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.

Here's what I'd recommend. Explore the newbie areas (use the helpfiles as a guide) as a sub level 10 (and I'll go into detail below on how you might want to go about doing that). Since newbie areas aren't full of death traps or high-level aggro mobs, and you're not in PK range yet, the odds of you dying are greatly reduced. More importantly, you can take your time and do your exploration right. A couple more benefits:

1. You'll thoroughly learn an area and the equipment in that area, which will help you regear for the rest of your CF career.

2. You won't 'miss' any quests that are level dependant. We don't generally put Hero quests in newbie areas. We also try to make the newbie quests pretty obvious (i.e., a mob will greet you and ask if you're interested in a quest).

3. You probably won't die. And if you do, you can always go back and get your gear from your corpse.

4. You'll learn the basic skills that will help you explore higher level areas as well.

Bards are a good choice for the reasons you mentioned above - they also have 100% lore, which is very useful. Remember that their songs are area songs - you sing a song and you might just piss off all ten of those kobolds.

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.

All good reasons.

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 still learn what items are progged by other people using them on me. And I also suspect there is progged gear out there that no one has figured out how to use. You might be the first. Some are pretty easy, some are hard to figure out, but almost all of them have clues somewhere that help you learn what they do and how to use them. Area writers like for folks to figure out their puzzles - some are just harder to figure out than others. Don't let this discourage you from exploring.

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.

If you see an empty container that you suspect might at one point hold a wand, write that location down. If you see a powerful mage mob that you suspect might hold a wonderous magical artifact, write that mob and location down. Then come back at some later point in time and check again.

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?

Some exploring tips (as promised):

1. Make sure you're in the area you think you're in. Every area has a plaque or announcement somewhere in it (usually near the entrance) that gives the author, some sort of disclaimer about using that area on other MUDs and the name of the area.

2. Scan before you step. If you see a mob that looks like it might be aggressive, be prepared to flee right away. See if there's an alternate route you can take to go around this mob. Maybe you can explore the area, then come back to challenge this mob last.

3. Make a map. I jot down little squares with connecting lines on a piece of paper, label them with the area, and stick them in a notebook. I still pull out my original map of some areas when heading there for the twentieth time. Use this map to make notes.

4. Read the room description carefully. Once you've done that, examine any objects that jump out at you from the room description. The room description might say you're in a kitchen with a table, two chairs and a counter. Examine all of those things. The area writer might not have included that level of detail in the area, but they might have.

5. Look at the mobs. You don't have to kill every mob you run across, but if they look like they have sweet gear, go for it. Consider them first. Once you've got the gear, lore it, and jot down some notes.

6. Look in the different directions. The room description might say that a bed has been pushed against the northern wall. If you 'look north', you might see that the bed has been pushed against the wall to cover a secret door!

7. Experience the area. Tie things together. Most (all of the newer) areas have a storyline to them that the room descriptions, mobs and gear contribute to. One reason folks might miss things while exploring is because they are so engrossed in the 'mechanical' aspect of exploring (see the above) that they don't put all the pieces together to figure out that the secret treasure is actually buried in the garden! I find I have a much easier time wringing the secrets out of an area if I experience it while exploring it.

I'm wondering a few things though: are there many mobs that are now coded with sayto capability?

In the grand scheme of things, no. Most newer (last year or so) and all future areas will have this feature in them, but we don't really have the resources to retrofit all the mobs in the other 200+ areas with sayto response. That being said, some of them have been.

Are there lots of quests that are started that way? Is there a good way to find quests?

The exploring methodology I outlined above should get you started on 99% of the quests you'll be able to do.

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.

Nope.

Once you hit PK range, you'll be ready to explore more difficult areas and more capable of surviving your explorations...but you've also got to remember to type 'where' a lot and be ready to get the hell out of there if you see a three man gank squad coming for you. Don't plan on exploring all areas with one character, either. There's a lot of areas out there!

Good luck, and have fun - that's the most important part of exploring!

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends