Every night at the Stellar Motel is a menagerie of the human condition. From my place behind the desk and some plexiglass, I watch elites and lowlives rub elbows, get into fights, and fall into each other’s beds. Last night was different: one of our guests was murdered, and no one seems much interested in finding out who did it or why.

As part of my job as the overnight clerk of the ‘No-Tell Motel‘ I’m supposed to help maintain the privacy of the guests, but I’m also supposed to keep an eye on them. The cops aren’t going to bother much with this, but now we’ve only got fifteen regulars left, and I’m sure it had to be one of them that did the killing. I’m going to have to watch them all like a hawk, because I’ve only got one chance to get this right.

My first problem, though, is that for once I wasn’t working last night. On the one hand, I’m kind of glad I wasn’t there, in case I got caught up in it. On other, well, the only information I have is from Barry. If I was a detective and all I had was Barry, I’d probably ‘lose’ the paperwork too. When I asked Barry myself about what happened last night…

“Started off nothing special. Uh, four people checked in. Yeah, four. The Psychic Medium, the Televangelist, the Recently Divorced, and the Vice Detective.

They got up to the usual nonsense, you know. Like mostly…

The Psychic Medium had a guest. Closed the shades, turned the lights off. Didn’t see who.

The Recently Divorced sat in front of her room for a while, smoking. She looked… lost?

The Televangelist and the Vice Detective each got up to some shady shit. Uh, I forget what, exactly. Drugs, maybe?

Then someone else came see to the Psychic Medium. Don’t know how long. Didn’t see ’em leave. The Televangelist got drunk, like the loud kind. Threw around accusations to anyone who’d listen. So did the Recently Divorced, actually. As for the Vice Detective… wait, I think that was them? Hell, I’m not sure anymore. Lot was going on.

Checkout was normal, except for the Recently Divorced. When the maids went around to clean up, they found her. She’d been clubbed to death.”

Night 1

Evening Shift (8pm-12am)

I checked The Tabloid Reporter into Room 2, The State Senator into Room 3, and The Veteran into Room 5.

I overheard the State Senator talking on the phone as I was taking a smoke break outside. Seems like The Recently Divorced and The Tabloid Reporter had a major falling out. The Senator was basically gossiping, saying that it was the Reporter’s fault… except the recently divorced was throwing out accusations every whiich way, so who knows if they’re accurate.

Of course, I happen to know that the tabloid reporter and the state senator used to be intimately involved. The word was that the tabloid reporter took some pillow talk and turned it into a story, and that’s why it fell apart, but to be honest I think the senator was just manufacturing some scandal to cover something else.

The Veteran spilled out of their room, ranting and raving. ‘They’ had stabbed him in the back, he was saying, had tried to get him killed. I stepped in to convince him to go back inside for the sake of the other guests, and maybe to talk to him a bit, but he didn’t do much more than grumble and slam the door in my face.

Graveyard Shift (12am-4am)

The Senator checked out.

A few hours into the shift the Veteran came out again, but he wasn’t screaming at the sky any more, so I let him be. He paced around the entire motel for an hour before coming into the front office to grab something out of the vending machine. I tried making small talk again, and this time he mentioned that the Tabloid Reporter and the Recently Divorced had been flirting last night. According to him, they both went into the Divorced’s room, and he didn’t see the Reporter leave. Maybe she, the reporter, was one of the people Barry saw?

Few seconds after the Veteran left I heard someone call out to him, and then the Runaway passed by the front office door. I could faintly hear them talking, intensely, for a long time. At one point I got out from behind my desk and listened from closer to the door, and I made out a few words.

“You have to get rid of it.”

Morning Shift (4am-8am)

The Veteran checked out not long after the conversation petered out and I slunk back behind my desk.

It was just an hour or so before dawn when I spotted the Reporter chatting outside of her room with the Cultist. They’ve talked plenty of time in the past, long before the recently divorced bought it. I didn’t think much of it.

Night 2

Evening Shift (8pm-12am)

I checked the Union Treasurer into Room 1. Not long afterwards the Cultist swung by asking which room he was in, and after I called to the room and got permission I told him. Room 1 is the nearest to the front office, so it was easy to hear them getting good, loud, and toasted together. They were celebrating ‘fruitful opportunities’, sounded like. Maybe the Cultist got the Treasurer to invest some of those dues?

Graveyard Shift (12am-4am)

I checked the Alphabet Soup Agent into Room 3. The guy really does stink of the Fed, I’m not sure who he thinks he’s ever fooling. I’d know that haircut and holster bulge anywhere.

I spotted the Treasurer and the Cultist sharing a cigarette outside of his room. Maybe one or the other was just on the last of their pack, but the looks they were giving each other when they handed it back and forth… well, it wasn’t only the tobacco smoldering.

At one point the Treasurer started coughing, must’ve forgotten to breathe out, so I joined them for a spell with a cigarette of my own. They both immediately starting talking about not-themselves, but in this case they were talking about Mr. ABC two doors down, so good for me. Seems they’d heard that he and the Recently Divorced got into a fight that night. Mr. ABC had been yelling about her big mouth, how it had threatened his career. She yelled back that he’d never really cared in the first place.

God damn it Barry.

Morning Shift (4am-8am)

Checked the Veteran back into Room 5.

The Union Treasurer requested fresh sheets and towels. Let’s just say that the smoldering had turned into a wildfire, and leave it at that.

Also, they spilled a lot of bourbon.

As I was carrying the dirty linens to the laundry room I spotted Mr. ABC, having climbed up onto the roof, smoking away and staring up at the sky. He reminded me of nothing more than someone I saw back in the war, standing on the deck of a ship going down, knowing he couldn’t swim and just staring back, calm as you please.

When I was going back to the front office, though, the Veteran came out at me right as I was walking past Room 5. I got him off of me before his hands could get around my neck, but I admit I didn’t maintain the calm mask of a Stellar Motel employee. I chewed him out something fierce and told him to stay in his room until checkout. He didn’t argue. Honestly, he looked stunned more than anything.

Night 3

Evening Shift (8pm-12am)

The Tabloid Reporter checked in again, and I put her in Room 6 tonight. Right next to Room 7, obviously, which has also been closed since the… incident.

She didn’t actually go in right away, though. Instead she sat on a bench outside, and sure enough The Light Bulb Man strolled up. No, I don’t know why all of us only know him as The Light Bulb Man. and no we don’t know anything else to call him anyway. They sat and chatted together for a while; the talk seemed pretty workmanlike, how was your day, here’s the weird stuff I saw on mine, that sort of thing.

Graveyard Shift (12am-4am)

The Televangelist into Room 3. Didn’t take long before he got violent with the vending machine. And I don’t mean like pushing the button real hard over and over again. He was trying to either crawl inside it or put it through the wall. I pulled him away, and got him to calm down. He admitted that ‘everything recently’ was just getting to him, and apologize for snapping.

I reminded him of the Stellar Motel’s ‘you break it, you buy it, or beat it’ policy.

Things took a pretty fast turn between the Tabloid Reporter and the Light Bulb Man. They stopped chatting, nodded to each other, and then they barely got through the door before things got loud and graphic. No need to draw conclusions on that one. Not just friends or casual co-informants, then.

Morning Shift (4am-8am)

Union Treasurer back for Room 2, this morning.

The Televangelist returned to the vending machine, with money instead of rage this time. While he got his drinks, he remarked that the Union Treasurer and the Recently Divorced were ‘apparently inseparable until the end’. They fought mostly, the Televangelist said, about money and ‘dead end investments’.

Then doesn’t the Union Treasurer come in not ten minutes later, looking for an extra pillow, and he is saying the Televangelist and the Recently Divorced were recently at each other’s throats over money. The Recently Divorced had apparently screwed over the Televangelist. Huh. Not really how I thought that one would go.

Things got less graphic within earshot of Room 6, but if anything they got louder as the pair got into a shouting match. Couldn’t make out anything, but it was certainly angry behind that closed door.

Night 4

Tense night right off the bat – the Vice Detective checked into Room 6, and in a professional capacity this time. I knew that meant that we wouldn’t be getting many additional visitors, tonight.

Evening Shift (8pm-12am)

I put the Psychic Medium as far from the Detective as I could, in Room 1.

When said Detective swung by to ask me some questions (‘No sir’, ‘no sir’, ‘yes sir but only if you pay management a fee’), he dropped that he was going to keep an eye on the Medium, just to be safe. Not his division, but he said that her and the Recently Divorced had been real tight, ‘inseparable even.’ The present seemed fine, he said; they just argued about the past and the future a lot.

I thought the Recently Divorced and the Union Treasurer were inseparable. Hmm.

Graveyard Shift (12am-4am)

The Light Bulb Man was Mr, Vice’s new neighbor, in Room #5.

The Psychic Medium rushed in and out of the front office to put out a small fire in their room. Going by the smell, you’d think an entire potpourri shop had burned down. The sprinklers didn’t go off, though, so she got it in time.

The Light Bulb Man and the Vice Detective used to seem pretty close. They certainly talked enough, which granted is standard for LBM since he’d so amiable by default. Then supposedly Vice tried to collar LBM over something minor just to get his numbers up, and they’ve been glaring at each other since.

Morning Shift (4am-8am)

Mr. ABC was a pre-dawn addition to Room 4.

I saw what looked like two regulars wander past the Psychic Medium’s door, but they must’ve caught a whiff of Mr. Vice and they just kept going. About a half-dozen unfamiliar faces came and went separately over the course of the shift, though. It was pretty quiet; I think she was simply practicing her trade.

Mr. ABC and the Light Bulb Man got into it, and they caused a bit of property damage when they did; Mr. ABC threw a chair that hit a wall, and a side table got smashed when LBM put ABC through it. Pretty sure ABC started it, so I billed him for the damages.

As I rang him up, though, he was grumbling about how The Light Bulb Man and the Recently Divorced were seen arguing over someone else. A kid, apparently?  Not like I trust a Fed to tell the truth, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Night 5

Evening Shift (8pm-12am)

No more on-the-clock Vice Detective, so he must have got what he wanted. Mr. ABC into Room 2, Room 5 for The Tabloid Reporter.

The Reporter came in as Mr. ABC was heading to his room, and remarked that he and the Recently Divorced apparently knew each other way back when. Weird thing is, Mr. ABC has been coming here forever, but the Recently Divorced was, well, recently divorced. The first time they met here they hadn’t seemed to recognize each other.

The Psychic Medium was a guest in the Tabloid Reporter’s room not long after. Just as loud, just as graphic as the other night with the Light Bulb Man. Pillow talk really does make for a good tabloid resource I suppose. Or maybe the fun is the point. Why not?

Graveyard Shift (12am-4am)

Mr ABC checked out.

Then a lamp got put out the Tabloid Reporter’s window. I just quietly added the repair charges to her bill. I wasn’t up to getting tangled up in this apparent pattern at 2am.

I don’t think the fun is the point.

Morning Shift (4am-8am)

The Tabloid Reporter checked out. Until the end of the shift, it was the kind of quiet that was comforting until you paid too much attention to it. Then it got kind of creepy.

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No-Tell Motel from Bannerless Games, written by Kevin Lowry with art by Shawn McGuan and layout by Kelsea Zwerneman, edited by Amber Logsdon, is a single player murder mystery roleplaying game. You are the overnight clerk at the Stellar Motel, tasked with taking care of the needs of the guests, maintaining their privacy, and keeping an eye on things Now, though, you have a murder on your hands, and it’s only by being a fly on the wall that you can figure out who might have done it.

To play you need a deck of playing cards (jokers off to the side, there’s a slim chance you may have to add them back in), a six-sided die, and some way to keep track of the comings and goings of guests and your observations; room ledgers and guest dossiers are available for free. To begin setup, you split the deck of cards into two decks, one with all of the face cards and aces and one with all of the numbered cards. The faces and aces are your Guests. The numbered cards are all going to be events or information.

You deal four face cards to see which Guests were present the night of the murder. Then, as your co-worker (Barry, in this case) tells your their version of events, you deal number cards onto the Guests. As the story goes on you’re stacking cards on each guests as if you’re playing, well, a game of solitaire. By the end of the story, the Guest who has a value of cards closest to 21 (tie going to whoever is under) is the murder victim.

The rest of gameplay is broken up into Nights, which are then broken into three Shifts (Rounds, and three turns per, for another parlance). After you shuffled all the cards back into their decks following your coworkers story (except for the Victim, who is set aside), you start a Night be dealing six Guest cards face down. These are the six still-open rooms at the Stellar Motel. Then, you roll the d6 to see how many Guests check in, putting them face up on whichever room you’d like.

Then, at the start of every Shift, you draw a number card for every Guest. Clubs are you seeing of hearing about a Guest’s behavior. Diamonds are about them getting entangled with a neighbor or, if they don’t have a neighbor, you. Hearts are about them having a guest themselves, in which case you flip the room card face up to see who their guest is. Spades are about hearing about their past with the Victim, and are how you’re going to determine who the murderer is (more on that in a bit).

At the start of the second and third shifts, you roll the d6 again. If the number rolled corresponds to a room with a Guest in it, that Guest checks out at the start of the shift. If the number instead corresponds to an empty room, then a new Guest checks in, drawn from the deck. You then play out the new shift just like the first one. Once all three shifts are over and it’s 8am, everyone still in the motel checks out and you send in the maids (and repair crews); all cards get shuffled back into their respective decks again, you finish any notes, and then you start the next night.

Now, when those Spades are drawn, they’re going to add a certain amount of Motive to that Guest’s ledger. They had some kind of interaction with the victim, and it’s making you suspicious. However, as you can imagine there are almost certain to be repeats. Every time you draw a specific Spade card again but for a different Guest, it does add Motive… but it also adds a point of Doubt, because now you have the same kind of ‘evidence’ pointing to multiple people. Mechanically, a Guest needs to have 6 Motive before you can try to go to the cops with your suspicions – although I should note that you don’t have to, you can keep on playing – but if you pin the crime on someone with Doubt there’s a chance they could turn out to be innocent, with dire consequences all around.

For reference, at the end of Night 5 the dossiers stand at:

• Tabloid Reporter: 2 Motive
• Mr. ABC: 2 Motive
• Union Treasurer: 1 Motive
• Televangelist: 1 Motive
• Psychic Medium: 1 Motive, 1 Doubt
• The Light Bulb Man: 1 Motive

As for the rest of this Solitaire Storytelling version of the mystery, and for exactly how the game comes to an end… you’ll have to keep an eye out for the conclusion next weekend!

You can find digital copies of No-Tell Motel on DriveThruRPG and itch.io. You can find physical copies at Bannerless’ own site or via IPR (either online, at a convention (mine was a PAX Unplugged acquisition), or at a FLGS that buys from there).

Looking forward to seeing you check back in…