How do you Handle Unidentified Magic Items?

[goldensword52]

Hi all, I'm hoping you can give me some advice about the best way to structure content. I would like that when my players discover a magic item, it is initially unidentified. However, I would also like to reveal some obvious information about the item, such as what it looks like, how much it weighs, and where it was found.

The issue I run into is that I don't know how to reveal that information without also revealing the public name of the item. I could try changing the public name of the item to something like "Unidentified Sword", but then not only do I have to change it back once the item is identified, but I wind up with a bunch of different "Unidentified Swords" all with the same name. As far as I can tell, item aliases and true names can't be used to reveal the item alone, so that doesn't seem to be a solution.

I can't be the only one who has run into this issue, so I am curious how some of you have handled it already. Thanks in advance for your advice.

[rob]

This is where the "true name" mechanism we introduced in the last big release comes to the rescue. Give the magic item some general name as its public name, such as "Unidentified Longsword". Then open the Manage Names form for the topic and assign it a "true name" that reflects its name after the players identify its nature, such as "+3 Flaming Holy Avenger". Once you set this up, the sword will always appear to YOU by its true name. For the players, they will see it as "Unidentified Longsword" until they identify it. Once they do that, simply reveal the true name. At that point, your players will also see the true name.

Hope this helps!

[Gord]

I never needed that ability before and forgot about it. It's so useful when you do need it as I do now. Thanks for the reminder about it.

[goldensword52]

Originally Posted by rob

This is where the "true name" mechanism we introduced in the last big release comes to the rescue. Give the magic item some general name as its public name, such as "Unidentified Longsword". Then open the Manage Names form for the topic and assign it a "true name" that reflects its name after the players identify its nature, such as "+3 Flaming Holy Avenger". Once you set this up, the sword will always appear to YOU by its true name. For the players, they will see it as "Unidentified Longsword" until they identify it. Once they do that, simply reveal the true name. At that point, your players will also see the true name.

Hope this helps!

That would be fantastic if that was the way it worked, but I can't seem to get it to do that. Here is how true names seem work for me: I assign the item a generic public name, and a specific true name. In both the GM and player views, the item shows up under both its names, with the true name slightly greyed out. In the article view itself, the item's public name is displayed on top, and beneath that in smaller test is "aka: ture name". As far as I can tell, the true names are acting just like any other alternative name. Is there some setting I have misconfigured for true names to work like you describe?

[rob]

I just tried this and it looks to be working correctly for me, although I have some ideas on what might be causing the confusion.

When you create the topic, the public name is always shown within the content pane, and the true name is always shown as an alternate name (aka alias) beneath it. That's because you can double-click within the name field to begin editing the name, and it would be very confusing to have the name shown suddenly change when you double-clicked on it. For consistency within the interface, the public name is always shown at the topic of the content pane, with the aliases (and true name) shown beneath.

In the navigation pane on the left, the true name should be appearing as normal text, with the public name being greyed out to indicate it's not the primary name. If you turn off display of alternate names in the navigation pane, only the true name should appear. That's what I'm seeing here within my tests, although your description indicates you may be seeing something different. If so, we'll need to figure out what is causing that difference.

If you utilize Player Edition, your players will only ever see the public name until you reveal the true name. Once you do, the true name will appear as the primary name within the navigation pane for your players, as well. If they turn off alternate names in the navigation pane, they will only see the true name listed. However, they will see the same thing as you within the content pane, where the primary name is the public name and the true name as a revealed alias beneath.

Hope this helps!

[Exmortis]

I handle this with a custom category for all my "Keyed Locations". I have a player PoI snippets handling the general loot (i.e. You find a purse with gp / You find a longsword that detects as magical / you find four red spindle gems), and just reveal it them as they find the items.

The last section in my "Keyed Location" category is for treasure and magic items. There I have them listed individually with their proper value (i.e. Pruse has 241gp / Longsword +1 flaming / four red spindles worth 210gp each).

However I May look at that True Name functionality now.

[goldensword52]

Originally Posted by rob

I just tried this and it looks to be working correctly for me, although I have some ideas on what might be causing the confusion.

When you create the topic, the public name is always shown within the content pane, and the true name is always shown as an alternate name (aka alias) beneath it. That's because you can double-click within the name field to begin editing the name, and it would be very confusing to have the name shown suddenly change when you double-clicked on it. For consistency within the interface, the public name is always shown at the topic of the content pane, with the aliases (and true name) shown beneath.

In the navigation pane on the left, the true name should be appearing as normal text, with the public name being greyed out to indicate it's not the primary name. If you turn off display of alternate names in the navigation pane, only the true name should appear. That's what I'm seeing here within my tests, although your description indicates you may be seeing something different. If so, we'll need to figure out what is causing that difference.

If you utilize Player Edition, your players will only ever see the public name until you reveal the true name. Once you do, the true name will appear as the primary name within the navigation pane for your players, as well. If they turn off alternate names in the navigation pane, they will only see the true name listed. However, they will see the same thing as you within the content pane, where the primary name is the public name and the true name as a revealed alias beneath.

Hope this helps!

Ah, now that I know what I'm looking for I can see that my Realm Works does indeed work correctly for true names. It is a bit unintuitive, but I can see why things were designed that way. And now that I know how to use it properly, this was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for clearing that up for me!