I’m seeing some conversation going on about the availability of thieves’ tools, and that suddenly had me scratching my head. Yet another case of gamer over-think? Somebody suggested that you need to go down to a thieves guild to get such tools, and perhaps even pass a test. Another says you risk drawing undue attention to yourself by trying to have them made or buying them.
Really, does every little common thing have to be turned into an adventure? This is the minutia some DM’s are focusing on?
These tools aren't some elaborate, almost magical mechanisms from far away lands. Any locksmith will have such tools to ply their trade (I mean, somebody makes the locks, right?), and perhaps their shops even sell them for apprentice locksmiths. They won't necessarily raise an eyebrow at some young lad buying them ("I'm a locksmiths apprentice, sir!") Should not be hard to pick up, and going to a guild should not be required. I would imagine they are available enough that it would not be some kind of thieves test to obtain them. Unless you consider going down to the weaponshop to buy a sword some kind of test for a fighter. If you got the money, you should be able to buy them and get on with the real adventuring.
I agree with your points 100%.
ReplyDeleteheck I'll go farther and suggest that locks made with D&D tech won't be that sophisticated at all. There simply isn't a base for the kind of sophistication that people assume.
I suspect they will be measurably easier to open than the kind people in 2012 pick every day with improvised tools like bobby pins while doing lock-sport.
Heck even now thieves tools are not that hard to make or come by. They might not be legal everywhere but anyone in the know can get them or make them.
lastly its poor GMing to deprive thief players of the tools of their trade without very good cause. You wouldn't heavily regulate spell books or swords or armor or holy symbols or whatever. Thieves tools are the thief classes mainstay
agreed.
ReplyDeleteFor my game, where the lockpicks are not difficult to find they are a finite resource. I borrow/stole the idea from the video games, where if you miss your roll by enough the pick breaks. The players seem to like it especially when they get close to the end of adventure and only have one pick left. Should we chance it on picking this lock or wait.
ReplyDelete5stone: I also think of these ancient locks as being primative, unless they are some kind of master puzzle lock in a dungeon or something. Heck, there are even locks and lockpicking in RQ's Glorantha, and that's bronze age. Talk about primative locks. Unless dwarven locksmith masters are involved...
ReplyDeleteTim: Oh man, broken lockpicks have been my bane in games like Oblivion and Fallout 3. But it makes sense that they should have depriciation. Nothing wrong with having to get a new set of picks now and again.
I also kind of have the basic PHB pick sets be very "dollar store" in quality. Want especially well made and strong picks? Pay double.
It depends on the feel of the campaign. I could see it in a very gritty world. Also, tools to pick a lock could be different then tools to build a lock. Close enough to get a roll, but not ideal for it.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue is magic items. I figure most governments wouldn't approve of people selling invisibility magic, wands of knock, potions of gaseous form, etc.
Philo: That's interesting, I never thought of a local admin worrying about certain magic available, but it does make sense. But also the price of such things (in a low to middle magic world, at least) would make them perhaps a bad investment for anybody interested in petty crime. Of course, those after a big score like the royal jewels would for sure have inviso, sleep, etc. on thier minds as possible tools. I'll have to give this more thought.
ReplyDelete