The action tracker (see “Action Tracker” in chapter 2) should come into play whenever an encounter will likely last longer than a dice roll or two. The first couple times you use it in your campaign, ensure your players know that the game generally continues as usual. The action tracker’s presence doesn’t mean that violence is the only option left on the table–just that the narrative is shifting to a moment-by-moment focus. You can use the image provided in the game materials as your action tracker, or you can use something else like a bowl, a labeled notecard, etc. Just make sure everyone at the table knows what and where the action tracker is.

Whenever a player makes a move that tells them to “use an action” or makes an action roll, they add a character token to the action tracker. When you make a GM move (usually after an action roll that fails or is rolled with Fear), you can spend any number of these placed tokens to activate adversaries or the environment. It doesn’t matter which player’s tokens you spend—they all work the same—but after you spend one, return it to the player who placed it.

Activating Adversaries

You can spend tokens to activate adversaries on the battlefield (see “Adversary Features” in chapter 4). For each token you spend, one adversary can take an action of your choice, such as:

• Moving within Close range and making a weapon attack.
• Moving within Close range and using an adversary action.
• Ending a temporary condition or effect (as described in “Example GM Moves”).
• Sprinting somewhere else on the battlefield.

Adversary actions work much like PC actions do, but instead of a PC adding a token to the tracker, adversary actions spend a token from the tracker. Think of this as the adversaries catching up to where the players are in the fiction. You can continue acting until you’ve exhausted all available tokens (or all you wish to utilize at this time). Once you’re done spending action tokens, play returns to the PCs.

Typically, you shouldn’t activate the same adversary twice between PC moves, no matter how many tokens you have available. If you’d like to activate that adversary again, wait until the next time you make a GM move.

Tip: When you begin a GM move, if there are many tokens on the action tracker and numerous adversaries in play, it can be hard to remember which adversaries you’ve already activated during your move. You can help track this by moving each action token you spend next to that adversary’s stat block (or next to their miniature on the map), so you know that they’ve already acted during this move. When you finish your move, you can then return those tokens to the players.

Activating the Environment

Scenes can become more exciting when the environment comes alive. Sometimes these changes are simply descriptions you give as the GM—“the ground begins to shake violently.” But if you’d like to include mechanical effects, feel free to use an Environment stat block to guide how the world changes (see “Using Environments” in chapter 4).

Exchanging Fear and Tokens

At any time, you can clear two tokens on the action tracker in exchange for storing one Fear; while this gives you an extra Fear to spend, it also reduces the number of tokens you can use to activate adversaries. Similarly, you can spend one Fear to place two tokens on the action tracker, allowing you to activate more adversaries during a GM move.

When combat ends or you decide the action tracker is no longer necessary for play, you gain a Fear for every two action tokens left on the tracker (rounding down). For example, if there are five action tokens at the end of combat, you gain two Fear.

Tip: If you’ve got some Fear built up when the action tracker comes out, consider immediately spending one to add two tokens to the tracker, increasing the tension. If it makes sense in the scene, you can also spend a Fear to cut into the action first and activate adversaries before the players. This is especially useful if you’re running an ambush or using a particularly powerful adversary.

What is the Purpose of the Action Tracker?

When roleplaying using theater of the mind, it’s easy to remember that things are happening “off camera” even though they’re not actively being described, and shift your focus between characters or scenes on the fly. However, when a battle ensues on a map with miniatures, it can feel odd to see portions of the battlefield change while others remain frozen. The action tracker can help to shift between different parts of the battlefield, reminding everyone of who has acted recently and who might want a chance in the spotlight. This helps focus the group’s attention on major events without worrying about the exact passage of time or turn order. For more on using the action tracker to spotlight players, see Sharing the Spotlight.

Additionally, the tokens on the action tracker help the players anticipate your GM moves. When the players take a large number of actions in a row, the tracker fills, raising the stakes by providing you more currency to spend.