I still sit around and ponder the referees role in providing challenges and how realistic or unrealistic it is. It is a perfect intersection of "Are we playing a game" versue "Are we attempting to model some form of reality".
If you go back to the late 70s, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and look at the thief chances to do thiefy things like "Move Silently" and "Open Locks", the chances listed are pretty low.
I remember, vaguely, just saying that the things the player is up against, usually, when level 1 to 4, will give a +40% bonus to their chance. This is a lot like setting the Difficulty Rating (DR) in 3rd edition D&D. But what is really going on?
I would say, it is a part of the rules, where I personally, rule more towards "We are playing a game" and a thief should have a better chance of doing thiefy things. I am not sure why a level 1 to 4 dungeon would have easy locks.
I am not even sure the chart is a good system. You can put the world's challenges into the chart. That would be more like what I made in my long AD&D but with percentages campaign. So a thief would start off with around a %60 chance of opening a lock. But the problem with that is they will hit %100 by level 5, and you will start throwing -50% DR against them.
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