No-Tell Motel
A downloadable game
"No-Tell Motel confidently plays in a space of limited knowledge, feeding players just enough to entice them, whetting their appetite for the truth, and leading them deeper into the maze of connection and conspiracies that have made a rat’s nest of this bypass berth. And damn if it doesn’t work like a charm." - Chase Carter, Rascal News
Pick up physical copies, along with merchandise swiped from the Stellar Motel, at my shop. Physical copies also available at Tabletop Bookshelf, Knave of Cups and Indie Press Revolution.
One victim. 15 suspects.
Every night at the Stellar Motel is a menagerie of the human condition, and you watch it all from your vantage point behind a desk and some plexiglass. Last night was different: someone was murdered, and no one seems much interested in finding out who did it or why.
One chance to get it right.
With a deck of cards, a six-sided die, a collection of dossiers and your motel ledger, you’ll track the activities of your guests night after night. You’ll sift through gossip, innuendo and what you observe on the sly to find out who these people are, the surprising ways they’re connected to each other, and who among them did the deed.
As the nights wear on, doubt will creep in, and certainty will become an illusion. So build the best case you can before you point the finger. Because if you’re wrong, a killer walks free, an innocent life is ruined and your own may very well be in danger.
Key Features
- An original rule system that uses playing cards and a six-sided die to populate your motel with Guests and generate their activities, connections, gossip, and possible motives for murder.
- A prologue and epilogue system that generates random victims and consequences for your accusation, ensuring that no two mysteries play out exactly the same way.
- 16 ready-made NPCs to populate your murder mystery, each with mysterious motives and dangerous secrets
No-Tell Motel is a 32-page zine written by Ken Lowery, with beautiful original cover and interior art by comic artist Shawn McGuan and layout by Kelsea Zwerneman.
Press and Interviews
"Come for No-Tell Motel's Murder Mystery, Stay for the Juicy Goss," Rascal News
"Ken Lowery tells all about No-Tell Motel," Teeth RPG Newsletter
"Designer interview with Ken Lowery," The Renaissance Gamer
How To Play
Watch this short video to learn the basics of how No-Tell Motel plays.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $15 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Added the cover art as a free wallpaper download85 days ago
Comments
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Nearing the end of my first playthrough and thoroughly enjoying myself. Hoping to get eyes on a mystery figure who seems to connect everyone together (but has only visited people and never checked in) and a corrupt cop just threatened to pin the murder on me if I didn't start playing things his way. I get the feeling I might just try and pin this on someone to get the heat off!
Let me know if you get away with it!
Probably the worst possible outcome! I purposefully framed someone because I thought she deserved it and then ... It turned out she was the murderer, but everything I thought she had done had been done by the murder victim. Then the motel closed and I vanished ....
As a question, do the motive values have any impact on the end game or are they just there to guide the storytelling?
The Motive value just signals when you've compiled enough evidence (or "evidence") to finally point the finger at a Guest. In the fiction, it's when you've got enough to potentially put someone away. In the numbers, it just guarantees play will go on long enough to introduce complications.
No-Tell Motel is recommended in the June 16 issue of The Soloist substack.
Oh wonderful, thank you so much for letting me know!
So just to clarify, we add doubt to a guest's Dossier the second time we play a motive card, provided it's not the FIRST guest to get a motive card?
For example, if I play a motive card on the Cultist during the evening shift, he gets motive, but when I play one on the Medium during the graveyard shift, she gets motive AND doubt?
Also, what does 'KAs' stand for on the Dossiers?
Correct, every time after the FIRST draw. Second, third, fourth, etc all add Doubt to anyone attached to that Motive card. So, for example:
1. Draw a Motive against a Cultist, Cultist gains +1 Motive
2. Draw the same Motive against the Medium, Medium gains +1 Motive, BOTH gain +1 Doubt
And "KA" is a police acronym for "Known Associates." If you want to keep tabs on who is consorting with who.
So it needs to be the SAME Motive card, not just ANY Motive card. If one gets the 2 and the other gets 7, neither of them get Doubt, correct?
correct! Only when cards reappear.
Been playing through this one night at a time and it's a great engine for generating drama.
I've had a highly sketchy televangelist come back two nights in a row and a professor who seems to have taken part in some sort of shady business.
What are they up to??
Can't quite tell what the Professor was up to but he was apparently making quite a bit of a ruckus and ended up getting into a 3-way argument with both of his neighbours. Both of them complained about banging and shuffling noises coming from his room. In the early hours of the morning he then spills out of the room muttering under his breath as he sits on the landing with his head in his hands.
On the first night the televangelist checks in before making a beeline to the payphone outside. He makes a phone call, barely saying a word. By the time he hangs up he has lost all composure, slamming the handset against the receiver multiple times before leaving it off the hook. Later that night he is visited by a kid, couldn't have been older than 18. They talk outside for a moment but he is visibly distraught, she has some kind of hold over him and he is clearly on the losing end of things. Around 4.30am he walks into reception and asks for a drink. I told him the bar was closed for the night but he wouldn't have it, he starts making a scene and has me by the collar. That's when Gus the caretaker steps in and throws him out. Clearly this hasn't completely soured things for him as he checks in again the next night just before midnight. On the way to his room he has a brief run-in with the grizzled vice-detective in the parking lot. They don't speak but he keeps peering over his shoulder as he unlocks his door and retreats for the night.
Your contact info on your personal site bounced for a misconfiguration and a message left on the Crowdfundr page didn't get a repy.
I'm hoping that this will work.
Sorry - Crowdfundr did not send me any notice that I'd gotten a reply. Drop me a line at bannerlessgames@gmail and we'll get you sorted.