I'm in a similar stage with you on my first try with growing peppers...and I say NEVER GIVE UP...these little fvk3rs have been surviving years in nature without us, so, just help them a little when the outside conditions aren't right....I've got some browning leaves and some spindly stems all without true leaves, got a light in a box on top of them now and checking their moisture level twice a day......I'm about to just make a mini-f'ing greenhouse out of chicken wire and plastic wrap and put the "dying" ones outside...it's warm enough here...why not try something else....my "good ones" look healthy as Hercules but no true leaves after being above ground for 20 days...but I think that's where the term "patient as a gardener" comes into play...once true leaves arrive their supposed to hit a growth spurt like nobody's business