What skill would you use for lockpicking and/or hotwiring in the grim darkness of the far future? After a scan through the rules, I'm thinking tech-use.

I actualy expect my players to do this during our next session. I'd say tech use is the obvious choice. If you want it to be way more tricky, make it a combination of tech use and the appropriate drive/pilot skill, so that a player must roll against the worst of the two, or maybe two characters must succeed with one test each in the same turn. Maybe let a common lore (underworld) help :-)

Just lock picking (any lock): Security.

For hot wiring a vehicle: Tech-Use but only if the character possessed the relevant Drive or Pilot skill else, I would rule that they wouldn't be familiar enough with the vehicle/system to effectively hot-wire it. The difficulty would start at -10 (you want to **** machine spirit HOW?!) and descend from there depending on the security used on the vehicle in question. Security, Trade (technomat), and relevant CL and SL skills will add a +10.

Security regardless of the level of tech, surely? The skill description says locks "and other security systems".

The way I play it, security is used for breaking the security system by exploiting an understanding of how it works. Tech-use can be used for breaking a security system by b0rking its internal workings, provided it is some kind of electronic system, and provided you can get at the inner workings without setting it off.

In general I write things to allow security to trump tech-use rather than the other way around - and indeed, in any case where a specialist skill goes up against a generalist skill I expect the specialist skill to be more useful.

I'm with the tech-use crowd. A tech priest should be able to do it, although he'd probably need to do a special ritual to placate the machine spirit which may be alot slower than modern hot-wiring. I'd allow Hereteks to do it faster and in a blashpemous way.

Although I'd assume most vehicles in WH40k wouldn't need a locked ignition anyway, maybe just a lever or a button, together which the normal ritual must be applied by a competent user. In a special society where personal vehicles were abundant things would be different, but that's the buty of 40k - there is room for everything!

Don't forget modifiers for "the right tool" at the right time! You can't lockpick w/out picks!

L

Who?

I believe (at least in th RT rules which I read recently) it explained that Security is used for physical security devices, such as deadbolts and other physical locks that have a physical mechanism/moving parts. Tech-use is used to disarm electronic locks, such as those without moving parts.

That said, I think it would depend on the vehicle and the tech it uses. It might even require both skills, for example, ... a tech-use to unlock the electronic lock on the door and then a security to hotwire the steering column, or conversely security to open the control panel and tech use to override the eletronic controls.

In current times, hotwiring a car would use security (physical manipulation of wires), whereas breaking into a computer system would use tech-use. Now, if the vehicle is run almost completely by a computer, with no manual input (no steering wheel or ignition, for example) tech use sounds appropriate, otherwise security is more likely the usable skill for hotwiring.