D&D (2024) The One Team needs to pick some locks!

[Yaarel]

Yeah, but since when has D&D restricted itself to medieval technology?

I view "magic" as a metaphor for near-future supertech.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

The variance of the die roll is an important feature for a game of heroic action like D&D. Some of the most exciting and memorable moments in a D&D campaign are the “unlikely” successes and failures, the natural 20s and 1s that cause unexpected outcomes. The tighter the distribution of the dice results, the less likely those outliers become.

Yes everything you say above can be true and still make for a bad job of showing character competence, though as I have said elsewhere in the thread, Expertise goes a long way to fix that.

 

[Bill Zebub]

"I do swordplay, so I know blah, blah..."

And not a single one of them has actually killed anybody with a sword. (Let alone a monster.)

 

[Bill Zebub]

Yes everything you say above can be true and still make for a bad job of showing character competence, though as I have said elsewhere in the thread, Expertise goes a long way to fix that.

Or just following the game’s guidance and granting automatic success in more situations, instead of always rolling dice.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Or just following the game’s guidance and granting automatic success in more situations, instead of always rolling dice.

Again, in general I agree but it can be difficult in practise. Particularly for those of us, DMs that developed a habit of using dice roll as a means of divination about where to respond or to take the narrative in response to player action.

 

[tetrasodium]

The variance of the die roll is an important feature for a game of heroic action like D&D. Some of the most exciting and memorable moments in a D&D campaign are the “unlikely” successes and failures, the natural 20s and 1s that cause unexpected outcomes. The tighter the distribution of the dice results, the less likely those outliers become.

I dunno the most memorable thing I've ever seen was a shadowrun game where the demolitions guy glitched badly on estimating how much explosives to use on the door to a residence... Then after we returned with the moving van sized load of explosives he glitched even worse. There is something about the gravity of everyone watching Bob counting all those ones & sixes that has weight you just don't get from a single d20.

 

[Jahydin]

Or just following the game’s guidance and granting automatic success in more situations, instead of always rolling dice.

Coming from intricate systems that model actual proficiency, this took me a long time to realize. Specifically, unless it's a dramatic or contributes to achieving an actual campaign goal, don't roll, common sense it.

Rolling for every instance of a skill will just turn your campaign into a 3 Stooges show.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Again, in general I agree but it can be difficult in practise. Particularly for those of us, DMs that developed a habit of using dice roll as a means of divination about where to respond or to take the narrative in response to player action.

For that playstyle (using dice as a means of a DM divining where to take the narrative), I would agree.

When cleaving more closely to the DMG's guidance to "Only call for a roll if there is a meaningful consequence for failure", granting auto-success can serve to honor the heroic competence of the PCs while at the same time allowing the action to move onward to the more challenging bits.

 

[James Gasik]

Isn’t making a whole new thread just to point and laugh at someone else’s thread a bit dickish? Or am I the only one thinking this?

I'm not offended either way. I never gave much thought to the high DC's for locks in D&D; it makes logical sense. If you're going to bother with a lock, you want it to be good. The fact that locks aren't, in general, as good as we'd want them to be in any time period is at odds with that belief. I get that D&D is a fantasy, and it doesn't always have to make sense, but it struck me how unusual all these really good locks are.

There's several explanations, of course. The locks could just be rusted, relics of an ancient technology, or not commonly reproduced. Many pointed out that the DC's could be representative of needing to open the locks expediently, a view I certainly can agree with, though the system isn't really reflective of that fact, other than the ability of a DM to allow advantage or simply waive the need for a die roll as the circumstances warrant, which is how I will likely handle things in the future.

My curiosity on this topic has been satisfied, but if someone does find humor in the questions that I ask, then I suppose I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. ^-^