And we’ll also have a lovely game of chicken as players try to gauge whether they need to move on or face being caught in the inferno.

This is actually the part I was looking for, why do you want complex mechanics to deal with something which is part of the storyteller job ? and indeed, it can bring some games

In my upcoming megadungeon Inkvein, each of the 4 factions has a 10-step event track. Which faction advances and at what time is randomised via dice rolls. This creates an unpredictable and evolving situation that even the GM gets to discover as it unfolds.

One more example why I feel like OSR gamers and narravtive gamers are closer than what they claim, because it sounds like a narrative clock (Which actually is way older than the narrative trend, I’ve been using them as homebrew variant of long term actions for decades)