Lock Types

A Lock Type is the difficulty template behind every lock in the catalog. Six tiers, easiest to hardest: Minor, Adept, Major, Master, Legendary, Godlike. A lock's material (brass, iron, steel, mithral, adamantine) sets its price and weight — it does not change how hard the lock is to pick.

Picking a lock is a minigame, not a roll. You brace a tension dagger in the keyway and sweep a pick around the cylinder hunting for the one arc that turns it. Outside that arc the cylinder still moves a little, and how far it moves before jamming tells you how close you are. Force a jammed cylinder and the pick strains, then snaps.

• Sweet Spot — how much of the cylinder opens the lock, out of the 300° you can reach. This is the whole difficulty curve: a Minor lock gives you better than a quarter of the ring, a Godlike lock a 7° sliver.
• Pick Holds — how many seconds a pick survives being forced against a jammed cylinder before it breaks. Forcing far from the sweet spot wears it out about half again as fast.
• Sweet Spot (Max Locks) and Pick Holds (Max Locks) — the same two numbers for a character at the top Locks rank (Godlike Locksmith). Training widens the arc and toughens the pick; at max rank a Godlike lock plays about like an untrained Minor one.

Every tier can break a pick, and Lockpicking Tools are required for all of them — an easy lock is forgiving because you rarely miss it and it holds out longer, not because it is safe. Run out of picks and the attempt ends.