Is there a way to prevent players from accessing magic item descriptions?  We are playing Descent into Avernus.  One of my players found the Shield of the Hidden Lord.  Another obtained the Sword of Zariel.  They both got super excited and immediately added them to their inventory.  The Shield of the Hidden Lord description contains major spoilers.  The other made a bad decision based on some out of context info on the Sword of Zariel and sort of derailed the campaign.  I've blocked the sources and they can't look up the item, but if they add it to their inventory, all the information is still there.

You can copy them as homebrew items and just delete any lore or things that might give away too much. Since you're in a campaign with them, they'll be able to use your homebrew.

You can also tell them not to metagame since the players know what that description says, but the characters have no idea.

I usually make a homebrew.  They just get so excited, they click on the first one they see.  It's certainly not malicious.  And I can tell them not to metagame, but a spoiler is still a spoiler.  And it's the player who's surprise is getting ruined, not the character's.

Don't call it the same thing.  If you tell them to look for Shield of the Hidden Lord, then they will.  If you tell them to look for Disguised Noble's Shield (your homebrew) that is something else entirely.

Good advice.  I have tried that though.  I did refer to the Hidden Lord but I didn't call it "The Shield of the Hidden Lord".  And the Sword of Zariel is kinda self-explanatory.

Items will contain everything they are supposed to for their full function. If you want something to be a surprise then you, as the DM, should make the decision to not provide them that item or a version not containing what you don't want them to know. This site isn't in the position to make that decision and should not be trying to make multiple versions of the same item just to play what ifs on what a DM might, or might not, reveal. 

For example, for the hidden lord shield there'd be multiple versions depending on whether they attuned, only identified or used Legend Lore spell. The same can be said for nearly every sentient item. That's an exhausting amount to code up, when the DM could just homebrew their own edited version if needed (and if they actually own it: then they can do so very easily indeed). 

As a DM if you're running a premade module then you should be reading it thoroughly to prep ahead what you will need. 

This is very much a DM thing, not a D&D Beyond thing.

If you want something to be a surprise then you, as the DM, should make the decision to not provide them that item or a version not containing what you don't want them to know.

 

 That's the question.  How do I not provide them that item?  Even if I block the shared content, they can add the item to their inventory and access the full information.

Quote from Centritan >>

If you want something to be a surprise then you, as the DM, should make the decision to not provide them that item or a version not containing what you don't want them to know.

 

 That's the question.  How do I not provide them that item?  Even if I block the shared content, they can add the item to their inventory and access the full information.

You tell them "you found a shield" and describe it visually. You don't say "you found the Shield of the Hidden Lord". Also, as a session 0 you tell them "hey I'm running Descent Into Avernus so please avoid looking into that source". And you're done. 

At the end of the day, a premade publicly available adventure is exactly that. If they have the book or access to it there's nothing physically stopping them reading stuff from it. 

For your part, if they find the shield - they add a basic shield because unless Gargauth decides to speak up first, that is all it would appear to be until they identify it (via short rest or Identify spell or possibly Legend Lore) or until they attune. Since you, as DM, know in advance they might encounter this shield and want the identity of the bound being hidden from player as well as the character, then you'd make a homebrew copy removing anything about it's identity/mental stats. When the character has attuned you go into their sheet remove the basic shield and add in your homebrew one. Voila. This is the equivalent of handing the player your handmade item card if you were playing pen ' n ' paper style. 

Ok.  So you don't know a way to do it.

Quote from Centritan >>

Ok.  So you don't know a way to do it.

I do, as best as this site allows. You may want to try reading my posts. 

As another tip: if you own the sourcebook on here, after they make characters, disable any content sharing for that book. If any items specific from that book need to be added you can do it for them instead. If they have access to the book then there's nothing you can do. This is not a case of me "not knowing a way", it is simply "not possible at all". Big difference there. I did explain that. I ask that you do not dictate to me about what I do or don't know - you have no authority to make such judgements.

 

I do, as best as this site allows. You may want to try reading my posts. 

As another tip: if you own the sourcebook on here, after they make characters, disable any content sharing for that book. If any items specific from that book need to be added you can do it for them instead. If they have access to the book then there's nothing you can do. This is not a case of me "not knowing a way", it is simply "not possible at all". Big difference there. I did explain that. I ask that you do not dictate to me about what I do or don't know - you have no authority to make such judgements.

 Please read my posts.  I disable the content.  They can still add the item to their inventory and access all the info from the item description.

I will apologise for my confusion about Content Sharing management, I was under the impression that turning a source off blocked character builder elements - on reading through the changelogs for the feature I can see it doesn't. I am sorry for my assumptions, I establish metagaming boundaries with my players and they were very good about it anyway so I never had to make use of any restrictions. I had thought that the Content Sharing management feature actually restricted character sheet stuff because, it's utterly fluffing pointless if it doesn't. 

So, anyway, the Content Sharing management feature doesn't stop anything appearing in character sheets, apparently, and there's nothing you can do about it.

So it's back to what I said before:

 "You tell them "you found a shield" and describe it visually. You don't say "you found the Shield of the Hidden Lord". Also, as a session 0 you tell them "hey I'm running Descent Into Avernus so please avoid looking into that source". And you're done. "

and

"For your part, if they find the shield - they add a basic shield because unless Gargauth decides to speak up first, that is all it would appear to be until they identify it (via short rest or Identify spell or possibly Legend Lore) or until they attune. Since you, as DM, know in advance they might encounter this shield and want the identity of the bound being hidden from player as well as the character, then you'd make a homebrew copy removing anything about it's identity/mental stats. When the character has attuned you go into their sheet remove the basic shield and add in your homebrew one. Voila. This is the equivalent of handing the player your handmade item card if you were playing pen ' n ' paper style. "

This is why you can you access their sheets. To add your own homebrew things instead of them adding other things. You could even, for example, when the character is taking the rest to attune etc, just quickly rename the homebrew version to '(Character)'s New Shield' - tell them to refresh and to look up their own name. This is a way to add edited versions of items so they can find what you want instead of the 'real' version, if you prefer to not access their sheets for whatever reason. They can even customise it and rename it if they want, directly on their sheet. Personally I prefer to add it for them before I even give out the info so I can say "and if you check your inventory, it has been updated with the info for you" as a nice extra surprise. But to each their own.

These are the ways to handle the situation in future. 

Quote from Centritan >>

 

I do, as best as this site allows. You may want to try reading my posts. 

As another tip: if you own the sourcebook on here, after they make characters, disable any content sharing for that book. If any items specific from that book need to be added you can do it for them instead. If they have access to the book then there's nothing you can do. This is not a case of me "not knowing a way", it is simply "not possible at all". Big difference there. I did explain that. I ask that you do not dictate to me about what I do or don't know - you have no authority to make such judgements.

 Please read my posts.  I disable the content.  They can still add the item to their inventory and access all the info from the item description.

 How  much experience do you have with Homebrew?  You can make a homebrew item by copying another item, then you can modify the description.  Because it is a copy and most likely contains some of the original text, you may or may not be allowed to make it public, which is fine if you just want it to be for your campaigns.  Keep in mind that once you save it, your players can see it.

I have something like this going on where the players in my campaign got some HB items.  They are questing to get other things they need to enhance their items.  They don't know what the new features will be yet, so I made another set of HB items for them with the new features.  I added them to the players inventory to test that they worked, then removed them.  I gave them different names so the players don't see them accidentally.  Seems to have worked so far! 

Thanks.  I do make copies that they can use that don't have the spoilers.  However, the original items still pop up in their inventory.  Sometimes they check it out while I'm distracted running the game before I can tell them to look at the homebrew version.  I have since addressed it and asked them to check first before adding the items to their inventory unless it's something really common like a +1 weapon.  I just wanted to know if there is a way to disable it.

Well... this whole thing makes me want to use this site for campaign management even less. At least in Foundry I have 100% control over what the players do or don't see.

This is also another great argument for NOT running the published modules, at least as written -- which I realize is of no help to you.

To be honest, I don't really have any help for you. My general solution has been to write up all my magic items in Foundry first, and then after they are ID'ed, I will put them into DDB and let the players add them to their sheets. This way there are no spoilers. 

The only way you can do that is to ditch all the lore-based magic items in the game and make your own magic items. However, if the lore of the sword has all kinds of info about the module, separate from what the sword can do, and the players are reading those spoilers, then the only way to fix that would be to re-write the lore of the module so that the sword is no longer correct. This is a massive amount of work -- you'd be better off doing a homebrew at this point, since you'd be homebrewing both the lore and the magic item.

I'm not sure I have anything for you here other than to empathize... and to make a mental note to never use any published adventures as written -- at least not for 5e (it's probably save to use 1e, 2e, etc. adventures as a base and adapt/convert).

Quote from BioWizard >>

Well... this whole thing makes me want to use this site for campaign management even less. At least in Foundry I have 100% control over what the players do or don't see.

 

This is also another great argument for NOT running the published modules, at least as written -- which I realize is of no help to you.

To be honest, I don't really have any help for you. My general solution has been to write up all my magic items in Foundry first, and then after they are ID'ed, I will put them into DDB and let the players add them to their sheets. This way there are no spoilers. 

The only way you can do that is to ditch all the lore-based magic items in the game and make your own magic items. However, if the lore of the sword has all kinds of info about the module, separate from what the sword can do, and the players are reading those spoilers, then the only way to fix that would be to re-write the lore of the module so that the sword is no longer correct. This is a massive amount of work -- you'd be better off doing a homebrew at this point, since you'd be homebrewing both the lore and the magic item.

I'm not sure I have anything for you here other than to empathize... and to make a mental note to never use any published adventures as written -- at least not for 5e (it's probably save to use 1e, 2e, etc. adventures as a base and adapt/convert).

 I partially agree.  Why only partially is because some of the items you can just use "as are".  Players find potion of healing, bag of holding, etc... no problems. Add away players!

But for major items, I agree, especially if you don't want them to know about it.

I play a ton of modules I get from DMS Guild, and thank Oghma as I don't have the time to write them all.  Fortunately, I have a brand new player and a player who has not played since 2E, so they don't know any of this.

The DM needs to have 100% control over what lore items the players can, and can't, see. The fact that DMs don't have this kind of control is frankly appalling.

Would love for d&D beyond to add an isIdentified check box to items so players just see the unidentified version of the item in their inventory until the DM checks this box.

Seconded.  Does identify reveal all the lore and curses though?