Modular Gaming Component 1 - The Clock

At the simplest level, the clock is a visual tracking mechanism. It's basically a circle divided into segments (often 4, 6, or 8), and it typically represents big effects underway in the story. 

The idea of the RPG clock has been around for at least 20 years, and it can be traced back to systems where a major feat may be accomplished through multiple successes,  and arguably back to the idea of hit points. However, the clock has evolved in a few different ways. 

• Hit points and multiple success systems typically allow you to remove multiple levels with a single action, while clocks move incrementally...tick by tick.
• Hit points and multiple success systems are reactive to specific actions being taken. Clocks can be tied to anything, including timed effects ("You've got six turns to accumulate as many successes as you can")
• Clocks tend to be chunky, with big incremental ticks that add sudden drama with each one's passing.
• Clocks often impact the narrative in some way, bring a change to the circumstances when they finish their cycle rather than introducing new mechanical influences.

The game that really brought the clock to the forefront as a gaming mechanism was probably Blades in the Dark, and most of the critique posts about it can be found in reference to that game. But this series is about taking systems out of their regular games and integrating them into other games to give an interesting twist to the narrative.

A clock can be used in almost any game with minimal effort. I've used them in Vampire: the Masquerade, Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, and some of my own game designs. The scarecrow game "Bustle in your Hedgerow" which I was designing at the beginning of the year incorporated a clock design as one of it's fundamental design principles.

I'm often using a whiteboard at the centre of the table (or a smartboard in a classroom for my school based sessions), so when I need a clock I'll just draw a circle on the board and divide it into some segments. There's a psychological factor to the clock, it gets drawn publicly, and the players knows that it is ticking down (or up). In most cases I'll let the players know what causes the clock to tick... perhaps a failed roll without immediately obvious effects will cause me to colour in a segment on the smartboard/whiteboard, perhaps the passage of time will do it, maybe both... maybe successful actions will cause the clock to tick backwards and reduce the tension. If I haven't given the players a specific idea about how this particular clock is working, then I let them theorise about the mechanism at work, perhaps adding some more clues or following some of their ideas about what may be causing the clock to wind down. Regardless of how it is applied, the clock adds dramatic tension beyond the immediate rolls.

It's also possible to have multiple clocks doing different things, but I don't recommend having more than two clocks at a time. Once you have a second clock operating in a scene, the tension of the first one is diminished. Players start to lose the feeling that something dramatic is happening with one clock, because their attention is split between two of them...and if you have three or more clocks that tension is further reduced. This all goes back to the idea that the average person can handle up to seven things in their working memory at one time (I mentioned it in the Red-Amber-Green post). Each clock is taking up one of those seven items, and at least one will certainly be neglected. If players ignore them, than suddenly realize later that something has been ticking down while they've been distracted, it could be dramatic, but if the narrator ignores them then the players see through the illusion and come to the conclusion that those clocks weren't important after all. It's a delicate balance, so it's probably better to keep the number of clocks manageable.

Ideas for Clocks:

Amount of time it takes before poison gas fills a chamber (counting down by turns)

Amount of time it takes before police/town-guards arrive at the scene of a crime (counting down by turns)

Number of failed attempts before a security system activates (counts down with failures) 

The crumbling structural integrity of a building where the characters are trying to avoid a lethal storm (counts down with time, but successful actions from characters may prevent it dropping)

The moment when the criminal syndicate is ready to step up their operations and make themselves public (counts up with die rolls made by the narrator, but the players need to work out what is being rolled, before they'll be able to address the situation) 

The charge building up enough to fire the god-killer gun (counts up automatically each turn, but may count up an extra tick with a successful action by a player character)  

The point where the train reaches the end of the line (counts down by turns, players may stop the count down with enough successful actions) 

In each case, the clock is only used when the stakes are higher than what might be reasonable for a single die roll or skill attempt.