Hey all, the subject of interrogating prisoners (or just hostile witnesses) has come up recently in two campaigns I'm playing, one of which I am a DM for, and I wanted to hear any successes or pitfalls you have had with it. 

I wrote out this whole post trying to think of an "interrogation" as a step by step process, but it was really hard to organize the thoughts of it so I scrapped that.The gist is, do you have any tips on creating a satisfying experience where the players can capture a prisoner (say a thief who is stealing an artifact, or a member of an evil organization the players don't have all the info on) without giving away too much plot, but also not having the person be unreasonably tight-lipped? Playing out the party torturing some hapless guard doesn't hold any appeal for my group, but I would like it if there was a way to conclude these moments of taking a bad guy alive without them saying exactly one useful thing before suddenly succumbing to their wounds.

Minions can't reveal information they don't have. Villains with halfway decent OpSec won't tell their underlings more than they need to know. For example, the thief knows what he's supposed to steal, and where he's supposed to deliver it, but there's no reason he would know where it would be taken after delivery, or what the employer plans to do with it (of course, the villains could have slipped up; you should give enough information to keep the plot moving, possibly with a bonus for doing a particularly good job asking questions).

I'm going to try this, the next time interrogation comes up in my game: 

Yes, in most operations information is limited on a need-to-know basis.  But you may also use it as a good opportunity to plant false information.  The thief firmly believes he knows something but is wrong.  The guard doesn't know much about her employer because she just started a few weeks ago.  Truth spells can work to your parties advantage or disadvantage... because if the NPC believed it was true during a truth spell, then now suddenly the party does too.

This is also a place to know what the life and background of your NPCs is.  What about their past made them resistant / weak to questioning?  Who do they know that they blame for their current circumstance?  How have they been treated by their allies / employers?  If you can learn more about this NPCs past before the questions start, you'll have a firmer footing on what information they are willing to reveal.  A cousin to the royal family that is working her way up the ranks of the military is going to react entirely differently than a street urchin who made a friend in the guard and is just glad to have a post and considers it his best state in life and is seeking no greater reward currently.  Someone with strong faith in a particular god is going to have a potential strong area and a weak area in what they are possibly willing to share.  

What leverage can you use against them?  If your party doesn't know much about the person they are interrogating, they shouldn't expect to gain very much.  If they have staked out a person and know what makes them tick better, they could stand to gain more information just by seeing the NPCs reaction to topics.  So, I guess ultimately, it's going to boil down to how much you want to invest in NPCs and the kind and quantity of information you want to give out (and how important dice rolls are to the matter at hand).

Don't forget to have some fun with dimwitted or cowardly enemies. I'm about to run my party through Hoard of the Dragon Queen soon, and knowing my party they're going to try to capture as many Kobolds as possible rather than kill them. One of the details the module mentions is that the Kobolds themselves are only vaguely aware of why they're working with the baddies... mostly they just listen to what the bigger dragons tell them to. When interrogated they just tell the heroes whatever it is they think they want to hear, which has a lot of room to go in gloriously stupid/goofy ways.

information compartmentalization has been mentioned, would the thief know that he is stealing a magic lamp? no the wizard who hired him wouldn't tell the thief that, in fact he would probably be in disuse when he contacted the thief.

there is also the matter of what to do with the prisoner.
one of the struggles my players have, and have caused PVP situations over,  is what to do with the prisoners once the interegation is over: kill them? that seems rather evil. hand them over to the local police? does the BBG have influence over the police and they just handed you a reoccurring bad guy, perhaps the BBG gets information about the party out of the prisoner? as DM if the party is handing over captured prisoners to the police, perhaps the BBG starts loading them with bad information? perhaps the minions become more tight liped and even point out that the PCs are not going to kill them so have little incentive to talk.
if you get your players to go torture or murder... let them know they are pushing towards evil, and should contemplate becoming an evil campaign or move away from such acts. warn and talk to them before takeing any particular actions as DM.
my players, and myself when i am a player, have been leaning towards not trying to take prisoners to not have to deal with the morality of dealing with said prisoners. its a bit of a meta way out, but its that or dealing with the morals of taking prisoners as the cost of getting potentially incomplete or worse yet deliberately faulty information. i wont force prisoners on the players, without plot reasons, as DM, and as a player dont appreciate being forced to take prisoners if not provided a way to deal with the prisoners.

First how much do the enemies hate the PC's. Or have a bias towards people of certain races. Meaning they will be on the far right of the social scale of Friend-neutral-hated. As a result even a DC24 Charisma won't make the NPC's talk. If the PC's somehow do manage to succeed. Then the needle will just go from Hated to very strongly disliking the PC's. Still not revealing much information. And the information given is done so in a taunting and insulting boasting manner. Also how devoted/zealot are these captured individuals? which raises the DC for successfully moving the social needle even more.

Also what is the station of the NPC's captured in the bigger whole? Foot soldiers will know almost nothing. Saying stuff like "The lord's army will crush you puny insects".

As for torturing. Once again. How devoted are they to the cause? Some races like orcs and hobgoblins are used to pain. They thrive in it. And some torture won't make them talk. They'll just scream more insults and spit in your face. They will welcome death over selling out.

PC's with Charm/Friends spells can circumvent quite a lot of this. Where the captured enemy will talk. Once again. How much do they know regarding their station...

Using the social setup with the 5 or so stages of the NPC's disposition is a starting point. You need to somehow convince or trick the NPC into divulging the information they have. So a small skill challenge where the PC's do their thing and upon success the needle moves one step. Changing someone's demeanor takes time. So requiring multiple skill challenges just to get someone to talk resembles this. On failure you can describe how the NPC's passed out from the pressure put on them. Requiring the PC's to come back at a later point to resume.

And that is if the NPC has the information. They can also possess information that they have put together themselves. From snippets overheard here and there. Not fully grasping the full picture...or whether their info and understanding is even correct. So the NPC's can give wrong information to the PC's without realizing. PC's can also "break" the NPC's and send them back with planted information of their own. To spread rumors among the baddies ranks.

To me and as it has been mentioned above in interrogation scenarios I've always looked at the NPC and ask how much information would have been given or as said 'Need to know' The level of involvement NPC has to the overall scheme or whatever the information the players are looking for may be more plentiful and possible reliable as you move up the hierarchy.   Of course, as the DM you always control how much information is revealed even on successful DC or not.

Also, don’t forget the power of misinformation. If the captured enemy is strongly allied with the BBE, then they may intentionally give false information in an attempt to thwart their captors activities against the BBE.

I had a situation come up in a recent game where the characters were planning on capturing an NPC during combat for interrogation. I saw this post, watched the video and had an excellent 40 minute pre-game conversation with the players about what their objectives were, what questions they would ask, torture, etc. Then the game happened and during battle a player hit the target NPC with a critical inflict wounds and completely killed him.

Sigh.

The suggestions in the Running Interrogation Scenes video worked great though!

Quote from TemporaryNinja >>

I had a situation come up in a recent game where the characters were planning on capturing an NPC during combat for interrogation. I saw this post, watched the video and had an excellent 40 minute pre-game conversation with the players about what their objectives were, what questions they would ask, torture, etc. Then the game happened and during battle a player hit the target NPC with a critical inflict wounds and completely killed him.

Sigh.

The suggestions in the Running Interrogation Scenes video worked great though!

 

 

 Question. Was the critical damage done by a melee weapon?  If I recall correctly after damage is rolled you can indicate that you would like to incapacitated the target so it would not be a kill.  I believe it is the combat section of the phb  

I know it’s too little too late but something to remind players they have that option.  

Quote from BKThomson >>

Question. Was the critical damage done by a melee weapon?

It was done with a melee spell, but Knocking Creatures Out applies to any melee attack, not just melee weapon attacks.

Quote from Pantagruel666 >>

Quote from BKThomson >>

Question. Was the critical damage done by a melee weapon?

It was done with a melee spell, but Knocking Creatures Out applies to any melee attack, not just melee weapon attacks.

 
That is super helpful to know. Thank you!