u/GoodnewsK

For those not familiar, its a mystery where the reader/audience watches the crime play out, and then the bulk of the plot is the game of cat and mouse between the perp and detective. Think Columbo or Dial M for Murder as examples.

It can be cozy or proceedural, I'm happy with either. But only mild spicy of any, please. Thank you in advance!

For a little bit of context, it's a mystery where the murderer and victim both work at a wildly successful magazine. The former has been up to some creative accounting to cover her gambling addiction; the latter, the art director, noticed the issue and confronted her... and she killed him in panic.

The issue is while I know a bit about the industry on the creative side, I know very little about the financial part. I'm not sure how one would actually go about this sort of thing where he'd be able to notice it in the first place. Maybe some sort of chicanery about paying freelancers?

For example, in my book there's a murder on the roof of an apartment building. W/o getting too descriptive, a man takes the fast way down. The murderer uses some things in the victim's apt to help her contrive an alibi but there's no obvious signs that she'd been in there. Would the cops have cordoned off the apt itself as part of the crime scene by default or left it alone since there was nothing obvious there?

tl;dr please help me turn the premis of this feature into game mechanics

I'm having trouble putting to words this social adversary's feature. The idea is that servants often overhear people's dirty laundry because they're beneath the notice of high society folks. So I want to give them a feature called "Spill the Tea" where the PCs can pump them for information about their boss's goings-on, layout of a location, etc. But if they roll like crap, they and the other staff clam up. and if the PCs fail with Fear or get pushy, they call the guards. As it stands, it feels kinda clunky. Feedback about the rest of the stat block is welcome, but Spill the Tea is the thing I'm concerned about. Here's what I have so far:

MANOR STAFF

Tier 1 Social

A lowly servant, cleaner, cook, or other "help".

Motives & Tactics: Keep your head down, get paid, get through the day

Difficulty: 10

Thresholds: 4/8

HP: 3

Stress: 3

Atk: -4

Improvised: special, see "whatever's at hand" below

Experience: Unseen servant +2

FEATURES:

Whatever's At Hand - Passive: If attacked, the Manor Staff will use whatever they have at hand according to their profession. Below are some examples:

- Garden Hose: Very Close | 1d4 + 0 phy

- Cutlery: Close | 1d4 + 3 phy

- Wine Bottle: Melee | 1d4 + 1 phy

Spill the Tea - Reaction: If a PC succeeds on a Presence Roll (13) against the Manor Staff, they can be persuaded to divulge a bit of information about the people at the manor, its layout, or a bit of gossip they have heard. If the PC fails a presence roll or acts hostilely, the Manor Staff will divulge no further information, and the PC must mark a Stress. On a failure with Fear, the Manor Staff will report to their superior about the PCs' presence and questions.