New guy here...

[clifton22]

I downloaded a few "essentials" like novapunch and what not, but how do I get them to actually, you know, happen. I moved them into the plugin folder but I'm not exactly a whiz with these kind of things.

[Millst0ne MK II]

Whoops. First mistake there. You need to drag everything inside the nova punch folder into the "Parts Folder." Welcome aboard though, remember to use LOTS of struts to attach engines and the like in nova punch.

[Tiberion]

Actually inside of Novapunch you'll find a Parts folder and a Ships folder; you copy those folders into the main KSP folder and they add their contents to the folders with the same name already there (And if you look inside the Parts folder in the NP zip, you'll see a bunch of subfolders, each containing a new part just like the main parts folder.)

If you do download an actual mod that is or contains plugins, then there should be a specific Plugin folder you copy