Mechanics: The Ticking Clock

 

COUNTDOWN CLOCKS WITH TEETH

Countdown clocks are nothing new, and it's a well known drama device in stories, but credit where it’s due: I first saw countdown clocks in an RPG in Index Card RPG (Runehammer Games). The simplicity hooked me—the application keeps me coming back.

 A countdown clock is just a track to zero. But when you anchor it in the world—make it smoke, bleed, creak—it stops being bookkeeping and becomes a living threat.

Build it with what’s on the table:

• Dice: Set a die (D6, D8, D12) in plain sight. Tick down each time the trigger condition hits.

• Chips or tokens: A small stack in the center; remove one per trigger.

• Marks on paper: A crude sketch, lines crossed out as time runs out.

How long?

• Random lengths keep players guessing—roll the die at the start.

• Situation-based lengths keep it tight—two or three steps for urgent danger, five or six for longer tension.

The point isn’t to measure time. It’s to push the players now. Break the habit of endless bickering over “the next move.” Every tick shifts the fiction forward.

The consequence is never arbitrary. When the clock hits zero, it should make narrative sense. Not a punishment—an inevitable event in the story’s logic. The guards arrive because the alarm has been ringing. The storm breaks because clouds don’t wait forever.

Plot these consequences at natural bottlenecks before you start. Then, when a clock appears, you’re ready.

Because the clock isn’t there to wait for them. It’s there to make them move.

I put together some ideas into a one-page document - a GM Reference Sheet. Feel free to download and use with your preferred game.