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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bill Zebub" data-source="post: 9880163" data-attributes="member: 7031982">My 9 year old has very little trouble choosing lockpicking skills (in games that have such a thing) when rolling a thief.  Then he also seems to have very little trouble saying, "I try to pick the lock" when coming across a lock.Come to think of it, he was pretty skilled in that way when he was 7 years old, too.So if we're going to describe this as a skill, I'm not sure I believe the threshold is very high.When I talk about "using player skill" I don't mean literally picking a lock.  I mean making plans and weighing tradeoffs.  For example, maybe a battle is raging, and if the thief can open a lock then something good happens (you can escape, you can free an ally that can help, there's a lightsaber in the chest...whatever).  So now there's a decision to make: do you use your turn to help fight, or do you use your turn to try to open the lock?  If you choose the lock, how likely are you to succeed?That's the kind of scenario where I think a lock in a dungeon can be interesting design, because the player has to make a tough decision, but the action is resolved with character skill.(And "Can I try, too?" syndrome is self-regulating.  "Sure...you may absolutely waste...I mean, spend...your turn attempting that!")Is my critique of skill systems angering you in some way, or making you feel threatened, such that you feel justified in making obnoxious comments?</blockquote>

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