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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MechaPilot" data-source="post: 6825136" data-attributes="member: 82779">I have to agree with a fair amount of what has been said.  Pretty much every time I have ever decided not to gloss over an interrogation as a DM, or seen another DM not gloss over it, it turns into torture porn.  Ever since I noticed that happening, I've gone with the following (which is going to be slightly repetitious):1) Decide what the NPC knows.  Don't make it a massive amount of stuff or it will feel like an exposition dump.2) Decide how loyal the NPC is.  Will the promise of rewards or the threat of violence get it to talk?  How significant do those rewards/threats need to be?  Is actual violence required to get it to talk?  If so, how much violence is needed?  Will it talk the moment it's punched or cut?  Or will the PCs have to full-on torture it?  And, it's always possible that it might be so loyal that it will die before giving the info.  This, along with full-on torture, is probably best saved as being very rare levels of loyalty.3) Don't shoot yourself in the foot.  Getting info out of prisoners can do two very useful things.  It can teach players the value of taking prisoners (which is handy if you're trying to train them not to just slaughter everything in sight), and it can keep the story moving by providing crucial information.  It also has the potential to create recurring villains if the prisoner escapes or is turned over to someone else.</blockquote>

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