As written, Duty Bound (Duty to the Throne) applies a -10 penalty to all Interaction Skill Tests used with those not of the Imperium. This includes Intimidate, but there's no penalty to Commerce or Inquiry...

This seems quite wrong to me, so I'm considering having it apply a -10 penalty to all Fellowship Tests and Fellowship-linked Skill Tests in dealings with those not of the Imperium. Thus, the character's contempt for the non-Imperial would penalize Barter, Blather, Charm, Command, Commerce, Decieve, Disguise, Inquiry, Performer, and Trade (Soothsayer) but not Intimidate. This is also how I apply the -10 penalty from The Face of the Enemy (found in The Hand of War) to the target group even though that one also adds in a compulsion to make it more complicated.

You should send your query to Sam. Perhaps it is wrong!

HappyDaze said:

This is how I've always run it. Basically a -10 to any *friendly* interaction tests, regardless of the specific skill. Hostile interactions, even hostile commerce, are not penalized in my games.

My response from Sam Stewart:

Duty to the Throne represents a character's innate disgust with those who are outside the Imperium's boundaries. The idea is that dealings with them are repugnant, but when it comes to Commerce one can divorce themselves from the personal aspect of the proceedings. Basically, "It's just business."

That being said, Inquiry is a skill that fits into Interaction and Investigation, so I could see applying that penalty to the rules. And as a GM, you can certainly modify things to fit your own view of the rules.

So, according to this, the skills penalized would be Barter, Blather, Charm, Command, Deceive, *probably* Inquiry, and still... Intimidate. Yep, that part of the question didn't get addressed directly.

The penalty to intimidate can make sense : basically your contempt and hatred is visible enough that the target feels that you're going to trash him wether he cooperates or not. Cooperation will only delay it until he's done what you ask. Basically instead of the usual 'do this for me or else' the message feels as 'do this and you'll get trashed a bit later'

While it can still work - he may hope for a lucky break or be cowed enough - it won't help.

Also, your personal disgust and hatred affect your ability to effectively intimidate/interrogate is perfectly reasonable too.