Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Ragitsu Feb 22, 2009 4:37:54	Or, to put it another way, what was the absolute scariest interrogation/use of intimidation you've ever roleplayed as a PC or, if a DM/GM, as an NPC? Bonus points if other participants at the table still remember the event, or you played a notoriously "good guy". The system itself doesn't matter, but clever use of the rules do.
#2 Master_Vega Feb 22, 2009 11:25:49	Well, it wasn't my PC, but my friend's character in my groups SecondSight/Werewolf game scared the living crap out of a cult zealot. The rules for telekinesis don't list a time limit that you can lift or move objects, so he made a point to keep his power going the entire time. My character was working in a similar manner, only I was the "good cop" and using my mind reading power to catch surface thoughts he wasn't willing to speak up about. There was an underground lake in the tunnel we chose as our interrogation room, and it so happened that the zealot thought his soul would be trapped forever if he drowned in the particular lake. Our morality 5 telekinetic didn't have any problem making him feel that was a viable option for us, using his telekinesis to dunk and submerge the tied man repeatedly when he stumbled or stalled with an answer, whether or not I was still asking questions at the time. He often interrupted with questions in the middle of answers that were useless, further freaking out our captive. The cultist didn't make it all the way through the encounter, mainly because he asked for it. My character caught onto the surface thought, "They're touching me now..." as the cultist finally regained his composure and began to grin sadistically. I announced to my group, "I think we've heard enough, boys." Three gunshots later (the telekinetic is a horrible shot, and our gunslinger wolf, who no one knows is a werewolf, had to finish the job), we were on our way out of the cave, only to find vehicles inbound on our position. Fun...
#3 Ragitsu Feb 22, 2009 14:38:27	I must admit, the denouement to that little interrogation attempt made me smile.
#4 Master_Vega Feb 22, 2009 14:43:22	I must admit, the denouement to that little interrogation attempt made me smile. To be clear, we actually got some useful information out of the guy... Enough in fact for the werewolves to immediately make for the nearest phone (this game is set in the 1920s, so no cellular phones) to summon the help of their pack. The rest of us, assuming they were only drawing the fire for our escape, made our way back to our camp. We haven't continued the game in months due to the Storyteller/GM's school schedule. >_>
#5 Ragitsu Feb 22, 2009 17:05:01	No magical cellphone equivalent ;)?
#6 Master_Vega Feb 22, 2009 20:52:21	No such luck. WoD seems to be about making things as difficult as possible for PCs. lol
#7 backstabbist Feb 23, 2009 13:03:20	Most humorous intimidate was a WW2 setting using LEG PCCS rules: I had a guy with a pinned grenade sneaking along a wall to the building corner, Badguy had his pistol out and turned out to be sneaking along the other wall toward the same corner. Badguy steps into the corner sq and faces me with his pistol I drop the grenade (right here), turn 180, and start a Max Run. Without speaking a word I successfully negotiated for the badguy to change his mind about shooting me, seems I intimidated him to run away instead I had to stop interrogating folks in d20 games. The GM wouldnt give a bonus to my interrogation rolls for executing the previous 3 or 4 guys that refused to talk, so by the time I get to the last guy told Talk or Die, they still out-roll me and say "You dont have the guts to kill me". And being a Lawful type I am bound to kill guys I said I would kill, since any nonlethal motivations were deemed to be 'torture' and wrong for my guy to do. The one time I had hired a NPC private eye as part of an extended plan, it came back to bite me: This local corporation had some kind of evil activity linked to it, To get into the evil corporation files, I wanted to have an insider leave a door unlocked. To get the insider to do that, I wanted to intimidate/threaten him. To threaten him, I hired wanted to show him pictures of his wife & kid and threaten them. To get the pictures, I hired a NPC private eye, told him I suspeced "my" wife of cheating on me with another patent from "our" kids school... the PI should follow her and get pictures of everything she does when she picks up the kid. Our wonderful GM had the soccermom spot the PI, call the cops on him, he tells the cops "all about" us rather than say "the husband hired me", and the cops are shooting at us days before we ever got anywhere close to getting into the evil corps files to find out who in the corp is bad and what we need to do this adventure. Interogation/threats ARE scary in our group, but it is the party that is scared of getting hurt when the party threatens guys.
#8 MechaPilot Mar 03, 2009 1:04:05	I think my scariest is the drow i played in urban arcana. Being a drow, she had that whole "drow-superiority" thing, and she just loved bending other people to her will. In retrospect, my GM allowing me to take the leadership feat from D&D really springboarded the notion that those she leads could be people whose will she'd broken. In essence, she broke her own human slaves. The system was based on intimidate checks against the will save. A successful check did temporary charisma damage, a failed one restored 1d4 cha. Once the target had slid to zero Cha, they were obedient and filled one of her follower slots for the leadership feat. Only 1 attempt per target, per day. Took 4 hours for each attempt. The other characters became increasingly uncomfortable in her home as her manor filled with hopeless servants over the course of a few story arcs.
#9 wendiego Mar 05, 2009 0:24:27	Two incidents spring to mind. The first I was interrogating a Wookie, being a Wookie myself in WEG D6, and had a hard time convincing him to cooperate. So I pulled out my "Ronco retractable frying pan" [a GM creation] and proceeded to hit the wookie in the kneecaps every time he gave a bad answer [gotta love the con rules in D6]. The second was a co-player, he was a smuggler type questioning a couple of imperial soldiers. While the first was unconcious he asked the second some questions starting with his name. The guy replied "Bob", and the interrogation went down hill from there. So eventually our smuggler shoots "Bob" and wakes up the other guy. Our Smuggler asks the other guy, "what's your name" to which he replies "Bob". Without missing a beat our smuggler says "You can't be Bob, Bob's dead" showing the guy his dead partner. Needless to say the guy was much more chatty after that.
#10 Ragitsu Mar 05, 2009 20:12:08	The old "hanging a perp off the side of a rooftop" only works so many times :P.