Crafting: Expose Items

[Kris]

Hey there,

I was trying to get a handle on possibilities for crafting items in OR and came across "Expose" as an effect I could give an item.

Based on the description of Expose in the accelerant rules, it sounded pretty useful. A way of scanning a room for potential demons or whatnot, but it would seem I can only make an item that exposes: "Sound, pain, device, confusion, poison, fire, gadget, disease, lightning and technology." and I'd need to shoot/smack someone I'm trying to expose. Is this accurate? Most of these traits don't seem to be traits that characters can actually have. Am I missing something?

[liahgeron]

"The Expose effect is followed by one trait. If you have that trait and are subjected to this effect, you must cry out, revealing the fact that you have the trait and revealing your position. You must cry out as loudly as the Expose effect was called."
-Core Rules for Expose

"This effect is used to determine if the recipient is inflicted with a specific effect, trait, or game condition...To use Diagnose, touch the recipient with a packet and say "Diagnose" followed by an effect, trait or game condition."
-Core Rules for Diagnose

So, Exposes are a bit of an odd call in accelerant. Expose is typically used for character traits like "Human" or "Cyborg" or "Demon." It is almost always delivered "By my voice." It can also be delivered "By your Name" to find someone. It can also be considered similar enough to an AOE Diagnose call with a bit of added functionality. This has been primarily used for "By my Voice, Expose Unstable" as a mass triage effect since you have the trait "unstable" when you have gone down to called damage. Expose is also not a beneficial effect and you call out obviously to everyone nearby.

Diagnose originally was used to determine if someone has a trait or is under an effect (stun, silence, maim, paralyze, etc). Though not explicitly stated, the response to a Diagnose is usually considered only to be known to the person who used the effect. As nearly all diagnoses are touch cast, they can also be refused as per the no contact rule. Many games choose to interpret Diagnose to also include the trait of the delivered effect. For example, if Bob had been set on fire via an "Agony by Fire," he would respond "yes" to "diagnose agony" or "diagnose fire."

Combining this with the interpretation of Expose as an AOE diagnose (which appears to be the intent here, though for ranged instead of AOE), you can craft an "Expose Fire" that he would also call out to revealing him to be obviously on Fire to all present. This has some limited functionality if you want to rapidly triage a group hit with an AOE or reveal that someone is under some sort of potentially behavior altering effect (like frenzy, most imbues or inflicts won't ping to a diagnose unless otherwise stated) with an expose packet, but otherwise not the most useful for revealing the Demons in your midst. I would guess that you could dump the appropriate research into it though and possibly get an item to do what you are interested in... but that might take allot of study. On the other hand, Expose Disease could also be potentially useful in some cases I imagine. Immediately informing everyone there that the target is diseased might have a better effect than diagnosing them then having to shout about your results.

[Tesla]

Another important word is "yet". The crafting system has some obvious missing things to it. I asked about "sanity" awhile back and the answer was no one knows how to craft a restore sanity item "yet". This leads a few of us to believe that other traits, etc. will be discovered through research points. As an example, Expose cyborg might be possible, but how do you build a cyborg detector if you never met or studied one. I'mean betting research projects will uncover these.

[Hurrock]

[liahgeron]

Actually, we might have found that one... the hard way. A few of us got blown up trying to save people still in their bunks during the Sun attack. Not 100% positive but seems a good bet that was it or at least related.

[edseel]

It seems to me an expose Hidden, and/or Expose Unseen would be an amazing thing to have, since a lot of headers spend attribute, hit the target with a bane effect to ether "hidden" or "unseen." It would be just amazing to know ahead of time if the expended attribute is worth it against that target.

That being said, there are is a lot of cool mythology out there about how to expose evil hidden among the common man. So if i had to bet, i would say research into a expose different types of supers among us, if done right and seeped in some awesome story, would be well worth the effort.

[Kris]

Since all the effects have to be delivered via weapon or packet, I don't think it would have an AOE.

[redraverfae]

[sndwurks]

Someone on Staff, please correct me if I am wrong...

The wording on Expose through crafting is:
Expose: An item which can be used to Expose can be used to Expose a trait purchased
through the standard item creation means from the appropriate list, though in this case
the end result item will be used thusly: “Expose (Trait selected) by (Default Genre Trait).”

This means that you can create an item which will, for example, by touch cast "Expose Fire by Medicine", but not "Expose Unstable by Medicine", as Unstable is not a Trait on the list of the purchasable Traits.

As such, would you be able to "Expose Poison by Medicine" and get a result if someone is currently under the effects of a "Drain by Poison"?

[Jacob]

Assuming Poison is on the list of approved traits for the crafting tree, yes? I think? I don't have the book in front of me, but logically it makes sense.