Pick Lock for Mosaic Strict
A downloadable Rule Suppliment
Just a simple system for lockpicking.
System neutral and Mosaic Strict but especially useful for rules light dungeon crawling adventure games.
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Hi there, through the power of connections I saw your comment on unclevova's Sneakthief lockpicking addon and made my way to yours. I like the differences between the two and had 2 questions about yours.
It says to roll a d20 and mark that many ticks. Based on that, every 5 on the die unlocks a pin? So a 4 pin lock would be unlocked on a 20 in one go? Just checking, because it seemed a little too easy. But I guess if it's a non-thief then they are taking 10 minutes already.
If I am interpreting that correctly, then the second question is for the line under the experienced thief section, "On a roll of 15+ mark d6 ticks of progress". It would seem that I already got 15 ticks and the d6 is giving me a bonus to that?
Thanks!
Good questions!
This system is basically what I use when running Knave which is a classless OSR system, so it's more or less OSR compatible. In a traditional OSR game only Thiefs can attempt to pick locks on an adventuring turn which is 10 minutes so that is where the 10 minutes comes from. My games don't generally have classes, so in general, there is a 5% chance to pick a 4 mechanism lock on an adventuring turn (10 min). A thief can take advantage (in 5e terms) when picking a lock which means they have roughly a 10% chance of picking a lock in 10 minutes.
The d6 ticks of progress refers only to picking locks under pressure. So, like, for instance a thief could try to unlock a chest or door in the middle of combat. In those situations they would make a test to see if they can make progress and then tick 1d6 progress. This is functionally identical to the way an attack roll works in most d20 games with progress standing in for HP, the d20 roll being to to-hit roll, and the d6 roll being the damage roll.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the explanation! To put it simply and make sure I understand: when not under pressure you roll a d20 for a 1 to 1 ratio of ticks, otherwise you have to roll a 15+ and only get 1d6 ticks?
While you mentioned thieves traditionally being the only ones eligible to try, your rules don't restrict it right? Just come from that flavor?
Correct, the games that I run are classless, anyone can attempt to pick a lock. I have included some rules that can be used if you want to model differences in lockpicking ability.
Very good, thanks again.