Is it wise to gather potions and money while you can before you battle creatures in the room? I played my first game last night and somehow my heroes were getting hammered and I was blocked off from reaching these items. I was so low on health that I ran to town, but my group wound up dying when I re-entered the dungeon.

ZAR THE BARBARIAN said:

It's not worth going out of way to collect them, however, if you can do it while perfoming another action, go nuts. In fact, the game designer himself has said some of these "pick ups" were deliberately positioned in out-of-the-way places to distract the heroes.

Your primary focus should bo on clearing any monsters in your way and then advancing. Heroes at our table rarely worry about healing, unless they have one of the healing runes or a crystal of Tival. Instead they focus on not getting hurt in the first place by denying monsters the opportunity to attack whenever possible (ie: clear a room of initial monsters and then Guard to pick off new ones.)

Treasure chests are worth going for ASAP because the gear will almost always help, runekeys worth it because you'll need them sooner or later. Potions and gold piles, when you have time. Or send the ferrets after them, if you have that skill card.

That is good to know. Thank you!