This wasn't just my observation. It was made at both tables at last nite's Games That Can Not Be Named.
Torture comes up repeatedly, because there is no system in game for PCs to extract information from captured adversaries. Most DMs don't want their now prisoner NPCs to divulge too much info. PCs want all info. Frustrations leads to torture.
Fire. Either the PCs are using burning oil, or their adversaries learned from the previous session and are using it on them. At low levels, effective use of burning oil can be a game changer. Either that, or we have a lot of suppressed pyromaniacs playing D&D ;)
As for torture, that might be a good RPG supplement for someone to write. Kinda like a flow chart / resolution table, so we can get away from the descriptions of failed torture for info in our gaming sessions.
Just some thoughts.
Tower in the Wasteland v2
-
I recently asked my patrons what posts deserved a sequel and Tower in the
Wasteland was one of the first replies. So here's an updated version of
that d...
3 hours ago
Is it an early edition of Gamma World that has a flow chart for figuring out how to use some piece of future tech? maybe that sort of thing, walking you through how much or what level of information you pry out of your prisoner under duress.
ReplyDeleteI have Gamma World 1e - I think I remember the fow chart in question. Haven't looked at the game in at least 20 years.
ReplyDeleteI may just have to dig it out ;)
Actually the Book of Vile Darkness (DND 3.0) has detailed and easy to use rules for torture.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if there were torture rules in Gamma World it must have been 2e because I've played every other edition of the game and would have remembered the torture rules.
Funnily enough my group of players has quite a history of burning down structures! They've also been known to interrogate captives. They've used a combination of threats and Charisma (sometimes roleplayed, sometimes rolled using C&C's SIEGE Engine, sometimes a combo of both) for said questioning. There's only been on instances of outright torture to get information, though.
ReplyDeleteOh, sorry: they've also used fire on monsters as well! One clever player actually filled a water bag with oil and created an impromptu flame thrower...which pretty much backfired on him, literally! Good times!
ReplyDelete@George: I wasn't implying there were any torture rules in GW, just a flow chart system that could be a model for information gathering. Sorry if I was confusing.
ReplyDelete