Happy September, and welcome to the second dev log for Hexen (name likely to change). I've been slowly compiling ideas and designing some new mechanics during the summer, and I can't wait to start sharing them with you.

No story this time, let's jump right into the main topic of today's dev log: Progress clocks.

If you've played – or read – a Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark game, you might know about progress clocks. They're a very elegant system to track progress of game events effectively. To track something, the GM draws a circle on some piece of paper or other medium, and they divide it into a specific number of segments (Usually 4, 6, or 8). During the game, various player actions (either in the narrative or through rolls) will cause segments on the clock to get filled until no empty segments are left. When that happens, whatever event the clock was tracking will happen, such as getting caught during a chase or crafting an item.

They're great for tracking player-led projects, tense action scenes, or the progress of the villain's plans in the background. The players take a detour through some tavern to chat with the locals? Fill one segment to the "Grand ritual" clock as the villain keeps working on their magical ritual in the background. I love clocks because they turn the tension into something tangible that players can interact with. Showing a half-filled clock to the players during an infiltration scene to make them realize the guards are almost on them is a great way to maintain the tension at the table.

What does this have to do with Hexen (name likely to change)? 

Yes, Hexen's new name is now Hexen (name likely to change)

One of the core mechanics of Hexen is placing hexes on your character's board. It's something I want to build upon for everything, it's the soul of the game in a way. I really like this aspect of the game, it creates a meta-strategy of managing your character's abilities. Where to place hexes and which one to select for a roll makes for very tough choices and fun discussions at the table as players try to adjust their actions to fit the best hex selection they could find.

So when it comes to adding clocks in the game, I want to make sure they follow this core mechanic.

A good way to start doing that is to, obviously, make clocks into hexes rather than circles. To create segments, join opposite corners together to divide the hex, giving us the ability to create 2, 4, or 6 segment clocks. Though I have not figured out how to keep the clock's name visible throughout.

Once we have hex clocks, we realize that, if printed to the same size as normal hexes, it then becomes possible to place them on a character's board. But why lose precious space on boards to place a clock there?

Something I realized during the playtests is the character's board often ends up pretty empty. Players have about enough hex groups at the start to fill half of the spaces on their character board, and they won't generate enough hexen points to fill all the remaining spaces. That space was meant for conditions, but having so much empty space means that the tough choice I wanted for where to place conditions becomes too easy, there's too much free space.

We could solve that by making the board smaller, but we can also solve that by adding more things the players need to manage on their boards. I think clocks are a great candidate for that, for a few reasons:

1. It makes sense narratively. If a player engages with a clock by placing it on their board, then we know they care about whatever this clock is tracking. If they don't engage, then the thing can happen in the background, they don't feel strongly about making it happen or stopping it.
2. It adds more choices to the game. The hex clocks can only track up to 6 segments, but most progress clocks in other games go up to 8 or even 10 segments. To do that in Hexen, you need multiple clocks, adding to the meta aspect of choosing what hexes you place on your board and where. What if you can only work towards a clock if it's not covered by a condition? Then suddenly, placing the condition on your board is not as straightforward.
3. It helps streamline the game. One thing I noticed when running games that use progress clocks is that having too many can break the flow of the game significantly. It's a hard thing to balance. Players won't be able to work towards or against all the clocks, and things without their involvement will happen as if you didn't use a clock. By having them on the character boards, it means you can easily track if there are too many clocks in play. If you're planning to add another one and there's no space, just make the event happen later. (Of course, background tracking is a big aspect of progress clocks in other games and this goes against it, that's something I want to explore).

My current plan for clocks is to have them be the main tracker in the game. Character and enemy's health would be clocks, to fight something means you "engage" it through your character board. Same thing for player projects or complex actions, such as crafting or disarming a complex trap under stress. Even "villain clocks" would use this system. If the players want to stop the mage's ritual, they have to start working against it by "engaging" the clock. You can even have multiple players engage with the villain's plan by breaking down the clock into multiple hexes.

What's next?

I'm very much looking forward to playtesting this system in my next session, whenever it happens. I think there's a lot of potential in this system, but I need to make sure it doesn't get out of hand or make the character's board unmanageable. Balance will be key!

Look forward to the playtest report, which should happen hopefully this year, whenever my players are free. In the meantime, I already have the next dev log planned. It'll be about a new system I'm exploring called "Hextensions" (no, the hexes puns won't stop) that's all about giving players more character boards, but at a cost. I think it'll be a pretty cool system and will add the possibility of giving "magic items" to players in the game.

Thank you for reading this post, let me know what you think in the comments below. Also, feel free to share any ideas you might have for the game, I'm curious what you all might have in mind.

See you in the next one.