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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8825171" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Ok, that’s more or less all true of my game as well (though I simply set the DC at the time the action is made, rather than having a base DC that can be modified depending on the action, but that’s a process distinction I think wouldn’t lead to meaningfully different gameplay outcomes). So I’m not sure what you were trying to express with that example.Technically it does take an indeterminate amount of time, since we never know for certain if any given attempt will succeed or fail. Could be done in 10 minutes, could be done in 100 if the character attempts and fails 9 times and succeeds on the 10th. Or they might never get it if they try a few times and decide they’ve wasted too much time already. Knowing the cost of each attempt and the likelihood of success is what allows the player to make a reasonable estimate about how long it’s most likely to take, but they can never know for sure. The 10 minute intervals also aren’t meant to be precisely 600 seconds, it’s just the unit I use for measuring time in dungeons and other adventure locations. It’s really more like “about a sixth of the time it takes for a torch to burn out” than 10 literal in-fiction minutes. “That’ll take 10 minutes and a DC 15 Dex check” really just conveys to the player what the character should be able to glean from their assessment of the lock and of their own lock picking skill: how likely they are to be able to get it picked within the time it’s going to take for the other characters to do whatever they’re doing (e.g. searching another part of the room, doing a ritual, keeping watch, etc).Quite possibly. Or you might be surprised. Neither of us know for sure.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 8825171, member: 6779196"] Ok, that’s more or less all true of my game as well (though I simply set the DC at the time the action is made, rather than having a base DC that can be modified depending on the action, but that’s a process distinction I think wouldn’t lead to meaningfully different gameplay outcomes). So I’m not sure what you were trying to express with that example. Technically it does take an indeterminate amount of time, since we never know for certain if any given attempt will succeed or fail. Could be done in 10 minutes, could be done in 100 if the character attempts and fails 9 times and succeeds on the 10th. Or they might never get it if they try a few times and decide they’ve wasted too much time already. Knowing the cost of each attempt and the likelihood of success is what allows the player to make a reasonable estimate about how long it’s most likely to take, but they can never know for sure. The 10 minute intervals also aren’t meant to be precisely 600 seconds, it’s just the unit I use for measuring time in dungeons and other adventure locations. It’s really more like “about a sixth of the time it takes for a torch to burn out” than 10 literal in-fiction minutes. “That’ll take 10 minutes and a DC 15 Dex check” really just conveys to the player what the character should be able to glean from their assessment of the lock and of their own lock picking skill: how likely they are to be able to get it picked within the time it’s going to take for the other characters to do whatever they’re doing (e.g. searching another part of the room, doing a ritual, keeping watch, etc). Quite possibly. Or you might be surprised. Neither of us know for sure. [/QUOTE]

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