Psychological Torture and Probing

[Samloyal23]

I am thinking one of my villains uses probing questions and painful analyses of his victims to torment them, causing psychological pain that can manifest as a states or fear, confusion, or nausea. Has anyone published any rules similar to this? Any suggestions how to do it? I am thinking multiple Sense Motive and Intimidation checks with high enough scores could have the desired effect.

 

[Ragmon]

I don't have a direct answer but check out Book of Vile Darkness.

 

[Greenfield]

Sounds like an explanation for why the Intimidation skill is Charisma based, if you ask me.

 

[Ahnehnois]

BoVD does have some stuff on that.

Alternatively, perhaps a complex intimidate check.

 

[Samloyal23]

Hmm... I am thinking it would take multiple checks to probe then an Intimidate check to instill some trauma...

 

[Sunseeker]

You might want to test the waters to ensure your players are okay with this sort of storyline. I'm not familiar with your game, but torture can be a touchy subject.

 

[Samloyal23]

This is for a horror/fantasy campaign. I want a villain with the probing, inquisitive personality of Hannibal Lecter, but not the overt physical violence. I also want to induce horror with a minimum of supernatural special effects. I think this would be more interesting than using a Fear spell to cause someone to panic...

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I've always thought the sanity system for Trail of Cthulhu was really cool, but this may be more trouble than you'd want to go to for a relatively small part of the game.

 

[Starfox]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmD8y0PJ2Vo

(Excuse the subtitles, this video was the most focused one I found)

 

[Samloyal23]

I've always thought the sanity system for Trail of Cthulhu was really cool, but this may be more trouble than you'd want to go to for a relatively small part of the game.

I do not mind a moderate level of complexity. My idea has evolved a bit, I am thinking of having an evil race that is dedicated to psychological torture as a form of Art.