A character can get around a mechanical device (e.g. picking a lock to open it without the key, cracking a safe combination by listening to the levers inside the safe, disarming a trap before it triggers, etc.) if he/she makes a dice roll using his/her Engineering (including relevant specialisms) + CO.
It takes about a minute to attempt to pick a lock or disarm a trap, or about 10 minutes to attempt to crack a safe.
The difficulty is determined by how good the mechanical device is, which is based on the quality of the design and the quality to which it was built, as follows:
| Design | Manufacture -> | Abysmally made | Poorly made | Competently made | Well made | Excellently made |
| Abysmally designed | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Poorly designed | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Competently designed | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | |
| Well designed | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | |
| Excellently designed | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 | |
If a character fails when disarming a trap, he/she will set the trap off. If he/she fails when picking a lock, he/she may damage the lock mechanism and end up jamming the door shut.