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Listening to the discussion about Time lock versus Option lock made me think about the moment before the climax in Wargames. They're all in the NORAD War Room watching the computer try to guess all the numbers of the secret code in order to launch the missiles. One by one numbers become guessed correctly and locked into place. One woman makes a definite countdown: "It's got five numbers already!" In a funny way it's portrayed like a time lock because of the suspense, however it would be an option lock because there are so many options of numbers to try until you get all the numbers locked. The latter half of that same scene then becomes another interesting option lock. The computer tries lists upon lists of different campaigns, ultimately finding none of them work.

The WOPR computer only tries to figure out the launch codes because it's trying to finish the game and no one else is playing (first Matthew Broderick's character, then NORAD, refuses to respond), so that's an optionlock as well. I'm thinking that within optionlocks there are "suboptionlocks" that play out. Maybe the same exists for timelocks as well, where you have twenty-four hours to save the world, but to do that you have to break a code in ten seconds, for example.

The BIG question would then be, if optionlocks can have suboptionlocks, and timelocks can have subtimelocks, can optionlocks have subtimelocks and timelocks have suboptionlocks? And is it better to mix or to match?

Short answer: Yes. Timelocks and Optionlocks can have subordinate apparent time and option locks, but these are only apparent because they do not bring about the climax, whereas the Story Limit does by definition.