Question: I'm working on a new board game where there's an action (we'll call it *Brazening*) that only happens every X turns (let's say it happens every 5 turns).

What's a good way to keep track of when it's time for the next *Brazening*?

The perfect method would:

* be easy for players to do
* be hard for players to forget
* require a minimum of pieces or moving parts
* not require pencil and paper

There might not be a perfect method.

Answer: 
I'm no game designer, so this is just off the top of my head: 

I'd try and tie it to a mechanic that already exists in the game and which the players can't avoid, or at least get a obvious (maybe short term) advantage from, so it's unlikely to for them to forget. 

Examples:

* Each player gets 5 cards at the start of the game and must play one each turn. When everyone has no cards left, execute *Brazening* and everyone draws 5 new cards.
* A pool of 5 times *number of players* tokens in it, and at the start of their turn a player must take a token and do something with it. When the pool is empty, it's time to *Brazen* and then refill the pool.

What kind of actions do the players take in your game? Maybe if you roughly describe the mechanics, we could find a simple may to modify them.
You could try a method similar to the dominion method of keeping track of actions; say it out loud! It *never* fails.

> 
> Say how many you have left out loud; this trick works every time (i.e. "I'm playing the Festival and now have two Actions remaining. I play a Market and have two Actions remaining. I play another Festival and now have three Actions remaining….").
> 
> 
> 

Have your players start their turn with "It has been 1 year since the Brazening" and when they say "It has been 5 years since the Brazening" they have to do the brazening action. Remember: *this trick works every time*

You could add a minor penalty to a player who gets the number wrong to encourage everyone else to pay attention and keep track!