D&D 5E Factions and Visibility

[auburn2]

Which is why torturers will start by asking questions they know the answers to, and make it very clear that false answers will not stop the torture.

If the person they are torturing is trained to resist torture (as presumably most agents are) then it will be very difficult to get useful and reliable information out of him or her. They will all talk yes, but the torturer will have to sort through the information to figure out what is real, most of which will be misinformation or half-truths.

If you turture multiple people in a group and they have a common cover story that all of them know this becomes even more difficult for the torturer. That is what ended up happening with many of those we tortured in the early 2000s.

For example if you are trying to find out who the mole is and all the enemy have agreed to finger a certain person who is not truely the mole, more than likely that is the person the torture will reveal.

As alluded to by a poster above, traditional espionage and surviellance is generally a more reliable way to get information. Of course access to spells like charm person, zone of truth or detect thoughts could change this in the d&d world.

 

[Oofta]

Don't want to get political on this, but the science and data show that torture doesn't work.
TL;DR the article: people will say anything to stop the torture, making things up as much as saying any truth.

The neuroscience of interrogation: Why torture doesn’t work

"Enhanced interrogation" may get someone to talk, but there's no evidence that it's the truth. A book cross-examines the true consequences of torture

www.newscientist.com

Torture Doesn't Work

A former senior interrogator in Iraq says that abusing prisoners results in unreliable information, costs American lives, and it still hasn’t turned up Bin Laden.

www.thedailybeast.com

Which is why I ban torture (well, one of the reasons) in my game.

 

[Oofta]

This is a problem in real life, sure.

In D&D, you cast zone of truth.

But you can still either refuse to answer, give answers that are technically true or use magic to counter. Zone of truth only tells you if the speaker believes they are telling the truth.

 

[FarBeyondC]

For anything humanoid or bestial, simulacrum would be the superior choice to use to extract information from a given target.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I think one thing I would use for factions and recognizing their agents are going to be little things like code phrases.

There was a great short story from Dark Sun about the Veiled Alliance, an underground to protect the preserver magi from all their enemies. Since one of their founders had been a templar of one of the god-kings (or whatever you call them), he designed the Alliance to work in cells and to spot for betrayals. Their catch phrase was "My father was a templar," and the response was "My mother was a gardener."

For recognition too, there are other things you can use. In John Wick's 7th Sea, one faction uses their longcoats and they know how to recognize another agent that way. And then they can send messages without making contact - for instance, leaving every other button unbuttoned might mean something. I know that pulling the collar up, for instance, means 'do not contact me, I'm being followed'

/ramble

 

[Krachek]

Zentarim like faction would certainly wear tabard proudly and obviously.
Identifying a Harper like member would be another kind of challenge.
Dont treat each faction equally.

 

[auburn2]

Zentarim like faction would certainly wear tabard proudly and obviously.
Identifying a Harper like member would be another kind of challenge.
Dont treat each faction equally.

The Zhents have both merchants and informers. the Merchants would wear their tabard, the spies would not (and don't in the books).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But you can still either refuse to answer, give answers that are technically true or use magic to counter. Zone of truth only tells you if the speaker believes they are telling the truth.

Yeah though in interrogation it seems like charm person + zone of truth, especially with some shapeshifting/illusion spells thrown into the mix you could do a tremendously good job of getting info out of people. I think this is one of those things where, if D&D was real, there'd be a lot more depth of magical counters - like a long-term spell that prevented charms from working - perhaps whilst making it so it seemed like they did somehow, spells that a willing subject (only, to avoid creepy stuff) could use to voluntarily give themselves approved false memories, and so on.