Torture in Your Game: pt 2

Author's Note

After realizing how poorly written the original "Torture in Your Game" was, I decided to follow it up with this. Well, I don't think that it was poorly written, but after reading through it, I feel that it was incomplete. This time I will focus on integrating torture into a game more than actual methods.

Ahead of you lies some rehash, but mostly this will be material that should have been included in the original. As always, I'm open to criticism. If you don't like it, tell me how I can improve.

Why do I want torture in my game?

Why, indeed? Well, as was stated in my previous attempt, torture was part of the history of mankind. For those of us wanting to create a historical feel to our game, integrating torture will help give that feel. Historically speaking, torture was huge. Criminals were not just thrown into a prison, like they are today. They were quite often tortured and/or neglected. Remember, if you were caught doing something illegal, you had NO rights. A PC should get punished according to the laws of the area. A few areas may not have torture as a punishment. But using history as a guide (which most games do at least to an extent), most areas will use torture, sometimes extensively.

Torture also helps to give a game a darker feel. Many fantasy worlds that are currently on the market have a "warm, fuzzy" feeling to them. Shoving a steel rod through someone's arm helps to eliminate that feeling. It gives the character a sense of hopelessness in a dire situation.

Torture helps to keep PCs in line. In many games that I've played (and run), the PCs got to do virtually anything. Many players would mouth off to royalty and get away with it. Why? If any other person in the world (NPC) would tell the king to "go fly a kite," that NPC would have been thrown into prison, punished (i.e. tortured), and probably killed. Using torture on a PC helps the player to realize that the character is a citizen, a person, and not a god.

We all have our own reasons for wanting, or not wanting, torture in our game. One of the first questions a GM should ask himself is "why?" Going hand in hand with that, the GM should also ask "is it right for my game?" Torture is not right for all games, but it would make a good addition for many.

How do I run torture?

There are two different ways to run torture. If you are running it in your game, they will probably both come up. I call the two ways to run it background and personal.

Background torture is the easiest to run. Many times torture would take place in plain view of the public. The torturing of a criminal was actually a form of entertainment for the commoners. Background torture is not happening directly to the PCs. It is happening to an NPC that the PCs may or may not be familiar with. And the commoners are loving every minute of it.

When describing background torture to the players the amount of description involved should vary according to how personal it is to the PCs. For example: the PCs are just getting into a strange town, and they see that there's a crowd gathering around in the town square. As the PCs investigate, they see that a pickpocket is having his fingernails pulled out, and then his fingers getting chopped off at the knuckle. How much detail is necessary? About what I just gave you, maybe not even that much.

But if it is in the PCs' hometown and they know the victim, it should get a little more descriptive, especially if the victim is actually innocent. One of the most difficult things to do as a GM is to stir a player's emotions to match those of his character's. This is when you want to do it. The GM should describe each bead of sweat on the NPC's brow falling to the ground. The player should be able to hear each and every one of the shrieks cutting through the crowd, echoing off of the buildings around them. The player should see the tendons stretch as the NPC is on the rack, and then tear as the torturer cuts the victim's skin open with a rusty, dull dagger.

Be careful with the latter example. The idea here is to get the player emotionally into the game, not to get him sick. With some people, this is a very fine line to walk. When the player hits his limit, he will do one of a few things. He may get up and leave the table (not common). He may ask you to tone it down a little (this is if you cross the line into disgusting). Or, hopefully, he will do something in game, like try to rescue the victim.

Personal torture is happening directly to the character. This should never, ever be a simple mechanic. Describe each and every device used. Describe the flesh stretching and tearing in places as the pear is getting pushed into the PC. Describe how the opening pear stretches the flesh around it and tears the intestines touching the end of it. Describe the cutting feeling as the pear is being twisted inside of the PC.

One point of advice: don't use the word "pain." Never say "the pain shoots up your leg as you see your foot fall to the ground." Just tell the player that he feels something very sharp and cold at his ankle. And it slowly starts to go through the ankle, cutting everything in its path. Let the player's imagination tell them how painful it is. The imagination can hurt more than words will ever be able to. The word "pain" makes it less personal.

If you want a mechanic, here's an example. One idea is if the player makes a very pained face or says ouch, the torture works. That's not a very fair way, and it will only work once, but it is a thought. The other mechanic that I use is a roll versus the character's Constitution/Endurance at a penalty depending on the method. It's all personal taste according to the GM. Also remember, the torture devices do cause physical damage. The characters should never be killed by the torture (unless it's an execution), so bear in mind the character's wound level. Magic is a special case and we will look at it a bit later.

How do I use torture?

Torture has many different uses in a game. I can never hope to cover them all, but I will show you a few different ideas.

One way is that of a warning. Using the crowd in a town square idea from earlier, have the crime be read aloud. And have it be something that the players would consider a minor crime, like jaywalking. This is a warning that the players should be able to figure out: this is a VERY strict society, and they should be on their toes.

Another thought is an adventure hook. A person that the PCs are friends with has been sentenced is wrongfully accused of a crime. The friend has been sentenced to be tortured and executed in 2 days. It's up to the players to either break him out (risking their own lives) or to prove his innocence. It's a good switch from "you're sitting at the bar and get approached by..." Or to even shake that one up, have a PC be wrongfully accused of something.

In an area where magic is outlawed, the party wizard can have his hands get poked by a hot poker, ruining the nerves in the hand. And in ruining the nerves, the wizard can no longer cast a spell that uses gestures because of all the fine work involved. Revenge, anyone?

Mostly, I would just use torture as a punishment for crimes. It helps to keep the players from thinking that they are above the law.

The toughest part about using torture in a game is to know how much, and when to use it. The only way to tell if you're using torture too often in your game is if the group isn't remotely affected by it. Some people will be, some won't. If it gets to the point where the entire group says "alright, let's go to the flogging!" then you have too much. And the way to tell if you have too little torture in your game (if you are using it at all, that is) is if the players think that the characters are gods. Nobody should be allowed to kill a beggar just for looking at him funny.

Magic

Two different types of magic are involved with torture: healing magic, and spells that would be used to torture the character.

Healing magic is very easy to figure out. First of all, the character can not cast magic while getting tortured. The reason for this is that the character is unable to properly focus on the spell to cast it. The pain from the torture is distracting his mind too much. Healing spells can, however, be cast after the torture is done. One thing to help prevent this from happening, however, is if the prison is an anti-magic area. This is a tactic I would employ from time to time. But don't do it too often, or else the players will get frustrated and angry with you.

Offensive magic, magic used to aid in the torturing of the victim, is a little more tricky. There are very few wizards, if any, that have the control necessary to properly torture a victim. Magic is an art, not a science. Magic, like art, can never be perfected, science can.

One of the most common kinds of spells cast is a "dispel magic" or some equivalent. This is to take down any magical numbing that the victim may have done to himself beforehand. Surprisingly uncommon are the damaging spells. Those are too likely to kill the victim. The primary purpose of torture is to hurt, not kill. Though there are spells used that will intensify the pain in the victim. Spells like a "heat metal" will make it hurt quite a bit more when a steel rod is being slid into the character.

In some game systems, there are specific affects meant for torture, but those are uncommon. The only one that I can think of is in White Wolf's Mage: the Ascension. The affect is called "the rubbing of the bones." The affect does not cause any damage, but does hurt. I am sure that there are other examples, but I am not aware of them.

One thought to bear in mind while using magic is that it is not commonly used. Very few places would have the wizards necessary. And those that do have the wizards usually have them somewhere else. Only very large and very rich kingdoms have magical torture means at their disposal.

Credits

First off, I have to give credit too "xiombarg" for pointing out how incomplete the original article was. After reading it with that in mind I realized that he was right. Ditto to MJ Young who backed him up. And thanks, MJ, for picking out some value to it.

On the other side of the coin, I also want to thank Nathan and "thickenrgy" for saying that they liked the article. It gave me more reason to write this one.

There were also a couple ideas that were snagged from the forums and put in here, specifically the magic section. Check the "Torture in Your Game" thread to see what I'm talking about.

And thank you for giving me a second chance after reading that poor attempt at an article I originally did. That was bad, and I will do everything in my power to make sure it doesn't happen again (hopefully it didn't happen again with this one).