There’s no torture in my games. It might seem unrelated to this page, but it seems that whenever there’s an NPC tied up, one player or another will suggest taking out a knife and start stabbing them to get them to talk. (I ran a Savage Worlds intro game two days ago, and this literally happened)
As a humanist, I have two problems with this. First, it’s cruel. Second, it’s proven to be ineffective.
As a game designer, I have a different problem here: Players want info, and they want to be able to do something in order to get it. Most games reward physical actions; add the fact that most people believe interrogation through torture is quick and effective, and it makes sense that most players will just assume that any NPC that was hostile to the group needs to be tortured in order to provide information.
So in my games I say all of this to the players, and when they interrogate a hostile NPC, they always get info without need for violence. I make sure to reward them with some fun back and forth from the NPC (like in this page). The players can also always make a check to get more info (a raise provides further information).
The assumption is that the NPC is one of two: either not a fanatic, and therefore their own life is worth more to them, and they’ve just lost a fight, and they simply don’t care enough to keep things hidden from the players (and the big bad won’t trust them with truly important info, so there’s no use of trying to get such things out of them); or they are fanatics, and then no amount of torture can make them talk, it only strengthen their resolve. But maybe you can make them boast? Or trick them? Or manipulate their emotions? If the players can afford the time for an extended interrogation, that can be interesting to play; if they can’t, then this NPC is a dead end.
I make all of this absolutely clear to the players, because otherwise, they always assume that torture can get them something. Movies have utterly convinced us of this absolute falsehood. I’m trying to push against that tide.
