Hiding magic item effects from players

[Beerbelly]

Hey everyone.

I'm converting some of the old 2E premade adventures from D&D I have to run in Fantasy Grounds. As everyone knows, identifying magic items is always one of the fun things to do, and hiding cursed items in the loot piles is a DM's greatest joy. Anyway of hiding the effects of an item from the players in either of the Savage worlds settings?
-I've got plenty of work around ideas, such as giving them a standard Short sword and noting it as un-identified in it's name, while having the magic version set aside. I'm strictly looking for a way to make the item un-identified so the characters can't tell what it's doing when they use it until they have identified it.

[YggBjorn]

When you create an item in Fantasy Grounds there is a little black "ID" with a green circle around it in the upper right of the item window. Click that ID icon and it will toggle between identified and unidentified. What ever you type in the 'Non-ID Name' field will show as the items name when it is unidentified. It should work like that for any ruleset within Fantasy Grounds. :)

[Beerbelly]

nope, that icon isn't in Savage Worlds rules set, unfortunatly.

FYI, this is in FGU also. I don't believe that makes a difference, but you never know.

[mac40k]

It actually is in available in Savage Worlds and I have used it in the past. It just allows you to have two different display names for the item. It does nothing to solve the problem of hiding the actual effects of the item.

[Doswelk]

It actually is in available in Savage Worlds and I have used it in the past. It just allows you to have two different display names for the item. It does nothing to solve the problem of hiding the actual effects of the item.
Items yes, weapons and armour no

[YggBjorn]

Well then OP, as a workaround you could create two versions of each weapon or armor piece. One that is un-identified and one that is identified.

[mac40k]

As Doswelk says, the identify functionality is only available for items, not weapons and armor, but again, just masking the name wouldn't hide the effects, so you'd still have to account for that. Let's say you have a weapon that is enchanted to cause +1 damage. You can create a non-identified version that causes Str+d4, and an identified version that causes Str+d4+1, but if someone uses the item before it is identified, you have to manually account for the +1 because FG obviously will not. I guess it depends on your setting and whether or not just using the item v. having someone cast a spell to identify it is necessary. If the former, I guess you let them roll using the unidentified version and if the extra +1 would change the result, you swap out for the identified version at that point. If it's the sort of thing that they can't figure out by using it and have to have a spell cast, like a cursed sword example in the OP, I'm not sure since it would seem to depend on what the effects of the curse are.

[Mgrancey]

Generally speaking, PEG doesn't worry too much about hiding that kind of stuff. In deadlands, they put the information about items in it. If its cursed to make them Bloodthirsty, give them Bad Luck, or some other negative effect the players need to know.

If its something they dont need to know you can keep to yourself. Unless you plan to hide ALL rolls, then effects will show up in calculations when showing will hit or hurt.