From the article archive
Torture in your game
As was stated in the description, this article is not for the faint of heart. I will do my best not to sicken you all too much, but torture is not an easy thing to go easy with. So if you get disgusted or offended easily, turn back now.
Okay, now that that’s over with, where does this article come from? Why would I write something on torture in a game? Well, back in medieval times, torture was commonplace. The church was notorious for torturing innocent people for witchcraft, devil worship, and numerous other things. And the crowds loved it. There are governments that still do it today, though not to the savagery that was employed back in, oh, say, the 800’s.
I can honestly say that I have never seen torture used in a game. I do not know if it is because people don’t always have the stomach for it, or simply don’t think of it. Maybe it’s because we all don’t know enough about it. Well, I am going to try to remedy one of those problems right now.
Well, onto the meat of the subject. Different methods. Now is your last chance to turn back. Still reading? Cool.
I am going to avoid some of the more popular methods that you can see in the typical movie (“The Pit and the Pendulum” is a great movie for this) or other common knowledge like Chinese Water Torture. Don’t fret, however, these are tested, proven, and worst of all, real.
The first one you have heard of. It’s called the rack. Basically, it stretches the victim. Some victims have even been stretched up to twelve inches. A foot! Remember, the average height in medieval times is roughly 6 inches to a foot shorter than today. Think of someone 5 foot getting stretched into 6. That hurts!
But what is not common knowledge about the rack is that it was rarely used alone. Nope. It didn’t hurt enough on its own. It was very common that the victim would be poked with hot pokers while getting stretched. They would also cut the victim while stretching him, so the wound would tear because the skin is stretching, too. But the one that I found the most disgusting is pulling out the small intestine with a pulley. This is no joke.
With that thought lingering, we move on to the strappado (I believe that’s what it’s called). It’s not as gross as what was used with the rack, but still painful, and much cheaper. They would tie a rope onto the victim somewhere, for example, on the arm. Then he would be pushed off of a bridge, and the rope would catch him with no give. The victim would then dislocate his arm, and stretch the tendons and ligaments almost until they broke. And they’d do this again. And again. And again. Pretty thought, huh?
And we can’t forget about the turtle. The victim would be laying in the road or on a sidewalk somewhere. Usually in plain view of the public so they could ridicule the victim (remember the savagery of the plebeians). On top of the victim would be a board with a couple hundred pounds worth of stones on top of it, crushing the victim underneath it. All the while that the victim is getting crushed, the public is spitting and taunting him. Yeek.
And my personal favorite: the pear. It is about the size of a pear (surprise). On one end if it would be a screw to open up the other end through some sort of a spring mechanism inside of it. And on the end that opens up are some nails, or something else sharp, sticking out. The pear would then be pushed into a body cavity, say the mouth (and others that I will not mention). Then they would turn this screw, opening the pear inside of the victim. And while the pear is opening, the nails are tearing the flesh inside of the victim. Ninety nine percent fatality rate. How would you like to be the one to survive that?
Now that you think that I’m completely morbid, you may be asking the point of this. Well, as stated, torture is a major part of medieval history. It has been used for many different things. Some things like interrogation, criminal punishment, witchcraft, and much more that I’m not aware of. Criminal punishment is one that I would like to focus on.
Criminal punishment like the pear would make a player think twice about killing someone in the city, wouldn’t it? Many times, I find that the PCs are just as bad about the law as their enemies. The law always seems to bend for the PCs. I say we stop that trend. The PC is just as much a citizen as the farmer down the street. Harsh punishments are part of history. And if a fantasy game is more or less a historical game, at least we should consider that.
You could also have it in the background. The PCs walk into a town and see that a crowd has gathered around in an area. The PCs can go over there to find out what’s going on. They will see that little Krystala has been accused of talking to dragons or something outrageous. The PCs may want to interrupt. How’s that for an adventure hook?
Torture can, and in my opinion should, have a part in a fantasy game. It’s just deciding to what extent you want it. Some groups will take it better than others. Sometimes it can remain in the background, other times it can come up and directly confront the PCs. Remember these words, though. Don’t be too graphic. Get the point across. You don’t have to get your players sick at the table.
In conclusion, would you think twice about robbing the poor old man if you knew that you might end up in a turtle? Would you help out someone if you knew that he or she was innocent? If so, how far would you go? And bearing in mind that these are all real things, weren’t people sick back then? Bring it into the game. Game on!
Okay, now that that’s over with, where does this article come from? Why would I write something on torture in a game? Well, back in medieval times, torture was commonplace. The church was notorious for torturing innocent people for witchcraft, devil worship, and numerous other things. And the crowds loved it. There are governments that still do it today, though not to the savagery that was employed back in, oh, say, the 800’s.
I can honestly say that I have never seen torture used in a game. I do not know if it is because people don’t always have the stomach for it, or simply don’t think of it. Maybe it’s because we all don’t know enough about it. Well, I am going to try to remedy one of those problems right now.
Well, onto the meat of the subject. Different methods. Now is your last chance to turn back. Still reading? Cool.
I am going to avoid some of the more popular methods that you can see in the typical movie (“The Pit and the Pendulum” is a great movie for this) or other common knowledge like Chinese Water Torture. Don’t fret, however, these are tested, proven, and worst of all, real.
The first one you have heard of. It’s called the rack. Basically, it stretches the victim. Some victims have even been stretched up to twelve inches. A foot! Remember, the average height in medieval times is roughly 6 inches to a foot shorter than today. Think of someone 5 foot getting stretched into 6. That hurts!
But what is not common knowledge about the rack is that it was rarely used alone. Nope. It didn’t hurt enough on its own. It was very common that the victim would be poked with hot pokers while getting stretched. They would also cut the victim while stretching him, so the wound would tear because the skin is stretching, too. But the one that I found the most disgusting is pulling out the small intestine with a pulley. This is no joke.
With that thought lingering, we move on to the strappado (I believe that’s what it’s called). It’s not as gross as what was used with the rack, but still painful, and much cheaper. They would tie a rope onto the victim somewhere, for example, on the arm. Then he would be pushed off of a bridge, and the rope would catch him with no give. The victim would then dislocate his arm, and stretch the tendons and ligaments almost until they broke. And they’d do this again. And again. And again. Pretty thought, huh?
And we can’t forget about the turtle. The victim would be laying in the road or on a sidewalk somewhere. Usually in plain view of the public so they could ridicule the victim (remember the savagery of the plebeians). On top of the victim would be a board with a couple hundred pounds worth of stones on top of it, crushing the victim underneath it. All the while that the victim is getting crushed, the public is spitting and taunting him. Yeek.
And my personal favorite: the pear. It is about the size of a pear (surprise). On one end if it would be a screw to open up the other end through some sort of a spring mechanism inside of it. And on the end that opens up are some nails, or something else sharp, sticking out. The pear would then be pushed into a body cavity, say the mouth (and others that I will not mention). Then they would turn this screw, opening the pear inside of the victim. And while the pear is opening, the nails are tearing the flesh inside of the victim. Ninety nine percent fatality rate. How would you like to be the one to survive that?
Now that you think that I’m completely morbid, you may be asking the point of this. Well, as stated, torture is a major part of medieval history. It has been used for many different things. Some things like interrogation, criminal punishment, witchcraft, and much more that I’m not aware of. Criminal punishment is one that I would like to focus on.
Criminal punishment like the pear would make a player think twice about killing someone in the city, wouldn’t it? Many times, I find that the PCs are just as bad about the law as their enemies. The law always seems to bend for the PCs. I say we stop that trend. The PC is just as much a citizen as the farmer down the street. Harsh punishments are part of history. And if a fantasy game is more or less a historical game, at least we should consider that.
You could also have it in the background. The PCs walk into a town and see that a crowd has gathered around in an area. The PCs can go over there to find out what’s going on. They will see that little Krystala has been accused of talking to dragons or something outrageous. The PCs may want to interrupt. How’s that for an adventure hook?
Torture can, and in my opinion should, have a part in a fantasy game. It’s just deciding to what extent you want it. Some groups will take it better than others. Sometimes it can remain in the background, other times it can come up and directly confront the PCs. Remember these words, though. Don’t be too graphic. Get the point across. You don’t have to get your players sick at the table.
In conclusion, would you think twice about robbing the poor old man if you knew that you might end up in a turtle? Would you help out someone if you knew that he or she was innocent? If so, how far would you go? And bearing in mind that these are all real things, weren’t people sick back then? Bring it into the game. Game on!
Recovered from the Gaming Outpost database backup. Original wording is preserved; damaged punctuation and presentation markup have been repaired. Historical links without a local match point to the Internet Archive.