Since I get asked a lot about how I got into lockpicking, I figured I'd make a big ol' post about it.
Well, I have the nerdiest backstory for this skill.
So without further ado...
First, the setup:
I helped make 5th Ed. D&D.
I regularly played in a campaign with friends.
I often played some sort of lovable rogue.
I also roll natural 1s *way* too often.
This became a running joke in-game.
Next, the inciting event:
One day, after rolling a natural 1 and failing to pick a lock on a chest, setting off a trap, and then getting taken to death's door by said trap, I decided I was going to figure out how hard it would be to do IRL (with modern locks and homemade tools, which I figured would be *way* more difficult than medieval locks).
So, after game, I drove home, grabbed my kid, and said we're going to the hardware store for SCIENCE!
Now, somewhere in the back of my head was the notion that street sweeper bristles were suitable for making lockpicks (probably from reading the Anarchist's Cookbook, Poor Man's James Bond, or something like that as a little kid). So we looked in the gutters along our walk to the hardware store and managed to find two bristles by the time we got there. I bought like $50 worth of assorted locks, and we walked home.
Once home, I watched a YouTube video just to see what the tools they were using looked like, and then found a small file and some pliers, and made a simple lockpick and turning tool. Then I set to figuring out what the heck I was doing through trial and error.
By the end of the night, I'd opened all of the locks I bought (at least once), and I had my answer—a professional rogue with decent tools should succeed at picking most common medieval locks about as often as they succeed at tying their shoes.
Unbeknownst to me, I'd rolled my own natural 1 on my save vs. falling down the rabbit hole. So now, a decade later, I've taught at conferences, placed in tournaments, been sponsored by a security company, created (and eventually deleted) my own locksport YouTube channel, and have hundreds of locks in my bedroom. Over the years, I branched out to all sorts of locksport-adjacent skills, but picking is still my favorite, and I regularly teach new folx how to pick locks and improvise tools.
So that's it. That's how being a total nerd led me to discover what turned out to be one of my biggest passions in life—defeating other folx' security for fun.
Pictured: (left) my first turning tool, (right) my first lockpick.
