Advanced Locks and Traps

The game works perfectly well under the assumption that a lock is a lock, regardless of its make or mechanism. Traps generally earn greater detail ("a poison needle flicks out of the panel beside the lock," for example), but even so, the actual workings of the device are not usually described.

However, locks and traps are in fact found in great variety, and while many might provide little challenge to the skilled thief, some will prove daunting even to the most experienced veteran. A device can be listed with a modifier of + or - up to 30%, reflecting the ease or difficulty with which a thief might pick the lock or find and remove a trap. The modifier is applied to the thief's chance of success with the obstacle; a –30 lock, for example, lowers the thief's chances of picking it by 30%. If his normal percentage is 65%, then his chance with this lock is only 35%.

Describing Types

The more detail the DM can provide regarding the obstacle facing the thief, the greater the player's options in facing it.

Locks can include simple latches, keyhole locks with a single or multiple tumblers, puzzles that involve performing several procedures in a set sequence (pushing a stone, turning a handle, and pulling outward, for example).

Traps have many more varieties. Generally a moving part, such as a cage, block, blade, needle, sluice gate, or trapdoor, is triggered by the act of a character—a step on a surface, or a pull on a handle, for example.

A good trap design will include at least some vague description of how the two elements are connected. Levers, springs (both leaf and coil), pivots, bellows, deadweights, block and tackle, and hinges are all elements used in trap design.

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