So a few quick questions about the Time Pool (captain Timepool! Nah... just Time Pool):
1) When does this actually empty? After rolled? After the Adventure? Never? That might be a big issue for players (it would be for me).
2) Do you punish the players with a die if the party MUST rest due to time of day? You only get 8 hours of adventuring/traveling before you have to make Con saves for Forced March, and it seem rude to punish the players for resting became the game punishes them if they don't. I mean, eventually they'd have to rest or collapse of exhaustion... when you'd hit them with another die in the Time Pool.
3) If the Time Pool is supposed to be public, won't that give away information? If the barbarian is investigating the innkeeper and you DON'T add a die, they know he's actually important to the adventure. If you DO add a die, the player can just stop immediately, since they know it's a red herring. Seems counter productive to me.
It's well worth reading the original blog but my take is...
1) Every time the players "spend time" a dice goes into the pool, or all the dice in the pool get rolled (DM's choice). If the pool isn't full and a 1 is rolled, a dice gets removed. If the pool is full (has six dice in) AND a 1 is rolled, the pool is empited.
2) I would. The whole concept is to make the players feel pressured by taking time.
3) It doesn't matter whether the innkeeper is significant, or whether the door is trapped, or whether there really is a secret door or not. What matters is reminding the players that while they spend their time doing things, other things are happening in the world around them. The "complication"/"bad thing" might be immediately obvious, or it might not. The barbarian spends time investigating the innkeeper, the DM rolls, smiles and makes some notes. Later the big boss fight has a boss and a dozen minions, is that because the boss was gathering more minions while the barbarian was investigating or is it unrelated? If the players wonder whether the fight would have been easier if they were faster, the purpose of the time pool is achieved.