As Hurt Locker book is generally great, but not delivering proper rules for ‘Torture to get information’ ( only condescending ‘Torture as means to hurt people’ in Intimidation Violence Skill section ), so I start this topic to devise house rule mechanics for running Torture scenarios as characters trying to get info from target of it. If you do not agree with this topic premise, best would be to leave it here. You stay? Great, let’s get going.
I think that good rules model for ‘Torture to get information’ would be Social Maneuvering and it’s Doors of target. But this time, it’s that Doors are psychic barriers target of Torture is putting to not share info. General number of Doors and those added by Breaking Point of target are all the same as in normal Social Maneuvering. The true difference is in First Impression – in Torture mechanics we totally skip this part of Social Maneuvering system. Instead, each roll to Open Door takes one hour and is treated as Hard Leverage. As to Health damage of target each point of Lethal damage done in is counted as +1 bonus and each 2 Bashing damage works as +1 bonus in this round of Opening Doors. Typical torturer roll is Presence or Dexterity + Intimidation with Health damage bonus, most often contested each time by Resolve + Stamina roll of target. In this rules, Hard Leverage do not open automatically Doors! After each Opening of Doors target can take Offered Alternative and end Torture. BUT each information thus gained will be treated as Tainted Clue in Investigation system.
Example: Mark is cop that was kidnapped by Yakuza. Gangsters wants to know where are drugs police got from last action against mafia. Of course, Mark do not want to tell them – at least till his partner and rest of forces do not found him on closed construction site Yakuza is torturing him. Both sides look over torture Goals – Yakuza has ‘Determine the locations of drugs‘. For Mark it will be Breaking Point as he is extensively fighting with drugs on the streets. Player counts Mark’s Doors now – lower of Resolve and Composure is 3 for him, Yakuza getting it’s Goal will be Breaking Point for him as assessed before and Mark has ‘Defeat Yakuza’ as Aspiration on his sheet. He has also ‘Dedicated’ ( to his work ) as Virtue, so it ends with 7 Doors to open on Mark side. Yakuza brute get’s to his work and start to beat the information from Mark – doing 4 Bashing damage he get’s +2 bonus to his roll on Presence + Intimidation, ending in 8 dices. It’s contested with Marks Resolve + Stamina that is 6 dices. Gangsters won, but as the dicepools were nearly equal, in next hour Yakuza up their game – they take exotic knives that are put in Mark’s non-vital organs and by doing 4 Lethal damage, brute get’s dicepool of 9 dices. Mark, on the other hand, has almost full Health boxes full beside one, so he has -2 penalty to rolls – and by this contest only on dicepool of 4 dices. Yakuza gets Exceptional Success and opens 2 Doors in one action. Still, Mark is offered just to tell them all they need. There are only 4 Doors left after 2 hours of ‘working out’ Mark…
So what are your thoughts on rules proposition?
I think that good rules model for ‘Torture to get information’ would be Social Maneuvering and it’s Doors of target. But this time, it’s that Doors are psychic barriers target of Torture is putting to not share info. General number of Doors and those added by Breaking Point of target are all the same as in normal Social Maneuvering. The true difference is in First Impression – in Torture mechanics we totally skip this part of Social Maneuvering system. Instead, each roll to Open Door takes one hour and is treated as Hard Leverage. As to Health damage of target each point of Lethal damage done in is counted as +1 bonus and each 2 Bashing damage works as +1 bonus in this round of Opening Doors. Typical torturer roll is Presence or Dexterity + Intimidation with Health damage bonus, most often contested each time by Resolve + Stamina roll of target. In this rules, Hard Leverage do not open automatically Doors! After each Opening of Doors target can take Offered Alternative and end Torture. BUT each information thus gained will be treated as Tainted Clue in Investigation system.
Example: Mark is cop that was kidnapped by Yakuza. Gangsters wants to know where are drugs police got from last action against mafia. Of course, Mark do not want to tell them – at least till his partner and rest of forces do not found him on closed construction site Yakuza is torturing him. Both sides look over torture Goals – Yakuza has ‘Determine the locations of drugs‘. For Mark it will be Breaking Point as he is extensively fighting with drugs on the streets. Player counts Mark’s Doors now – lower of Resolve and Composure is 3 for him, Yakuza getting it’s Goal will be Breaking Point for him as assessed before and Mark has ‘Defeat Yakuza’ as Aspiration on his sheet. He has also ‘Dedicated’ ( to his work ) as Virtue, so it ends with 7 Doors to open on Mark side. Yakuza brute get’s to his work and start to beat the information from Mark – doing 4 Bashing damage he get’s +2 bonus to his roll on Presence + Intimidation, ending in 8 dices. It’s contested with Marks Resolve + Stamina that is 6 dices. Gangsters won, but as the dicepools were nearly equal, in next hour Yakuza up their game – they take exotic knives that are put in Mark’s non-vital organs and by doing 4 Lethal damage, brute get’s dicepool of 9 dices. Mark, on the other hand, has almost full Health boxes full beside one, so he has -2 penalty to rolls – and by this contest only on dicepool of 4 dices. Yakuza gets Exceptional Success and opens 2 Doors in one action. Still, Mark is offered just to tell them all they need. There are only 4 Doors left after 2 hours of ‘working out’ Mark…
So what are your thoughts on rules proposition?
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