No more always-on items?

[october]

I know there were changes to enchanted items between the preorder PDFs and the final print version, and the removal of always-on items seems to be one of them. Am I mistaken or looking in the wrong place, or did they remove the ability for always-on items completely?

The specific case I was trying to model: one of the players in the game I'm about to start wanted a character who was effectively blind, but who had an enchanted item that allowed him to see text clearly. I was thinking this would be some sort of always-on item that applied a maneuver to grant some sort of aspect (similar to the "deep in concentration" example in the book). It seems like now, he'd need to create an item that could only be turned on a few times per session, at most.

[Ophidimancer]

Items of Power can always be on, so if you want you can put Supernatural Sense into an Item of Power.

[Fedifensor]

I would classify the item as a special effect.  If he uses the item to see, then as long as the character's vision can be blocked like a normal person, it should just be a flavor effect.  However, if the net effect is and advantage, he should take the vision enhancing item as an Item of Power.

[wyvern]

Yes, they were removed; there was a thread on that a while back with the reasons why.  (Basically, always-on just didn't have enough bang for your buck, and you can mimic an always on effect by just paying the extra mental stress when you need it, and even if something is always on it's not always plot-important that it's on anyway.)

However, in this instance, I'd say that an always-on item isn't the right way to model what you're looking for.  Since the default state of a character is not-blind, mechanically you don't need an enchanted item at all; I'd say this is the domain of an aspect.  Something like "Not totally blind" or "ArtifactName lets me see text" or something - and then you compel that aspect whenever it's plot-important that the character can't see stuff.  (Note that this isn't a total fate point factory that churns out one or more every scene - presumably the character has found ways to cope with his blindness, and under most circumstances it won't be important to the plot.  So he'd get a fate point for not noticing the muggers sneaking up on him, but wouldn't get a fate point for not noticing his friend sneaking up to say boo.)

And, as noted, you can always pick up an item of power too if his ability to see text is somehow vastly superior to normal vision (i.e. "I can read that book over there, even though it's closed and inside a glass case.")

[CMEast]

Exactly as the others say. Blind is an aspect that the PC and GM will use for declarations and compels. 'Blind but can see text' just means that there are less compels and declarations required. If 'but can see text' is linked with an item then that just provides more compel fodder if the PC loses the item. If the text can be seen in a way that doesn't really affect the game then there's no cost, if he has daredevil style senses that provide an advantage in certain situations and conflicts then it costs a stunt or power.

Sounds fun though, I once played a blind oracle in pathfinder - if it had been in the fate system I'd have earned a TON of fate points

[october]

Awesome ideas everyone, thanks for the input!

[ashern]

An additional note.  If you wanted the item to have a nice kick for the supernatural sense power, make it a pair of goggles (or whatever flavor you want) that allows the blind person to read text, and only text, even through closed books and whatnot.  Just be careful not to get disoriented in libraries