So your going to need some tools, and fast.  You will spawn with a set to stone tools to get you started (minus a hoe), they are slow and have nerfed durability so you are going to need to grab more cobble to replace them ASAP.  You will also need to harvest as much wood as you can because GregTech nerfs wood/stick production down to 2 items per craft unless you use a saw.  The saw is not really a top priority now though so just be sure to replant your sapplings to compensate for the nerf.

Gravel is now your friend, as this is a source for flint (you can craft 3 gravel into flint if the drops aren't enought).  You can use flint as an alternative to stone tools with the added benefit that a flint sword has fire aspect 1 on it by default.  This extra damage will be invaluable in the begining of the game so take advantage of it.  As for your other tools, stone and flint are about equal so it's up to you which you want to use.  Next be on the lookout for "small ores" of copper and tin (for bronze tools) or iron.  You will need to produce six ingots worth of either so you can make a GregTech hammer.  The hammer will let you turn two metal ingots into a plate of that metal.  Two plates and a stich make a file.  The hammer, file and plates are needed for all metal tool head crafting*.  There is one final tool you will want/need and that is the GregTech mortar and pestle.  You can make one with 5 stone and two ingots or flint.  This is used to crush ingots to dust.  It is HIGHLY recommended that you crush your copper and tin ingots into dust to make bronze as using the ingots directly will give you one bronze (for three copper and one tin).  Using the dusts will give you three bronze dust to smelt into ingots.  Finally you can now make a saw, it's done with two plates, the hammer and the file.

At this point, you have probably died several times and would like some armor.  If you can find enough leather then go to town, otherwise you need to use plates and a hammer to craft the pieces using the expected shapes in the crafting grid.

Also about the subject of dying, it's going to happen.  You can plan for this by creating a Guardian Chest.  For just a single XP level you can create a chest that will contain all of your inventory that will spawn at your death point.  For 10 more levels you can have this chest appear at your spawn point instead.  Do note that you must carry the guardian chest in your main inventory for it to work, no bags or other inventory extenders.


§0§o* When recipes require the use of a tool in crafting, the tool is not consumed.  It just looses some durability.§r