Swapped from a stopwatch to a chess clock for game nights and it fixed everything

I used to just hit a phone timer for each player's turn in 7-hour Twilight Imperium sessions, but everyone kept arguing about lag time (you know, when you grab a snack mid-turn). Then last month I borrowed a $25 analog chess clock from my buddy Dave and set it for 5 minutes per move. Has anyone else found that a physical clock changes the whole vibe of a long game compared to a phone app?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_murray81mo ago

Wait til your buddy Dave forgets to hit the clock mid-turn and you have to start a whole new argument about whose turn it actually was. That $25 clock is just your new referee.

mary_kelly1mo ago

Oh man, that reminds me of what happened to my buddy Chris. He thought he was being slick bringing a chess clock to our Arkham Horror sessions. First game, he was so into explaining some lore that he let his own clock run out without hitting it. Then he tried to argue that "eating peanuts shouldn't count as a turn" and we spent twenty minutes debating if snack breaks pause the clock. We ended up just going back to the phone timer because nobody could remember to hit the stupid button. That chess clock became a paperweight real quick.