This is the first installment in a series highlighting TTRPG mechanics that you can use in other games.
Introduction
After playing Blades in the Dark, I have started using progress clocks in nearly every game I’ve GMed. It’s such a common occurrence in my tabletop group, that I often forget that many people don’t know about clocks. If you’ve only played Dungeons and Dragons, you might have never seen a a clock (unless your DM has also stolen it from a different game). If you get the chance, I highly recommend Blades in the Dark (or one of the many “Forged in the Dark” games it has inspired), but here’s a crash course into clocks, what they are, and best practices for using them.
Mechanics
A progress clock, as defined in BitD, is a way of tracking an abstract quantity in a game. It is a circle with lines dividing it into segments like pizza slices. You can have a clock with 4 segments, 6 segments, 8 segments, or really, any number you choose. You can color in segments to show progression. When all the segments are colored in, the corresponding event or action happens.
Examples
Hærold the elf is trying to pick a lock to sneak into the storeroom. He fails his roll.
The GM draws a progress clock with four segments and fills one in. She writes “the guards find you” under the clock, and colors in one segment.
Hærold decides to try again, and succeeds this time. The party enters and sees that the room is full of crates.
Player: “I want to investigate the crates to see which one has the artifact.”
GM: “Okay, anyone in the party can roll to investigate a crate. There are 8 in total. It will make noise though. Let’s say if you fail by more than 5, it will advance the clock for the guards by 1 tick, and a critical failure will advance it by 2.”
Player: “I cast my Silence spell”
GM: “Alright then, the clock won’t tick up even if you fail the roll.”
In this example, the GM wants to add some consequence for the failed lockpick roll, but having the guards show up immediately would be too drastic. Making a clock allows her to create that mechanic on the fly. Then even after the lockpicking is done, the clock persists. During the next part of the heist, the GM makes it clear how their rolls will affect the clock, which gives the party a very concrete understanding of the risk. One of the player decides that it’s better to burn one of his spells rather than risk detection.
The party has just been captured by pirates. Captain Jack Pigeon throws them into the brig and locks the key.
Player: “Can I try to persuade him?”
GM: “He won’t be persuaded to let you go. You just attacked his crew.”
Player: “No, I want to say something that implies he can’t trust Hector, the first mate. Like… I say under my breath, ‘wow, no wonder the crew is siding with Hector.’”
GM: “Oh, I see. Make him think Hector is planning a mutiny or something. Hmm, I don’t think he’d turn on his best friend that easily, but you could wear him down over time. I’m going to make a clock that says ‘Jack turns on Hector.’ You can start rumors or plant evidence to advance the clock over time.”
Here, the GM wants to reward the player’s clever plan, but it doesn’t make sense with the narrative for the plan to succeed immediately. This clock has a positive outcome for the player characters and gives them a concrete goal to work toward. Of course, the GM could make the mutiny plot happen even without the clock, but the clock is a fun mechanic because it makes the state of the plan more transparent to the players.
Tips and Best Practices
Read the page on Progress Clocks from the BitD website. It lists some fun variants.
Make clocks for specific events, not abstract concepts. Don’t write “the guards are suspicious.” Write “the guards come find you.” Don’t write “the water level in the boat.” Write “the boat sinks.” Make it very clear what will happen, and that event should happen immediately when the clock is finished.
Avoid having clocks go backward. If you have a clock that ticks up and down, you can get stuck in a loop, and it’s probably a sign that the plot needs to move faster. If you want a clock to be reversible, consider having two clocks that race each other. For example, let’s say the cultists’ ritual is represented by a clock called “the Smite Orb is summoned.” The players are fighting to disrupt the ritual. Rather than having the player actions decrease the Smite Orb clock, start a different clock called “the ritual is dispelled.” Both clocks can only advance. This makes sure the story is always progressing.
Consider just having the thing happen. Before you make a clock for an event, ask yourself, “Will the story be more fun if the thing just happens right now?” The downside of clocks is that it can be delay tactic for undecisive GMs. If the player fails to sneak quietly, you could start a clock for when they get noticed; however, you don’t have to lessen that consequence with a clock. Maybe they do get noticed, and a someone starts questioning them. That could be a fun story beat. Clocks dilute the outcomes to make them less drastic, but often, the drastic outcomes make for better stories.
Don’t make big clocks. A clock should have up to 8 segments. If clocks are larger than that, you are probably getting too granular. Clocks are on-the-fly mechanics that capture a concept in broad strokes. If you’re making a 20 segment clock, consider whether you can get away with a smaller clock and coarser increments. In most cases, the answer will be yes. If not, the mechanic you’re envisioning probably deserves to be fleshed out into its own ruleset rather than just being a clock.
One Tiny Nitpick
It should be clear by now that I love clocks, but now allow me to complain. Clocks shouldn’t be circles! The reason progress clocks are circles in BitD is because countdown clocks are called clocks in Apocalypse World, and the clocks in AW aren’t meant to measure time. They measure threats using the metaphor1 of the Doomsday Clock, which in turn, is a metaphor for the risk of nuclear apocalypse. The reason real world clocks are circular is because the hours of the day are cyclical. They repeat! Clocks in BitD rarely, if ever, track cyclical events. Really, the progress clocks ought to be progress bars. If so, linked clocks (clocks that happen one after another) could be more easily appended next to each other. When two clocks are related (as with racing clocks), you could put one on the x-axis and one on the y-axis to make a two dimensional clock.2
Anyhow, I think it’s too late to change the convention now. The term “clock” is common parlance among TTRPG players, and there are a plethora of tools for sites like Roll 20 and Foundry that implement clocks. Admittedly, it’s easier to draw a circular clock than trying to make a progress bar with even segments, and I suppose I can just think of clocks as pie charts showing the completed vs remaining percentages.
Apocalypse World. First Edition. Page 290.
A progress clock or progress bar is more formally, a representation of a state variable. The example of a two dimensional clock is an example of a state space. In some instances, state variables might measure cyclical quantities and other times not. In analyzing systems, understanding the shape (or topology) of the state space is very important.