Hammer Time! Using clocks in role-playing games

I've been thinking about clocks in the context of role-playing games recently, and I have had some thoughts.

Let's start off with; what is a clock? The dictionary might be our friend here:

Or not, I guess. Maybe the dictionary is too literal when it comes to clocks? Good to know it's not a watch, though, right? Though it's going to confuse things when we talk about using a clock to keep count of watches...

The one phrase out of the dictionary definition that I do think is useful to us is "regularly occurring pulses". Each 'tick' of a clock is the same as any other.

The other feature of clocks that I think is important is that a clock goes in one direction (up or down) and while we'll see there are ways to circumvent the relentless ever-forward movement, clocks do not go backwards. If they do, then Hit Points are clocks and I think that makes the definition that's too wide to be useful.

I believe that clocks should affect the game state in some sense, whether that is torches running out after a length of time, the gate to the otherworld closing eventually, or encounters getting more difficult when a certain point is reached. Unless you like telling your players the time of day without it having any effect, then why have a clock if it doesn't do something?

Types of clock

I believe that there are three main types of clocks in terms of role-playing games, and they each function slightly differently and have different effects on the game. Let's start with the most conventional sort of clock.

Cyclical clocks

A cyclical clock repeats on an endless loop, such as ...um... a clock that tracks the hour of the day. Once you get to the 'end' of the clock, you start again. Of course, different points on the clock can trigger different states (day/night) as well.

Mausritter makes good use of a cyclical clock within for it's turn counter - each check box is ten minutes (a turn). A torch lasts three turns (30 minutes), 36 turns is six hours, or one watch. Four watches makes a day. The turn tracker has a handy mark for when a new torch is needed and also where sunrise and sunset are, as well as each watch. As a tool for games masters, it works very well at lots of different scales, anything other than round (6 rounds = 1 turn, but it would be a lot more complicated to add those in, and why would you, when you can use a six-sided dice to track them?). The box set puts all that on a handy write-n-wipe surface so it can be reused - I love that extra attention to detail that makes it much more useable.

An extract from Mausritter's GM sheet - each bigger box is a torch burning out after 30 minutes

Cyclical clocks are mostly useful for game admin, to my mind, though something like the day/night cycle might trigger a different encounter table in the dark, causing you to consider only travelling in daylight hours.

Doom clocks

You know when you have six hours to save the world? Or the gate closes in 20 minutes? That's a doom clock. You count down (or up) to a point and something triggers. In my experience, doom clocks will often unleash significant trouble into your game.

There's a really interesting implementation of a doom clock in The Lost Bay RPG. As characters play through the game and use their powers, they gain scars. The scars are gained in order and once the final scar is received, the character is retired from the game, lost forever to the Weird. So you can push your luck to achieve your objective, but there are effects and you're always heading towards that end point. The example below is the scar list from Mermaid, a Vibe (character type) I wrote for the game.

I really like that for each character type, each scar poses questions about your character. It's a cool way of fleshing out your story as it evolves.

In essence, a doom clock serves as a tension mechanism in a game, it's like a big countdown on the wall that demands you attention and makes you sweat as you see it ticking down. As it gets closer to running out, it can either drive players to more desperate or risky actions because the building will blow up if you don't defuse the bomb or it can make you more cautious because the end is in sight and will come quicker if you push your luck.

Depth clocks

I think I first came across depth clocks as a way of increasing the difficulty of encounters in dungeon crawls (depth crawls) as you go further down the levels of the dungeon. I wish I could remember which game it was in relation to, but I think it was a discussion on a Discord server. There's conversations about depth crawls I can find from 2023, and I know that I have seen a game with an encounter table where you add the current level to your roll, I just can't find it.

I can give an example from my game, Treasured Possessions. The game uses a Reality Clock, that starts at zero. The characters are spirits, and each time they use an ability to change the world, the reality clock increases by one. The player also draws a card, and if the value on the card is lower than the total on the Reality Clock, there is an effect in the world around them; something catches fire, a smell of sulphur, an eye opens up in the forehead of the mortal they're currently inhabiting. The clock serves both to increase the risk of something happening as more abilities are used and as the effect is based on the value of the card and the higher values have more dramatic effects, it works like a pressure valve - the 'luckier' you are at avoiding an effect, the more dramatic it's likely to be when it finally triggers.

Depth clocks work more as indicator of difficulty or danger, rather than a driver of desperate action. If your party isn't particularly strong, you might return to the surface to rest before heading onto a lower (more dangerous) level, or you might think twice about using an ability for something trivial if you might grow horns. (You might like horns, horns are cool, some of us like the idea of growing horns, but the villagers might be a bit concerned when you get back).

Combination clocks

This isn't another type of clock, it's more of a feature of clocks. You could use the Mausritter turn tracker above for the admin side of things, but say that after four days the gate to faerie will close, so you need to have rescued the frog-prince before that happens. That's a cyclical clock that is also a doom clock. Even the turns/watches/day feature could be seen as clocks within clock. I don't think we need to complicate matters by trying to give all these options names, it's just handy to see that clocks can be multi-purpose.

Resetting the clock

Remember how I suggested that clocks only go in one direction? While I think that's an important concept in clocks, I also love the option of allowing you to reset a clock. If you are in vacuum and you have a 60 minutes of air, then that's a doom clock - cross off a box every (ten minute) turn and after six turns you're out of luck. But, if you find another air tank somewhere, then you can switch over and reset the clock.

Conclusions

Clocks are versatile elements to work into games and adventures. They take some of the load off a GM's shoulders by tracking states and triggering events.

Because they work at their best when they're visible to players, they can be used to control the tempo of a game - the examples of a bomb going off or entering a lower, more dangerous level of a dungeon will cause players to modify the way the act.

Because they're automated, or at least rule-driven, everyone understands how they work and players have agency in how they respond.

They're easy. Grab a dice and increase the value on top each time, draw a number of boxes and start crossing them off. Use a scrap of paper and draw five-bar gates to track the ticks of a clock.

To give a final example of how clocks can alter the vibe of a game for players, I ran a game where encounters for overground travel worked on a clock. Each time the group entered a new square, they drew a set number of (1, 2 or 3) cards. We kept track of the total (a doom clock) and once it reached or exceeded 28, a random encounter occurred*. In the same game, encounters in the dungeon were randomly generated each time they entered a room (I was play-testing a lost-underground-city pamphlet where everything was generated in-play). Talking to the players after the session, one of them said that they were a lot more cautious exploring the underground location because you never knew when something might appear, whereas they had an idea of the level of risk while travelling overland because of the clock. For me, that kind of feedback and understanding how different approaches within the same game can alter the way a player is feeling about different settings is really valuable.

*In case you've done the math and you wonder if the group was constantly wading into fights because they should trigger an encounter every four cards drawn; my random encounters are maybe more whimsical than most. The ones I use currently are The Wilderness Enjoyment Guide.

Other things to look at

I've linked the games I've mentioned directly in the text.

Iko, of The Lost Bay Studio, blogs at The Coded Type, well worth a read.

In trying to find other examples of depth clocks, people mentioned both The Stygian Library and The Gardens of Ynn, both by Soul Muppet Publishing.

All of my things can be found here on itch. There are always Community Copies available.