Skullduggery - Eavesdrop

One of the simplest way to acquire information is simply to listen to what people are talking about — guards discussing how their day was and how they’re waiting impatiently for the shift change, people gossiping in a bar — there is a lot of information a character can pick up just by keeping their ears open.
The difficulty for eavesdropping is based on the distance between the character and those they are listening to. If your character is listening through a remote device, then the difficulty is based on the distance between that device and the people your character is listening to.
In some cases, your character might try to keep an ear out for anything of interest in the din of a crowded room or other populated area rather than listening to a specific conversation. In this case, the GM should add b based on the number of conversations going on and how much the character's focus is split.
In an event that your character is attempting to simply listen to something in their surrondings and is not concerned about being detetected, a Perception - Examine/Investigate check is likely a better fit.
In any case, a character cannot hear a conversation taking place farther than at long range, unless your character is using something to enhance their hearing.
EXAMPLE OF AN EAVESDROP CHECK
Nicoli is one of the empire's agents. One of his tasks is going undercover in the city's public places and identifying potential threats to the government. If a person seems to be a potential rival or threat to The Eternal Empire, Nicoli has them arrested and brings them to the citadel's dungeon for interrogation.
Andrei is currently drinking in a tavern downtown. People are enjoying themselves — talking, dancing, flirting, playing an assortment of dice and cards.
The imperial agent is not suspicious of anyone in particular and listens to everyone around. The GM set the difficulty to Average (dd). Due to the ambiant music and noises around, the GM adds bbb to the pool. Still, many of the people are drunk and less cautious than usual about what they're saying so the GM adds a b to the pool. The roll generates sshhh. Nicoli hears some people talk about what seems to be some sort of container being delivered from overseas. This information was gained through the first s. The GM spends h to have the information be unclear. Nicoli did not understand exactly when the container is expected but he has the dock ocation. This information was obtained through the second . As for its content, it's unknown but it is clearly illegal. Nicoli could not get more information as the GM spends the hh to have the city guard come in to hassle a few guests for an unrelated issue. While Nicoli should be happy that the police are doing their job, the people he was listening to fled and he could not make out the time of delivery and the distraction prevents him from trailing them.