I think basically all "newbies" to MUDs anymore are refugees from failed muds. For me the greatest deterrent to MUDing these days is not having a place I know to play in, and getting the "hey everyone starts out as a newbie, it'll only be 2-5 years until you know where these preps and gear I'm owning you with are from." CF is far from alone in this - almost all PK MUDs share that culture. But it's 2017, and even on the much younger side of the MUDing population I have a wife and work to keep me from learning MUDs without handouts like I did in my teens.

Granted I'm a killer/socializer type, not an explorer, but I think you'd potentially do really well to have a comprehensive database of all gear and preps by area available for review by players who wanted to have such info spoon fed. Doesn't seem to me like it would make anything too easy on a new player - they'd just be able to target their exploration better and have a bit easier time looking for chinks in the armor of better geared opponents.