In the first ten seconds you make an assumption of who they are and how to act and react. It is a vast amount of information you use to make an that assumption: location, time, dress, posture, speech, and most of this does not happen consciously, but subconsciously. Basic human psychology.

Psychological tests have revealed that in a non-distracting environment a well-rested male interrogator who is well groomed and wearing a suit creates more often a positive first reaction from subjects under interrogation.

While an interrogation can be carried out with one individual and a recording device. It is recommended that there is always at least a senior interrogator following the interrogation. A video recorder is an aide to an interrogation and should not replace the senior interrogator. This additional interrogator is highly important when dealing with a hostile subject or when employing coercive techniques.

Silly point, but I don't think I've ever seen an interrogator in a suit in any movie or show or, well, anything portraying military or police interrogation.

You know, there was this episode of M*A*S*H in which Major Burns were captured by North Koreans but they let him go because he was such an annoying jackass that they simply couldn't stand to be in his presence any longer.

i think it was a fine fellow named sutherland who said:"people are much more shaken by it, if they get pistol whipped by someone who is dressed really nice!"
Yakuza and Mafia "Interrorgators"?

The Matrix.

-Chrysalis

As a GM, what I have always wanted to do (but never will) is, when a character is faced with extreme physical torture but the player says he seeks to resist, turn on the hot water in the bathroom faucet, let it run for a bit, and then make the player hold his hand under it for as long as possible.
Base character's resistance on player's.
A more civilized version might be to base it on how long the player could hold his breath (no water involved).

But then I suppose there are attributes and dice and all that boring stuff.

So, if the player has to get his hand amputated he wins, right? What if he on;y holds it under long enough to require skin grafts?

Really, if you're going to go that far I'd suggest just spending a little extra money to hire a woman whose job title is "mistress" whose skills include "CBT" and who brings her own hammer and sterile nails.

Torture in SR4 mainly boils down to damage - Stun or Physical and Intimidation mods. In this way, the person being torture would have less dice to resist interrogation. Torture gives the interrogator positive Intimidation pool mods, while the damage from the torture reduces resistance. However, if we were to take a rules only approach to torture-interrogation, then we can see that torture is at best a break even proposition. While torture may reduce the resistance of the person, the likelihood of the person actually recalling or giving up information becomes smaller, even if he breaks under the regime. Why? Because his dice pool for recalling from memory gets smaller, his Knowledge dice pools also gets smaller.

Torture will eventually break the target, but whether the target actually divulges useful information is quite another matter. If the target has more resistance dice than his Knowledge/memory dice then you can be looking at a even greater failure because he might have broken under your torture, but now he rolled a Critical Glitch on the information you want.

Exactly. To me, that's the whole reason for a skill check at all - it's easy to break a helpless victim, but not so easy to actually get useful information from them. Plus, reducing it to dice rolls lets you fast-forward through the squicky stuff.

No, the roll is to make him want to give you the information. Whether the person actually has that information or if he can recall it is another matter. In effect there are 2 rolls. One to break him so that he wants to give you the info and another for him to actually remember or know the information in the first place.

It sounds to me, based off of the fantastic information Chrysalis has provided, that interrogation should work as such:

The interrogator rolls his skill (defaulting from his Charisma) against a TN equal to the subject's Interrogation + Willpower

That TN is modified based on:
+4 for being in an environment familiar to the subject
-2 for an environment that is discombobulating but not distracting
-2 has some background knowledge on the subject
-4 has significant background knowledge on the subject
-1 interrogator is well dressed
- victim's stun damage modifiers
+ victim's physical damage modifiers (the possibility of the individual going too far and becoming repressed)
+2 victim motivated to keep information
+4 victim fanatically motivated to keep information
+6 victim does not know information
-1 after first 30 minutes
-1 after first hour
-1 after second hour
-1 after 24 hours
-1 after first week

I suspect the average Joe with a willpower of 3 and no interrogation skill will crack fairly quickly, however your crazy Humanis fanatic might hang on for quite a while. I'm thinking the last five should be summarized in one line, but I'm not sure of a graceful way to do it.

Thoughts?

This be some new mojo. I mean interrogation can yield information the subject does not know. Groovy. Next time just interrogate some smuck off the streets for the location of Osama bin Laden.

Hmm, does "well dressed" mean expensive and high quality dominatrix leathers? If the interrogator is a man?

"-1 for each of the following that the duration has exceeded: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 1 day, 1 week"

Not all that graceful, but a single line none the less.

Toturi,
Perhaps it relates to possessing only partial or tangential information? Knowing that Vince is a methhead does not tell you where he was on the night of the 16th, but that might help the interrogator all the same. The target not knowing at all is grounds for GM adjudicated total failure. Thresholds exist to suggest the difficulty of success where it has been determined that success is possible.

-1 for each of the following that the duration has exceeded: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, 1 day, 1 week

Normally though that if you are going for one week there are a whole set of tools available by the interrogator. Normally though The first 48 hours of any interrogation is the most important as the subject becomes oriented towards the surroundings, it is therefore important that a good rapport be made with the subject as soon as possible.

If the interrogator knows that Vince is a meth head, the interrogator can wait when he is coming off his high. External signs indicate this change in physiology, which he can monitor through the double window of the observation room into the interrogation room. The possibility of alleviating his condition often lead the subject, Vincent, willing to reveal information that the interrogator wants. Therefore it is important that questions are expressed in such a way that they can in no ways be leading the subject.

I fail at communication.

I meant that your subject not knowing where Vince was on the night of the 16th, but knowing that he's a methhead, might be a case of "does not know the information" but still being a valid interrogation target for the information. Hence my remarks about the nature of modifiers. My apologies.

Unless you know with a certainty that the subject met Vince on the night of the 16th then the likelihood of the subject remembering Vince even with hypnosis comes down to luck. To be honest I would prefer to phone the psychic hotline on the where abouts of Vince on the 16th than interrogate an unreliable witness.

If you know Vince is a methhead it is simply easier to start canvasing the area. Find the local dealer you find whoa re Vince's friends, find his friends and you know where Vince is and most likely knows where Vince was on the night of the 16th. This is also known as running an investigation.