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.
Use 5 cards (assuming you want to perform the action every 5 turns). Every turn the current play picks a card and puts it at the bottom. If that card shows Brazening than perform the related actions.

Cons:

* You need to have several blank cards to get to 5 cards.

Pros: 

* Hard to forget because *every* turn a player has to take the top card so they get part of the turn.
* When needing more actions later you can write on one of the blank cards (or Brazening card) a new action.
* You can change the rules easily by adding/removing another card (meaning a different time scheduling for events).
* You can easily randomize different events if needed.