Do threat clocks advancements happen “on-screen”?
In some of the examples, threat countdown clocks tick down early with somewhat mundane stuff at the 3:00, such as two NPC’s meeting each other, not necessarily requiring the PC’s to be present. I get that warning players of impending danger is a MC move I can use, but sometimes it doesn’t make fictional sense for the PC’s to be present at that scene. So can I cloak a move to have it happen anyways, but not inform the players that it happened or should I look for other opportunities?
I let them see me mark the clock so they know it’s getting Quite Pressing, but no, they don’t necessarily need to be present for every thing that happens. They will figure it out since you should be marking the clock when they’d going something related to the threat.
I’m all about handing out information, and trusting the players with knowledge their characters wouldn’t know. I even try to treat it like a TV series. The characters aren’t present, but your audience is, so give them a show.
At the very least, tick them off screen and be in the lookout to give away hints and such, any kind of ripples in the pond.
They don’t need to be present, but yes let something happen on screen. Have a cut scene.
The clocks are there for the PCs to derail. The characters don’t have to know what happened exactly, but they should know that something happened so that they have an in fiction reason to find out more. If your three o clock says “the cultists begin their ritual in prospect Park”, tell the players “you see a flash of green light across town and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up”, otherwise they won’t have a chance to know about the situation and interfere with whatever would happen at six o clock.