I mentioned the Noteboard on another thread. A sentinels themed one would be cool…
I think in addition to a Screen &/Or dice an Initative tracker would be fantastic.
One thing that I have seen is a magnetic board I've seen a couple of the GM's i know use it for more structured initiative games. it would be pretty easy to set up a clipboard like thing with magnetic character icons to fit our purpose
My idea is to devided an 8&1/2X11 sheet into 3 sections to top 2/3 is devided vertically into Red & Blue, & the tracker comes with a bunch of small hex magnets that we can move back & forth, several heroes as well as minion groups, lieutenant and Villains, Then the bottom third can be used for notes. When someone is handed initiative move their Hex from the red side to the blue side. Then once everyone is on the blue side flip a toggle or slider on top & start moving people back to the red side as they go. There'll probably be better ideas but that's how i'd set it up.
A scene tracker would be neato.
An idea I have been playing around with is using different colored poker chips for the scene tracker, and advancing the tracker by flipping the chip to the other side, which would have some kind of alternate symbol. I like this because it is easy to play with the scene structure. Need an extra green status, and one less yellow? Then simply switch which chips are being used. Officially produced trackers like this, perhaps with hero images on one side and villain images on the other would be super cool.
I also wouldn't mind a HP tracker of some kind. Something along the lines of the Magic Life trackers with the spinning wheels.
Physical scene trackers are neat, but I'm a bit hesitant to second their creation because it seems like the sort of area that's open to GM interpretation. As in, one threat might stay in Green for quite a while (5 rounds), before taking a sharp turn for the worse (2 rounds in yellow, 2 rounds in red), while one another scene might escalate faster (2 rounds in Green), then level out before getting worse (6 rounds in yellow, 2 rounds in red).
I'm also the sort of GM that, for the most part, won't likely tell players how many static rounds they have--rather, it's the sort of thing that I'll fudge here and there, based on the party's actions, and keep the revelations of a color change until the point it actually happens.
I'm almost picturing a clear tube or column that could hold 10-12 chips/marbles/tokens. During the first round, you toss in a green one. Each round, you toss another green one in until you hit yellow...that's when you toss a yellow in. You can then put this in the middle of the table so it's a constant reminder of what status/color the table is in...
Plus, if you start off a scene in Yellow or Red, you could immediately do that; just start with the appropriate token.
Like a single-column Connect Four board? I like that.
I have very mixed feelings about whether the players should know in advance when the scene tracker will change color–but then again, the idea of telling the players exactly what goals were available to meet in a given scene was quite a revelation to me. If they should know in advance, there could be little green, yellow, and red sliders on the side of the tracker that the GM could move to different heights.
Got it in one! :D
Plus, this would give the opportunity to make Sentinel Comics branded chips (maybe poker-chip sized) to throw into it!
I tend to try for consistency around the idea of "will the players feel punished by this instead of challenged by it?"
So if you choose to use the Scene Tracker and thus place a time limit, then to reduce the feeling of being punished by the limit instead of challenged, I feel you should use the Tracker openly and make it clear what goals the players need to accomplish.
In contrast, if you remove the Scene Tracker or make the Tracker progression based on what happens during the actual roleplaying (i.e. rather than moving it once per turn, it only moves when something particularly bad is done by either side or an enemy clearly progresses their status in-character), then it makes more sense to up the challenge level to compensate by having the Tracker progress be secret and you can also have the goals be secret since players now have a realistic enough amount of time to discover the goals through natural exploration/roleplay.
Aside: Which is what I was trying to get at in the other thread that a couple people like PlatinumWarlock instead wildly misinterpreted. 
I feel the Scene Tracker taken as is limits the opportunity to naturally roleplay out finding the goals and how to achieve them since you just won't have the time to actually do that. So I feel it's one or the other to keep the right level of challenge; you either have to feed players the goals yourself so they have enough in-game time to do them, or you have to change the limit to give them a realistic amount of in-game time for natural discovery.
That said, either way I still think some kind of physical tracker with variable spots per zone could be handy. Since even if it's secret the GM could use something to track with, and likewise even if the players find out the goals on their own a "Quest Log" they can update themselves is still handy for their own uses.
Also as someone who likes to roleplay online, some kind of online syncable digital app would be pretty pie-in-the-sky welcome too, where the players could keep track of their sheets and also see other people's sheets and quest notes and the tracker if applicable. Then you could just chat in IRC or whereever. Would work out fine for offline use, too.
Totally agree. If the players are working against a fixed clock, it's excessively punishing to force them to use actions to explore and learn about the situation. I like the idea of using the scene tracker in a more fluid way, rather than just not using it at all, if the scenario should be tense and urgent but not necessarily kick-down-the-door frantic and action-packed.
This can also be used by the GM to customize pacing to whatever works for them: if the GM initially gave the players the freedom to examine the situation carefully but they're abusing the privilege and bogging the game down, the GM can advance the scene tracker to remind them that there is in fact a clock, if a slow one.
After playing through 3 issues I found the time limit wasn’t really a huge limitation. In future games I’m likely to let players properly explore the scene at the beginning and begin the scene tracker when the fight actually gets going (with a shorter time frame I guess). And if a player encounters a major twist that reveals their location/ makes a loud noise/ turns a corner into some sentries/whatever then that would affect where the tracker might start.
Just out of curiosity, how many players were you playing with?
I’ve got two 2-player games that have started (first scene of Issue #1), and the one thing that I’m cautious of is that the “clock” will be a little short for a 2-hero team (vs if I managed to merge the two groups into a 4-hero team, which probably won’t happen).
I’m pretty sure you played it as it was meant to be played. The scene tracker only should really start when the peril does.
We had 5 in total and if anything they got through everything quicky. It didn’t help that they played very defensivey and so did things like make sure Tempest was as far away as possible from the robotic dinosaur that would advance the scene tracker, but that’s okay.
Two might be tough but if it’s looking like they’re in trouble I don’t see why you couldn’t give them a couple of extra yellow or red turns, or on a success make it so that the villain does something to extend the scene tracker.
Yeah, I guess I more meant that I’d like to go more out of my way to do more exploration based stuff before they get to the fights so there’s more world building happening where the characters are in charge. I found in my games that was lacking a bit in that department.
Yeah, that's what I was concerned about; my old group was slow because they loved the world building and exploration parts, and I was worried the Tracker would get in the way of that.
(Granted we also were bad at coming up with efficient strategies during combat and actually not rolling failures all the time, so there was that too.)
Though I really do like MindWanderer's ideas for altering how the Scene Tracker works.
A health tracker would be nice. I played AZ at PAX Unplugged and my HP was constantly jumping around.
Dice are a must!
I backed Feng Shui 2 a few years ago and one of the upgrades offered was a plastic character creation sheet that worked with dry erase markers to allow for quick updates, edits, etc as you played