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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tf360" data-source="post: 2121842" data-attributes="member: 2105">First off, you have to determine the prisoner's motivation and his attitude. Is he willing to die for his cause, or did he perform his task strictly for money. If the former is the case, he's unlikely to cooperate with the PC's, although he may still attempt to answer questions giving half-truths and lies. If the latter is the case, then his loyalty may be won by the highest bidder. In this instance, freedom may be worth a lot more than any monetary reward.Secondly, you need to determine how he responds to interrogation and what are his rights in accordance with the local laws and customs. In some cultures he may have the right to say nothing or be compelled to answer questions through brute force if necessary. Then, you need to decide how much he is willing to say to either deny his involvement in the plot or try to save his own skin.One of the problems you're going to face is that players tend to be poor interrogators. Their questions are often vague, open-ended or worse yet, yes and no questions. They also tend to dance around the central issues and concentrate on periphery themes almost as if they're trying to wear down or bore the prisoner with their sheer volume of questions. Here's an example to illustrate my point.Poor question:Did you help the assassin get into the building?Reason: This question is a yes/no question that probably leads nowhere. If the response is no, how do you follow up? Good question:Where were you when the assassin entered into the building?Reason: The prisoner has been asked to provide information that may potentially incriminate him, (I was standing by the only open door), or if he lies, he may give the players an opportunity to catch him in a lie.Of course if he refuses to answer any questions this is all moot. Fortunately for the PC's, most people love to hear themselves talk. Some criminals believe that they can talk their way out of anything, so they'll spin a fantastic tale that minimizes their role as much as possible up to the point of outright denial, while others are just waiting for the interrogator to give him a reason to cooperate. The PC's challenge is to get the prisoner to put himself in a situation where his lies start to work against him. Once he realizes that his story is starting to unravel, he may know that the game is up and it's time to come clean and hope for the best.</blockquote>

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