Well, token mamagement still bothers me a bit, so I'm experimenting with ideas to rid of it.

Here is my currently favored one.

Instead of putting number of recharge tokens on an action card, put only one token depending on the card recharge rating:
- hammer token (bronze token) when recharge is 2-3
- eagle token (silver token) when recharge is 4-5
- comet token (golden token) when recharge is 6 or more

At the end of players turn instead of removing 1 recharge token from each card do the following:
1. Remove ONE hammer token (bronze token) from ONE of the recharging cards recharging it completely. If there are more cards with hammer token (bronze token) on them, choose one, and only one. This step is MANDATORY, if at least one hammer symbol (bronze token) is present on any card. If there are no hammer tokens, skip this step.
2. Change ONE eagle token (silver token) from ONE of the recharging cards to hammer token (bronze token). If there are more cards with eagle token (silver token) on them, choose one, and only one. This step is MANDATORY, if at least one eagle symbol (silver token) is present on any card. If there are no eagle tokens (silver tokens), skip this step.
3. Change ONE comet token (golden token) from ONE of the recharging cards to eagle token (silver token). If there are more cards with comet token (golden token) on them, choose one, and only one. This step is MANDATORY, if at least one comet symbol (golden token) is present on any card. If there are no comet tokens (golden tokens) skip this step.

IMPORTANT: Do not change the token on card used in the same turn! That means, if you just used a card, and placed a token on it. you may NOT change it at the end of turn. It stays as it is.
In this way, cards with recharge of 2-3 can be used no more than once per 2 turns, cards with recharge 4-5 once per 3 turns, and cards with recharge 6 or more once per 4 turns.

Every time some effect adds/removes tokens to/from recharging card, change token accordingly:
- instead adding recharging tokens, change the token to higher tier (raising token): hammer to eagle, eagle to comet. Comet token is the highest possible
- instead removing tokens, change token to lower tier (lowering token): comet to eagle, eagle to hammer. Removing hammer recharges the card.

Additionally/optionally, at the beginning of player turn, let him roll one white [W] die.
If the result is a blank, nothing happens. If the result is a symbol, then that player may immediately raise/lower (as above) ONE token of corresponding symbol on ONE card.
If player have no cards recharging, or no symbols on cards match the rolled one, skip this step.

Tokens can be coloured dice, color beads, color paperclip, cardboard pieces with symbols, or anything you see fit.

Easiest way I found to exhaust a talent not using tokens is to turn it 90 degrees clockwise, or counterclockwise each turn (just remember to rotate it in the same direction every turn ). When it gets to its original position its fully recharged.

Some quick dry tests of the above rules were... interesting, so I'm introducing them to my players on a nearest session

This doesn't really lower the management required for changing tokens every round, so I'm not sure I see the point for it.

I expected, since you call the tokens hammer/eagle/comet, that there'd be an expert die roll at the end of a turn, getting rid of that sort of a token on a card! For example.

Juriel said:

Nah, I left the comet token as not removable intentionally (only the cards with highest recharge will have it, and it should stay as it is, so the card would recharge longer).

And it does lower the management a bit:
- first you have only one token on a card
- second, you manage maximum 3 tokens at he end of turn (not more than 1 token for each symbol), and no more than 1 at the beginning
- third, if you have the symbols on a dice, the only thing you have to do is flip the dice
- (in case you use color coded paperclips it also lets you to stop being afraid of a cat jumping on a table and messing with tokens on cards, or cards falling of the table, but you can also achieve that simply by using paperclips instead of recharge tokens)

I know it does not remove the management completly, but recharge mechanic is at the core of this system (look at the swordmaster and wardancer cards for example), so the thing I'm trying to achieve is to lower the management and number of tokens as much as possible, not throw it completely out.

And since I cannot find a good solution that would fit my needs I'm trying everything I can think of.

I'm also posting it here in hope, that maybe it could give you guys some ideas, and you came up with the recharge mechanics I search for.

Anyway I plan to post some more ideas here later.

Feel free to criticize, and point the weak spots, as well, as posting your own ideas, I'm desperate in here.

Ok, one more idea (no point in making another post):

This one uses cardboard pieces about 2cm wide adn 6cm long, on one side put odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, on the other even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 (be sure, that the numbers are in the same place for both sides: 1 should be in the exact place like 2 on the other side - similiar way HedgeWizard made wounds, power, stress and fatigue, on his character sheet).

No when you play a card put the cardoard piece on it with the correct side up, and mark the correct number with a paperclip.
At the end of player turn, or when situation requires it, do the following:
- move paperclip to another number
- switch cardboard piece side (so if you had recharge on 2, flipping cardboard piece should put that on 1 without the need of moving paperclip)
- do both of the above

Hmmm...
Got another idea (after rereading Emirikol's " Reducing Tracking: Just roll a fortune die for Brief Conditions success = cancelled " thread).
So below is redesign of the idea from my first post in this topic.

First thing - token symbol change (another dice will be rolled):
- bronze token = sword symbol (recharge 2-3)
- silver token = skull symbol (recharge 4-5)
- gold token = chaos star symbol (recharge 6 or more)

Second - you DO NOT manage tokens at the end of your turn, or roll white die at the beginning (but you still place one token depending on recharge rating when you play the card).
Instead of adding/removing/flipping tokens at the end/beginning of your turn you do the following:
1. if at the END of your turn you have any cards recharging, that you did not played this turn, roll one purple <P> die
2. immediately recharge number of cards (that you DID NOT play this turn) with symbols corresponding to symbols rolled (so 1 sword means completely recharging of 1 bronze token card, 2 swords recharges 2 bronze token cards, 1 skull recharges 1 silver token card, 2 skulls means, that you can recharge 2 silver token cards, chaos star recharges 1 gold token card)

Now one more thing, to keep the add/remove token entries of different Cards (the only cases, when you flip tokens with this rule).
Every time some effect adds/removes tokens to/from recharging card, change token accordingly:
- instead adding recharging tokens, change the token to higher tier (raising token): sword to skull, skull to chaos star. Chaos star token is the highest possible
- instead removing tokens, change token to lower tier (lowering token): chaos star to skull, skull to sword. Removing sword recharges the card.

Now, what do you think?

Is that better, or worse ?

Oh, and if you really, REALLY want to get rid of tokens, keeping some of the recharge mechanic possibilities, the solution is already there, just make one simple change.

Instead of using tokens to mark the cards use the table where your player normally plays his cards.

Each player has its own space, where he plays his cards right?

And he needs to mark the played card somehow (either by putting a token on it, or putting a card somewhere else than the rest of his cards) right?

The solution is to name the space where your player plays his cards:
- bronze tier (lets say on the left of each players designated space)
- silver tier (in the middle)
- and gold tier (on the right).

You can even mark those spaces with a token, piece of paper, or anything else.

So instead of putting a token on a card, player just plays it in the corresponding place on the table.

Moving between tiers is as simple, as moving a card from left to right, or right to left.

The only thing you stay with is a single purple die roll at the end of players turn to check which card recharged itself.

Well, there you have it, NO TOKENS, not even one.

I think I will stick to this one, looks like this satisfy me enough.
Already have rid of wound/power/fatigue/stress tracking tokens thanks to the doc_cthulhu character sheet (absolutely marvelous).
(Edit: wrong names were given, I use HedgeWizards GM sheet, and doc_cthulhu character sheet, sorry for the mistake)

Got rid of brief conditions tokens thanks to Emirikol's idea.
Will rotete exhausted talents.
And just got rid of Action Card tokens.

I'm a happy man

I'd say the original mechanic is also abusable with regards to recharge=duration cards

"Me likey tokens".That's funny, me (GM) and the PC party actually really enjoy managing tokens, fatigue and stress

I use a D6 instead of tokens. very easy to turn the die one step each turn

Lucas Adorn said:

This. As an avid fan of FFG boardgames for many years now I've come to learn when their fancy (don't get me wrong, love the trappings) counters each game requires become more of a hindrance than a help in speeding up game play and can be replaced by dice/dry erase marker ticks, etc. Dice seem to be the smoothest/fastest exchange, especially since they can't get mixed up with the game dice for 3e, now can they?