Do you let your players see the clocks? Especially downtime clocks for other factions.
And, in a related question, how do you handle downtime actions for NPC factions, especially things like “seize a claim”–just say it happens, and drop it into NPC gossip? A fortune roll? Something else?
If I’ve let the players know there’s a clock for a specific thing and they ask about it later on in the mission I’ll give them a rough estimate “bout half, almost there, a ways off, really close”.
I don’t let players see downtime clocks for NPC factions, but otherwise all my clocks are out in the open.
For my NPC actions, when they fill a clock, they just get what they were after — no other roll. I’ll describe the consequences in the fiction when and if the players ask/gather info about it. 😛
I show the clock because otherwise I’d just make executive decisions with GM authority. To me, the point of the clock is to involve the table in anticipation.
So I let my players see all the clocks. The clocks reflect the fictional situation, which the characters are often deep in the middle of, but the players need help with. Clocks help them gauge how things are going with the relatively spartan information they get from the GM.
If a clock has info the player characters wouldn’t know about, I make that clear and say if they want to act on that they need to gather info about it. But otherwise I put them all out on the table.
I prefer the Open Secret style of play where it’s all out there for players to see even if the characters don’t know about it. It’s simpler and in my experience players enjoy knowing the trouble in the world so that they can “accidentally” charge into the trouble. Also, it helps to collaboratively build the world. Say you haven’t done much with the Brigade in a while, you can just ask the players “hey who’s place just burned down and the Brigade whist stood and watched?” Their answer becomes some great story fodder and a clock or two.
Any clock that is not related to a NPC faction’s downtime is on the table for my group. Whether it is labeled or not depends on what the characters know. It requires players that are able to properly separate personal knowledge from character knowledge, but in my experience it helps build anticipation or tension when a clock is created or filled.
I’ve also made clocks like “It all goes wrong!” or “Disaster at the docks” or “Shelly is found out” with details to be filled in when the moment arrives. That’s fun for the players because they know something is building, but don’t always know what–and sometimes I don’t either.
Maybe discuss with your players what they’d prefer and what you prefer and come to a decision. As a GM, I’d be happy with either, but as a player, I like the idea of having to investigate things to see the ‘hidden’ clocks (e.g. ones that represent things that factions are working on behind the scenes). Then you could throw out hints in terms of things that the players find in course of play (e.g.scribbled notes found during heists that aren’t immediately obvious but hint at something, or gossip/news heard from passing NPCs during downtime if players are doing actions that don’t lend themselves to interesting roleplay for example).