>Allright. I'm standing up and admitting that I'm still, after
>6 months, awfully newbie, and still haven't explored much,
>since I'm darned afraid of exploring. Why is this? Because
>mobs/areas/death traps on CF are much more powerful, and much
>better at killing you than in any other game I've played. I
>think. So I took some other players advice, and I rolled a
>bard since they have such great utility, people love to have
>them around so I can gain knowledge from skilled/knowledgable
>players who are dragging me around for my songs.

If it's only been 6 months you're doing fine. Some people don't leave eastern road for their first year. The desire to explore is more than enough, you'll be fine real fast. When exploring, you are sure to learn at least one thing new (useful and new) per day. Often times though, the challenge isn't seeing something, it's seeing how it is useful to you later.

>This is where my paranoia kicks in. I'm afraid, since I'm
>playing a non-conjurer, that I might find a great
>progged/keyword activated item, and not know (btw, I'm hoping
>to get that new observation skill that sounds like it might
>help with this). I'm afraid that I'll pass over limited
>wand/etc. spots that are empty, or that I'll look at all the
>creatures I pass, and if they don't have their limited stuff
>ON them at that time, perhaps I'll never know about it. I'm
>not saying these are all reasonable, or important fears, but
>they're there.

Part of exploring is luck, and part diligence. Lucky to see items where they're supposed to be, yes. Diligent enough to notice hidden containers that may currently be either full or empty, yes. Hidden passages? Even more so. What I will say is that once you've explored an area, going through it again sometime later is ten times easier than the first time, and you can easily check the containers and mobs that you already know about.

>I'm also afraid of dying a LOT and losing my gear a LOT. But
>that's life in CF. So, I guess I'm looking for advice about
>really getting down and exploring: I'm going to read room
>descriptions faithfully, I'm going to have some extra potions
>in my pack and inventory, to keep me from danger, lots of food
>and water, I'll look in all directions, I'll go look at things
>to find secret passages, etc. Is there anything else I ought
>to do? Is there any aspect to CF areas that I should be more
>aware of?

You'll die alot. You might lose alot of gear, but now with big daddy Nepenthe giving us our gear-loss-free-blasts, it's alot less of a concern. If you're out exploring you'll probably know who is around to loot you if you in fact got looted. Otherwise, I can only think of a few places where you won't be able to retrieve your gear and will have to wait for it at the pit. As for advice, I'd say you're on target. Read everything, check the keywords from the description, check the directions. SCAN. If something looks big and nasty when you scan for it, it probably will smack you.

>I'm wondering a few things though: are there many mobs that
>are now coded with sayto capability? Are there lots of quests
>that are started that way? Is there a good way to find quests?
>I'm worried I've ranked up past many quests. Do any
>questgivers say "Oh, I was going to give you a quest, but
>you're too big and busy now (or too young yet)," or "I
>desperately need help, but I'll never accept it from a common
>human (despicable dark-elf)" blah blah yadda yadda.

Quests are in my opinion the trickiest part of this game entirely. Some mobs talk to you. Some want you to talk to them. I've heard rumors about sayto striking conversations. Some quests you have to simply observe what a mob wants and go get it for them. However, to my knowledge, you will NEVER find out about a quest by the mob telling you, if it isn't being given to you. For example, *NewbieQuestGuy* isn't going to tell a hero "Shame you're not a tike anymore lad, I would have sent you to do something cool." Some are race exclusive, some are level dependent, some are alignment based - it's awesome and painful at the same time. Bless those imms.

Good luck guy, I wish I'd started exploring as early as you are. I was proud to be leading to camelot back then.