Item identification

Overview

An unidentified item has two identities. The true item is what it really is, and only the party’s GMs and managers can see it. The appearance is what everyone else sees. Until a GM or manager identifies the item, players see, carry, count, equip, spend and sell it as its appearance, and none of the true item’s details or effects reach them.

Every appearance has one of two modes:

• Marked: players can tell the item is unidentified. It shows as “Unidentified” with the appearance’s name and description, and players can ask the GM to identify it.
• Disguised: the item looks like an ordinary item. A cursed blade can sit in a pack as a plain longsword, and nothing on the player’s side says otherwise.

Setting an Appearance (GM and Managers)

The same appearance editor is used everywhere you hide an item.

Choose where the appearance comes from:

• Search appearance templates to make the item look like any template you can see in the party’s game system. Your private templates appear first, so you can keep a set of decoys ready. Picking one fills in its name, description, value, weight and art.
• Quick mystery item starts a blank appearance with the mystery image. Tick Save as a reusable template to keep it as one of your private templates.

Then adjust what players see:

A blank value or weight means the item has none for players. The true value and weight are never used in their place.

Spawning Mystery Items

Use the Spawn Mystery Item wizard to add a new unidentified item to a party container.

Navigate to it:

• Open the party’s Identification page and click Spawn Mystery Item.
• If the GM Dashboard shows a Mystery Items summary, click Manage to open the Identification page. This link appears when the party has unidentified items.

The wizard has three steps:

1. Select Item: browse or search for the true item. Players see this item once it is revealed.
2. Mystery Mask: set the appearance with the editor described above.
3. Confirm: choose a container and a quantity. Targets can be character inventories, party containers, shops, or loot piles.

Select Spawn Mystery Item to create it. Everything created in one go belongs to the same lot (see Stacks and lots).

Hiding an Item in Inventory

To hide an item the party holds, open it and choose Mark as Unidentified from its More actions menu. The dialog shows the true item’s name and the appearance editor. Select Mark Unidentified to apply it. Any open identification requests for that item are cleared.

Seeing Both Identities (GM and Managers)

GMs and managers always see the true item, with what players see alongside it:

• Inventory rows and cards show the true name with a badge such as “Disguised: Longsword” or “Unidentified: Odd Hammer”. If a player has renamed the item, the badge shows the player’s name for it.
• Party inventory search finds an item by its true name, its appearance name, or the player’s name for it.
• The item’s detail view has a panel with the True item on one side and the Player appearance on the other. It shows the mode, the appearance’s value and weight, and any name a player gave it (Player calls it). Open true template and Open appearance template link to the two templates. An appearance made with Quick mystery item reads Custom appearance, no template.
• An item template’s page has a Masked in your games section, listing hidden copies in parties you run. On the true template it lists This item, masked. On a template something is disguised as, it lists Other items that look like this. Each row shows what the item really is, what players see, and who holds it.

Changing an Appearance

From the item’s GM panel:

• Edit appearance reopens the editor. You can change any field or pick a different template. A name the player gave the item is kept.
• Switch mode flips the item between marked and disguised.
• Reveal this stack and Reveal whole lot identify the item right away, without the confirmation dialog.

When a Player Uses an Unidentified Item

Players can hold, equip, move, split, give, and sell an unidentified item like any other. Using it is different. When a player tries to drink, consume, activate, attune to, cast from, or spend charges from an unidentified item, nothing happens yet. Instead, the GM gets an identification request, and the player sees “Your GM will decide what happens.” A disguised item never tells the player it is unidentified.

On the GM’s side, the request shows what the player tried, such as “Tried to drink it.” The GM can then:

• Identify and apply: reveal the item, then carry out what the player tried as if it had worked the first time.
• Approve: reveal the item without applying the attempt.
• Reject: apply nothing and leave the item hidden.

GMs and managers do not trigger requests themselves. They reveal the item before using it.

Handling Identification Requests (GM and Managers)

A player can also ask directly. They open a marked item and choose Request Identification from its actions. A disguised item looks identified to its holder, so it has no request option. An item can have only one pending request at a time.

Requests appear in the Pending Requests section at the top of the party’s Identification page. Each one shows the item’s mystery name, its true name, who asked, when, and what the player tried if the request came from a use.

• Click the check button to open the Reveal Item dialog, then click Reveal to approve it. The reveal goes to the item’s owner.
• On a request that came from a use, Identify and apply also opens the Reveal Item dialog, and applies the attempt after the reveal.
• Click the X button to open Reject Request. Enter an optional reason and click Reject. The requester is notified and can read your reason.

The Dramatic reveal switch in the Reveal Item dialog is on by default and controls whether the animation plays.

Players and their familiar can also request identification, cancel a pending request, or check on one through the familiar. GMs can review, approve, and reject requests through the familiar too.

The Identification Page (GM and Managers)

The party’s Identification page is for GMs and managers. Players who open it are sent back to the party home page. It has three parts:

• Pending Requests: described above.
• Review appearance weights: shown only when older mystery items have no appearance weight and currently weigh nothing for players. Enter a weight and select Save weight.
• Mystery Items: every unidentified item across the party, grouped by Character Inventories, Shops, Loot Piles, and Party Stash. Use Search by mystery or real name… to filter.

Click the eye button beside an item to open the Reveal Item dialog. A direct reveal uses automatic visibility: an item in a private character container is revealed to its owner, and other items are revealed to the party. A pending request for the item is approved as part of the reveal. When the item’s lot has more than one stack, Reveal all N stacks reveals the whole lot at once.

GM Dashboard Widget

When the party has unidentified items, the GM Dashboard’s Mystery Items summary shows counts by location and a Manage link to the Identification page.

Stacks and Lots

Everything hidden in one go (one spawn, or one Mark as Unidentified) is a lot. Splitting a stack keeps both halves in the same lot.

• Unidentified stacks only combine with stacks from the same lot. Two disguised “Longswords” from different lots stay separate, so merging cannot give away which one is real.
• Revealing a lot identifies every stack from it, wherever it has ended up in the party: character inventories, the party stash, shops, or loot.

What Players See

While an item is unidentified, everything players see comes from its appearance:

Value and weight feed encumbrance, shop prices, and loot splits, so a disguised gem worth a fortune still sells for what it looks like. Disguised coins count and spend as the coins they look like. Marked coins are not money until they are identified.

Players can rename an unidentified item and keep their own notes on it. When it is revealed, the player’s name for it carries over, so “Grandpa’s Sword” stays “Grandpa’s Sword” after the reveal.

The Scrying Reveal

When Dramatic reveal is enabled, online party members receive the full-screen Scrying Reveal animation through party updates. A player who is offline can see a missed-reveal notice when they return.

The Sequence

1. Scrying Phase: An arcane eye and circles appear while the mystery card blurs.
2. Divining Phase: The mist clears, runes flash, and particles appear based on rarity.
3. Revealed Phase: The real item card appears with its item details.

Rarity Scaling

Scrying and divining timing and particle counts vary by rarity. The timing values below are for the Scrying phase; the Divining phase also runs before the revealed card appears.

Real-Time Delivery

The reveal is delivered through party updates. Online party members can see the dramatic animation; the app also provides a missed-reveal notice to players who were offline. Delivery is not guaranteed to appear at precisely the same time for everyone.

Example: The Dragon’s Hoard

The party defeats a dragon and begins dividing treasure. You spawn a Holy Avenger, disguise it as a plain Longsword from the template list, and drop it into the loot pile.

The fighter takes it as a backup weapon and thinks nothing of it. Weeks later, she tries to attune to it. You get a request that says “Tried to attune to it,” choose Identify and apply, and the whole table watches the Scrying Reveal as the plain sword becomes a holy blade, attuned to her.

Want the players to know something is up from the start? Mark it instead: “Ornate Blade with Strange Runes” invites them to argue over it, ask you to identify it, and wonder.

What’s Next?

• Inventory Guide: Container management and item organization
• Shops Guide: Deploy automated shops
• Encumbrance Systems: Weight, slots, and bulk systems
• Real-Time Collaboration: Party sync and transaction history