Most players rush interrogation. They think it’s a single roll. Ask the question, get the answer. The book doesn’t treat it like that. It gives interrogation a clock. Every attempt you make has weight. Fail or push too hard and the suspect shuts down, or worse, calls for backup.
There’s a tension here. The rules hint that every exchange should take actual time in the fiction. You are burning minutes. And the city never waits. Crimes advance. Villains move. Evidence rots. The GM can even shorten the window if players stall. That small rule flips interrogation from a passive action to a live problem.
I like how it ties to the Will and Influence ratings. A weak-willed thug folds fast but gives scraps. A high Influence target can stall you until your window closes. The system doesn’t let you sit in comfort. I’ve seen players try to intimidate first and soften after. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it breaks the clock faster.
There’s also an edge case the book nudges toward. If you fail but keep pressing, the suspect may feed you half-truths. No dice roll for that. It’s GM judgment. But it makes sense. People under pressure will say something. The trick is knowing if it’s real or bait.
Running it like this makes the city feel alive. Every question has a cost. Every minute you spend in a back alley is a minute the rest of Gotham shifts without you. I stopped thinking of interrogation as a single scene. It’s a moving piece in a bigger puzzle. When players realize that, they start making harder choices.
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