Science and lockpicking

[Gizmojunk]

Game is not Movie, and Game is not Life~

It is when the game is about a life.

I will not discuss any more if you dont use game arguments.

What 'game arguments' are you even talking about?

The movie was (of course) to illustrate an example of the point that eludes. Could you not envision a similar situation in an RPG—in Fallout even.

The PC enters an occupied room, and must deftly pick the locks during the commotion; and he did it with ease, where as a novice would likely require too much time to open it, and be caught red handed. They successfully made all of their skill checks—they were professionals; they left with their gained insight (about the room), and without discovery; without increased security for next time.

*But you notice that he did in fact drop his tools at one point.

 

[Black Angel]

snip

Yeah, I admit I'm not exactly informed because I never know how tabletop players 'gets into' playing the game of role-playing, but is it actually different? I realize cRPGs are limited in the sense that the game 'act' as a DM and thus how scenarios plays out are much more 'rigid' when compared to how both tabletop players and even their DM can get creative in handling the same scenario.

But I still think dice rolls has its own strength in cRPGs that aren't really utilized much except for Fallout and Arcanum, namely in the form of critical failure mechanics. Developers too often focused on binary results like you either succeed or you fail. Either characters can open that door with a lockpick or not. No situations like you miraculously opened a complex lock with low skill by sheer luck or you jammed the lock because of critical failure. Or even get creative like you critically fail but resulting not in jamming the lock but making a lot of noises, causing whoever inside of the locked door to open it because they're suspicious or whatever.

Those kind of scenarios, I doubt can be achieved by anything other than with dice-rolls; or developers putting a script in place that can only be triggered by some very obscure means without breaking the suspense of disbelief.

 

[Gizmojunk]

Developers too often focused on binary results like you either succeed or you fail.

It's worse than that. Due to audience limitations, developers are fudging the rolls, such that if you miss, the odds are higher that you hit with the next roll, or possibly even guaranteed. It appears that most players cannot comprehend that 95% is not guaranteed, and that a second attempt can also fail.

No situations like you miraculously opened a complex lock with low skill...

There is a good use for thresholds, even for dice systems. They can be useful as bare minimums. For instance... If the lock is a specialized security door, then it might —for instance, have a minus 35% penalty to picking attempts, or perhaps to bashing attempts; it's reinforced. Such penalized skill rolls could result in a negative chance for success with skill levels of less than the penalty; implying impossible to pick by fluke, or random chance. In some cases, a person doesn't even know how to make the right mistakes.

Or even get creative like you critically fail but resulting not in jamming the lock but making a lot of noises, causing whoever inside of the locked door to open it because they're suspicious or whatever.

In Fallout 2, the guards come running if the PC uses explosives on Mr.Bishop's safe. While I don't recall (or believe, off hand) that other noises will bring them running, it is a common thing in stealth games, for the guards to notice out of place lights, and sounds. This could likely be done with RPGs just the same. In Wasteland 2, for instance, the enemies do have defined fields of vision, and probably hearing; if not, it could be done.