Plot's Locks at the National Event

Gandian Ravenscroft

Knight
Chicago Staff
Marshal
Spoiler-but-not-really-a-spoiler alert: The plot team plans to use an assortment of locks during the National Event this year! For many players, this is an exciting thing, and with the specifics of lock reps varying from chapter to chapter, I figured it would be a good idea to outline how these things will be presented to you by the Plot Team and some guidelines for how they should be interacted with.

Locked Containers, Boxes, Doors, etc: Due to a peculiar enchantment by a certain powerful NPC at the event, if you find a container that is locked by a physical lock of some kind (padlock, combination lock, etc.), that container and its lock are both considered to be Indestructible per the magic item rules. Thus, you cannot use a Shatter effect to destroy the container/lock to get at what is inside; you must successfully open the lock to get inside. Dismantling the container in some way to get inside (such as unscrewing hinges, physically breaking a box, etc.) is strictly prohibited. In short, if a container has a lock, you will need to unlock it the way it is intended to be unlocked. Once the container is successfully unlocked, the enchantment upon it fades, and neither the container nor the lock are considered Indestructible anymore.

Padlocks: If a container has any kind of regular padlock, feel free to pick it! We plan to be using nothing more complex than basic diary locks so that we can best appeal to a variety of different players’ skill levels when it comes to real-world lockpicking talents and tool accessibility.

Combination Locks: For assorted plot and puzzle purposes, we plan on using a couple different combination locks at the event. We know there may be ways to pop open combination locks without knowing the combination, but for the sake of the enjoyment of our players doing assorted in-game tasks to discover the combinations, we ask that you not force/pick any of the combination locks; please open these locks as intended using their specific combinations. A character does NOT need to have the Create Trap skill to enter a combination into a combination lock.

Directional Combination Locks: You may encounter directional combination locks during the event, which require a sequence of directional inputs to open rather than a sequence of numbers. Discovering the proper sequence to open these locks is something you’ll have to find out in-game on your own, but please note: You should click together the lock mechanism 3 times between each attempt to unlock it. Doing so “resets” it for a new attempt at solving the combination, and if you don’t click it together a few times before an attempt, your correct input could possibly register as incorrect. A character does NOT need to have the Create Trap skill to enter a combination into a directional combination lock.

Please note that all of the above only applies to containers and locks provided by the Plot Team and does NOT apply to PC-supplied locks.

Let us know if you have any questions!
 
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Must one have Create Trap in order to interact with these locks? For picking locks you obviously would, but what about entering a combination into one of those locks?
 
Good question! A character does NOT need to have the Create Trap skill to enter a combination into a combination lock.

I will update the above post to include this.
 
are these like old-timey skeleton key locks, or modern regular key locks? I need to know if I have to make different picks
 
We intend to use very basic padlocks, ala common diary locks. I know a few of the ones I have are rudimentary enough that you can pick them with a paperclip if you know what you're doing.

Since lockpicking skill (and the availability of lockpicking tools) varies so much around the country, we want to make sure that whatever players coming from wherever have a fair chance of getting to successfully pick the lock(s) they encounter with even the most basic of gear.
 
While it is possible that it never comes up or is important, will the NPC/plot locks be marked with an obvious mark of some sort so that it is clear for players at a glance which ones are considered to be under said effect?
 
Sure! We'll put a little mark on plot's locks/containers in question to indicate this to folks. Good suggestion!

I'll update this post when we figure out what exactly the mark will be.
 
As an update to the above, because I'm realizing now that I forgot to post it a while back: the indicator that Plot will be using will be a small (0.75") lime green sticker. Keep an eye out for those!
 
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