after character generation.

If you are a true kin, which cybernetics you find, and how soon you are able to upgrade your licence tier with wedges, is completely up to RNG.

If you are a mutant, which mutations you get is up to RNG. There are ways around this, but they are tedious, dangerous, and/or expensive.

No matter who or what you are, which artifacts you find, which modifiers they spawn with, which allies you encounter, which factions you befriend and which become sworn enemies - that's heavily subject to RNG and emergent gameplay.

The best characters aren't the ones that necessarily have a plan. It's the ones who are best able to roll with the punches and adapt to whatever opportunities and dangers they happen to encounter. Even a character with no cybernetics, and no mutations, can succeed if they play their cards right.