Lockcraft is knowledge of locks and of small, close-tolerance mechanisms generally — which means the same hands that make a strongbox secure are the hands that open somebody else’s. Every such device carries a Complexity from 1 to 9, and a character may test Lockcraft simply to judge what they are looking at before deciding whether to try it.

Warded and tumbler locks exist on chests and doors, but the padlock is far and away the commonest thing a character will meet.

Picking. An attempt with proper picks takes 3d6 rounds — fifteen to ninety seconds. The lock’s Complexity × 10 is applied as a penalty to Lockcraft Mastery Level, and if that reduces it to zero or less no attempt is permitted at all. Fatigue and impairment then apply to the Effective Mastery Level as usual. Roll the duration after the test, since a Critical Success shortens it.

Crafting

A lock or comparable mechanism is made by the common crafting routine — workshop, expense, test, result, masterwork rolls, repair — in a lockcraft workshop. What follows is what is particular to the lockmaker’s bench.

Test. A Lockcraft (Metalcraft) Success Value test.

Result. Lockcraft reads the ladder in Complexity rather than in quality. Below SV 3 the result is junk and 2d6 days are lost. SV 3–4 produces an item of Complexity 1 to 4; each Masterwork Success permits one point beyond that. Cost and time follow from the Complexity chosen, and such items sell for six times their cost.