While it is not technically illegal to carry lock picks in the State of California, the law has the caveat that it is illegal if you have them in your possession and have felonious intent. With a little research, we’ve found some places take a hard line with it. In Santa Clara County possession itself is enough to constitute the felonious intent. While we have a great relationship with our site, and have no real concerns there, someone traveling to an event and encountering a cop having a really bad day could be problematic. We do not want anyone to experience any trouble over this issue. To that end, here are the new rules for picking locks in Alliance San Francisco.
• A physical lock representation must be present. This lock does not have to be pick-able; it is merely there to represent itself. The lock should be affixed to the item it is securing in some way, but it should not be locked if it is around the hasp or other such mechanism. You may put a binder ring on the other end of the rope and put that through the hasp or other such mechanism.
• The person wishing to pick the lock must present a set of “tools” with which they could do so. These should not be real lock picks. This could just be a nail care kit or jeweler’s tools. The point is that the player must be carrying items for the purpose of picking locks and disarming traps.
• A knot of rope is tied around the ‘U’ of the lock.
• The player must unknot the rope and remove it from the “U” in order to pick the lock.
• The difficulty of the lock will be represented by the number and length of ropes.
You cannot just cut the rope to by-pass the lock.
A shattered lock will be tagged with a red ribbon by a rogue marshal. This way it is obvious when someone returns, the lock has been shattered instead of just picked. If a lock is shattered on a module, the plot member will just removed the lock.
All rope should be ¼ inch nylon rope/cord.
By using this method, we circumvent any potential clashing with the state law. We also believe this will bring a renewed interest back to this aspect of the game which has been missing for some time.
We also feel that locks should be a production item and as such, they will be. Locks are created with the Create Trap production skill.
Basic Lock 5 One 6 inch rope
Common Lock 10 One 12 inch rope
Heavy Lock 15 One 18 inch rope
Complex Lock 25 Two 6 inch ropes
Byzantine Lock 40 Two 12 inch ropes
Daedalean Lock 65 Two 18 inch ropes
Gordian Lock 85 Three 12 inch ropes
During modules you may run across even more complex locks. They may have more than three ropes and they may be different thicknesses. While you might be able to obtain them as loot, their recipes will never be available to PCs to produce (just like Death Gas Poison).
Please remember that lock tags and this method of lock picking is LCO and will not work at other chapters.
To begin with, Plot will provide rope for your made locks, but please try to bring your own and get a marshal to okay the rope for locks. We realize at this time there may not be a lot of people producing locks, so there will be NPC merchants available, however you will still need to provide your own phys-rep, which should look period.
This policy is still under development and may be subject to change at any time.
Alliance San Francisco would like to thank Sarah Dzeima for the original concept.
Any questions or comments regarding this post can be directed to rules@alliancesf.net.
• A physical lock representation must be present. This lock does not have to be pick-able; it is merely there to represent itself. The lock should be affixed to the item it is securing in some way, but it should not be locked if it is around the hasp or other such mechanism. You may put a binder ring on the other end of the rope and put that through the hasp or other such mechanism.
• The person wishing to pick the lock must present a set of “tools” with which they could do so. These should not be real lock picks. This could just be a nail care kit or jeweler’s tools. The point is that the player must be carrying items for the purpose of picking locks and disarming traps.
• A knot of rope is tied around the ‘U’ of the lock.
• The player must unknot the rope and remove it from the “U” in order to pick the lock.
• The difficulty of the lock will be represented by the number and length of ropes.
You cannot just cut the rope to by-pass the lock.
A shattered lock will be tagged with a red ribbon by a rogue marshal. This way it is obvious when someone returns, the lock has been shattered instead of just picked. If a lock is shattered on a module, the plot member will just removed the lock.
All rope should be ¼ inch nylon rope/cord.
By using this method, we circumvent any potential clashing with the state law. We also believe this will bring a renewed interest back to this aspect of the game which has been missing for some time.
We also feel that locks should be a production item and as such, they will be. Locks are created with the Create Trap production skill.
Basic Lock 5 One 6 inch rope
Common Lock 10 One 12 inch rope
Heavy Lock 15 One 18 inch rope
Complex Lock 25 Two 6 inch ropes
Byzantine Lock 40 Two 12 inch ropes
Daedalean Lock 65 Two 18 inch ropes
Gordian Lock 85 Three 12 inch ropes
During modules you may run across even more complex locks. They may have more than three ropes and they may be different thicknesses. While you might be able to obtain them as loot, their recipes will never be available to PCs to produce (just like Death Gas Poison).
Please remember that lock tags and this method of lock picking is LCO and will not work at other chapters.
To begin with, Plot will provide rope for your made locks, but please try to bring your own and get a marshal to okay the rope for locks. We realize at this time there may not be a lot of people producing locks, so there will be NPC merchants available, however you will still need to provide your own phys-rep, which should look period.
This policy is still under development and may be subject to change at any time.
Alliance San Francisco would like to thank Sarah Dzeima for the original concept.
Any questions or comments regarding this post can be directed to rules@alliancesf.net.