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.

The reason I want to explore is to see all the really neat areas in CF, get to know gear well so that I will know how to quickly and effectively gear other characters I will play, find quests and complete them, and finally: to find neat scrolls, potions, pills, wands, and crazy magical items to make me uberl33t.

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.

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?

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.

I guess I shouldn't really sweat not finding the limited items, since I'll allready find such cool stuff. Hurrah, let the great exploration begin!

Neurotically yours,
Me