[KCD1] How exactly do I "play" this game?

A lot of you will probably think this is a dumb question, but I sometimes get hung up on how games are meant to be played and this one is pretty unique.

Are you meant to fail forward? I noticed there's a resource for saving, so I assume I can get into a lot of trouble, but everything will be fine if I just keep playing and don't worry too much about reloading saves if an outcome is negative?