Give your characters reasons to keep on living, when death is so much easier. If they triumph over all of the filth and shit you throw their way, allow them a brief moment of respite before the world comes crashing down on their hopeful expressions like a rain of scalpels.

Apocalypse World can be played in the way you are alluding, with clearly defined threats and a parade when the group works together and wins the day, with magic baubles all around, but I think it really clicks when you tell your players to invest in the story rather than their specific characters. Playing Apocalypse World is like getting to be in control of your favorite character in a movie--sure, it's fun to see them win and get pretty, shiny things, but it's also fun to watch them get beaten down and lose everything. In my (admittedly limited) AW experience, I've found the carrot is the threat, the danger, the broken promise, rather than the reward after the fact.

Barter is boring. It's a number, it's a statistic. It doesn't mean anything by itself. Give Shadow a smile from Joe's Girl, to show her that everything isn't all rotted, that some things are worth cracking your shell for. Give Colonel a water-treatment facility, so that his people aren't constantly shitting blood back into the murky waters they drink out of. Give Rex the big gun she saw III holding onto like a healthy child, pried loose from a severed hand. Make the rewards tie into the specific circumstances that follow the narrative--shortcuts make the world seem arbitrary. Keep it real.

This is all just my opinion, so take what you will and toss the rest.

Interesting! I like this version of the playbook quite a bit, and I'm excited to give my thoughts to it.

Right off the bat, I would make the Bolthole a separate section, with its own options. It isn't interesting as a player to see that I HAVE to fill in a little circle. If I have to have it, then let me make options that will flesh it out like a Maestro-D's Establishment, or the Savvyhead's Workshop.

In fact, I'd do away with the practical weapons and lump everything together into Nomad gear. Make the player decide if they really need a gun at all! Maybe it's more exciting to have multiple pieces of cool gear (and I think a lot of the ideas you have there are pretty epic).

As for your moves, I think that scavenger fails to impress. I think that it should be less about finding things that are hi -tek or luxe or whatever, but more about gaining narrative control over what you find. Here's my less than stellar attempt, just to get your gears churning:

Scavenger: when you spend some time searching through remnants
of the old times, roll+sharp.
On a 10+, you find precisely what you were looking for. Tell the MC what it looks like and what it does.
On a 7-9, the MC will ask you what you were looking for, and tell you how what you found is similar.
On a miss, you find trouble.

This gives you a huge say in what you find: the better you are at your job, the more say you have in the object. You might notice this is similar to Pack Rat: Well, pack rat is basically Fucking Thieves, so you can take that as an advance if you want. I'd replace it with something else...Why not look to the Nomad gear?

Here, I've turned remote detonator from gear into a move (again, this is not the best version of what this could be, just an idea I had):

It's a Minefield out there!: When you are being pursued and want to permanently erase your pursuit, roll +sharp to see how well you planned for this. On a 10+, your pursuer takes 3 harm AP from land mines or similar explosives. On a 7-9, your pursuer becomes trapped, slowed, or otherwise incapacitated. On a miss, sure you booby trapped the place, but so long ago you forgot the safe path, and become incapacitated yourself.

Now you've got a move related to making terrain dangerous, but not only to people following you-You've got to be damn sure you don't have a different option.

Spooky also seems a bit strange to me, as a worse version of Sexy and Dangerous. Why not go balls to the walls?

Total Fucking Surrender: When you are backed into a corner, and have no escape, roll +Weird to abandon your instincts to the Psychic Maelstrom.
On a 10+, name a place. You find yourself there, some time later, with no memory of the interim.
On a 7-9, name a person. They come to you, confused and alarmed, without any idea what is happening.
On a miss, the Maelstrom has overtaken you for its own ends, until it decides to release you.

Weird! I have no idea if that's what you were looking for, but it's interesting to me.

If you hate these ideas, feel free to ignore me! If you like anything you heard, feel free to rip it apart and fit it to your vision! Hopefully I've been of at least some use with my strange ideas.

Daniel, don't forget about the Quarantine's +1 Cool move, Combat Veteran! I've always wondered about that one, especially considering how vocal Vincent has been about limiting access to Cool...

I think that this is primarily a storytelling question. The answer why any antagonist is a danger is due to the circumstances that the heroes (or in this case, PCs) are allowed to interact with them. Only introduce a blatantly antagonistic character you want to have stick around when the PCs are incapable of dealing with that threat. Have the dragon meet your gunlugger when she's been captured and is at the dragon's mercy. Or have the dragon have some form of information that the gunlugger needs, so killing her would be a decidedly bad idea. Hell, have the dragon try to recruit him! Why not?

Certainly custom moves are important as well. Give her the inverse of a playbook move, stuff that keeps her living. The Faceless is great for this. Take a look at Pit bull:

Whenever you take a debility, name the person you hold most responsible.
Take +1 ongoing to all rolls versus them, forever.

This is a move designed to make the faceless want to take debilities, by giving him a benefit for doing so. How can we manipulate this to work for our purposes?
How about:

I Can Make it Worth Your While...

Whenever (insert dragon's name here) would die, the killer has the option to instead take +1 ongoing for all Hard, Cool, Hot, or Sharp rolls versus them, forever.

This move gives an enormous incentive for players to keep this character alive. You get to knock this guy about over and over and over again. To be fair, this move facilitates the character becoming weaker over time, but that might be what you want! It sort of reminds me of what Bowser has become in Mario games. He's just less and less of a threat.

There's likely a more elegant move that could work properly, but I think that your best bet is either to only show the dragon when the PCs can't kill him (not that fair, and against the principles if you do it more than once, probably) or create some custom moves or relationships that are less of a barrier for the players, but instead incentivizes them to keep the dragon alive. That seems more interesting to me, personally. Also, don't get too attached to NPCs, like, ever. Because we shall all perish in flames.

Hope my ramblings are of some use! I think the scenario you described was pretty funny, however. Reminded me of the famous sword fighting scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Hey all! Just found out about AW a few weeks back--basically have just been reading about it since!

I've got a question, though. On Page 244, you can find this rule: "When someone uses specialty gear they aren't accustomed to — a non-angel using an angel kit, a non-brainer using brainer gear — it’s reasonable to say that it counts as acting under fire."

Does this mean that there would be two rolls for the player attempting to use the gear? One to act under fire, then one +stock spent to use the Angel kit? If so, how would you narrate that situation? If they get a weak hit on the under fire roll, would you place restrictions on what they can accomplish on their healing roll? What happens on a miss? Can they not even attempt a healing roll now?

I appreciate your input in advance. I've read through a large portion of Barf Forth, and you guys are truly inspiring. I cannot wait to play with my friends!