Interrogation

Type of Skill Game: Bidding
Number of Skills Chosen per Action Round: 3
Skill List: Diplomacy, Perception, Intimidate, Bluff, Medicine, and History

Interrogation takes place between two parties — the interrogators and those being interrogated, as designated by the GM. In Interrogation, sooner or later, the person or persons being interrogated will crack. Thus, interrogators accrue a single token automatically at the start of each [Action Round].

On the other hand, breaking a subject can take a lot of time, particularly if you want information that's actually actionable instead of fake confessions. Thus, Interrogation uses time and information as scoring resources. The goal of the party under Interrogation is to stall as long as possible. In general, the interrogators should have six [Action rounds] before time starts running short on them for any of a variety of reasons of the GM's choosing, so gauge how much time an [Action round] takes based on that criterion.

Interrogation does not generally allow the interrogated party to walk away from bidding, but it can become a normal social combat encounter if both parties consent. If this occurs, each party's tokens from this skill game become tokens for the social combat encounter.

Interrogation Action Set

Because the goals of the parties in play are asymmetric, the options open to them are different. To this end, the set of actions is tailored differently for each party.

Extract

This is the action that the interrogating party uses to gain the information they want. Taking this action can reveal a tidbit of information, pieces of actionable intelligence, or deep, dark secrets.

Concession

Sometimes, promises must be made by the interrogators before they can gain useful information. The party that takes this action names the terms of what the interrogators must promise the interrogated party. Guarantees made as part of concessions must be kept, or at least appearances of keeping them must be made, before the information is given. If either party refuses the terms brought for the concession, then no information is given and no guarantees need be kept for this action. If a concession made cannot be fulfilled to the satisfaction of both parties during the scope of the Interrogation, then the information does not have to be given and and any guarantees do not have to be kept (either party may still keep to such agreements if they wish to).

Lie

The party that takes this risky action can lead the opponent astray. The Interrogating party uses this action to make a special Concession; promises made as part of this Concession do not need to be kept. Interrogated parties use this action to make another kind of Concession; information given as part of this Concession does not need to be true.

Stall

Information is useless if it comes too late to act upon, so the party being interrogated wins if they can hold out until that point – or until the cavalry comes to rescue them. The interrogators may also use this option, but most of the time they won’t find it useful.

Leverage

Unlike the other options common to skill games, Leverage needs more than just tokens. To use Leverage, shockingly, you actually need a lever. It might be a family member they don't want harmed or killed or an arm they don't want broken, but good leverage isn’t easy to find. Generally, it’s very hard to use Leverage more than once in an interrogation. Only interrogators may use Leverage.

Trap

A trap represents a skilled ruse designed to lull the other side into a false sense of security. Trap negatively impacts the opposition’s ability to pass the skill tests that occur between actions. This means that they accumulate fewer tokens, which makes it an ideal way to solidify an existing advantage. A party may only use Trap once in a given interrogation.