Tension clocks

A clock is a segmented dial that fills as pressure builds. When it's full, something happens — the alarm goes up, the ritual completes, the faction moves, the window closes.

It's the cleanest way to make off-screen pressure real without tracking it in your head. Clocks live on a campaign, and can be attached to a narrative thread or to a scene on the Scene Canvas.

Clock kinds

Kind	For
Danger	Trouble approaching — an alarm, a monster's arrival, a plan going wrong
Progress	Effort building toward a goal — a ritual, a repair, an investigation closing in
Faction	A faction's scheme advancing, on or off the page
Countdown	Time running out — a deadline, a fuse, a closing window
Custom	A blank clock for anything else

The kind is a label and a colour, not a rule — a Danger clock and a Progress clock tick the same way. Choose the one that tells you at a glance what filling it means.

Creating a clock

Open Clocks in the campaign, or add one from a narrative thread or a scene.
Pick a kind — the title pre-fills from it.
Choose the number of segments: 4, 6, 8, or 10.
Write what happens when it fills.
Choose its lifetime.

Segments

Pick the size for how many beats of pressure you want the clock to survive:

4 — fast. Two or three bad moments and it's done. Use for immediate danger.
6 — the default. A session's worth of escalation.
8 — slow burn. A multi-session scheme or a long ritual.
10 — a campaign-length pressure you tick a handful of times per arc.

Lifetime

Lifetime	Behaviour
Scene	Belongs to the scene it was made in. The default — most pressure is local
Persistent	Carries across sessions until you resolve or discard it

Faction schemes and long countdowns want persistent. An alarm in one building wants scene.

Ticking a clock

Two ways a segment fills:

By hand — you decide the fiction earned it. Add a note saying why.
From a failed skill check — when a skill check fails and a clock is in scope, you're offered the chance to advance one. Dismissible; never automatic.

Every tick is recorded with its reason, so a full clock reads back as the story of how it got full rather than just a number.

💡Tip

Tick in public. Say "that's the alarm clock at four of six" out loud even though the players can't see the dial — the tension is in them knowing it moved, and clocks are GM-side.

Finishing a clock

Mark a clock resolved when it fills and the consequence lands, or discarded when the fiction moved on and it no longer matters. Either way it stops appearing in your active list and stays on the record.

⚠️Warning

Clocks are GM-side. They aren't shown in the player portal — describe the pressure at the table rather than expecting players to watch the dial.

Troubleshooting

A clock disappeared after the session. Its lifetime was Scene. Set persistent for anything that should outlive the scene it was created in.

A failed check didn't offer to tick a clock. No clock was in scope for that scene or campaign. The offer only appears when there's something to feed — and it's always an offer you can dismiss.

I resolved a clock by mistake. Resolved clocks are kept, not deleted — reopen it from the resolved list.