Many enemies and events use standard countdowns, in which the die begins on a specific number (such as “Countdown 4”) and ticks down every time a player makes an action roll, regardless of the result. When the countdown die reaches 0, the countdown’s effect triggers immediately after the last action roll is resolved.

Short countdowns (2–4) work well when you want a move or event to quickly trigger in an encounter regardless of how the players roll (but if you want the countdown speed to vary with the players’ rolls, see “Dynamic Countdowns”). Longer countdowns (5+) are best used on powerful moves or events that you want to build up towards in the narrative.

When in combat, standard countdowns for adversary moves are usually reserved for the major antagonist of an encounter. Running more than one countdown at a time can be complex, so most encounters include no more than one adversary with countdowns.