Okay, so! There are two different things I could see you meaning with this and I'm not sure which one is right, so I'll comment on both.

If you're saying to play out the established HX choices (for instance, you've got a Brainer and they say that they've watched someone sleep, so you play out that scene):

I could see this being interesting, but it doesn't feel like it's particularly necessary all the time?

With some things it could be pretty cool, like "they left me bleeding and they did nothing," or "they got me out of some serious shit." I could see the appeal of going through and seeing what, exactly, those situations were like- and it would give the players a better understanding of how their characters fit together (or have done in the past); Definitive things that the other did, rather than knowing "this is what happened in a blank discussion and so my character does not like yours/is grateful to yours/ect." depending on how much detail the PCs themselves come up with; I've had PCs who spend several minutes in-session or time between sessions discussing how their characters knew each other and what happened specifically, just as I've had ones who keep it vague. Note also that there's nothing stopping you from asking questions in these stages as well, if you want to dig into the meat of it a little more! That, in many cases, is probably all that's needed.

For other options it might not be as interesting- "they've slept in my presence" can be interesting in knowing what context, but if one character unknowingly did so (and there's no other real twist or thing to it other than that) then it's probably going to be a bit boring to play out rather than just asking the PCs, "Hey, that's cool, so when did you do this? [Hardholder name], where were you that [Brainer name] could watch you? Or did they sneak in to do so? Did you ever find out?" and so on and so fourth.

Same with the Hocus seeing someone's soul- in a game I've been MCing, our Hocus and Angel decided that the Hocus had seen her soul just passing by.  A kind of "glancing at a crowd, seeing something that stands out strongly" sort of thing, which wouldn't have much basis for roleplay or anywhere to go to play it out. Other times, you could have that particular line be much more interesting- seeing their soul in a less physical way, or being in a situation where they saw who the person really is when in a dire situation. Those could be interesting to play out, depending on specifics.

For that option I could see it being cool, basically, on a case-by-case basis. Note that this would also be complicated by the fact that not all people will have playable scenes, or at least not playable scenes that would be interesting past a base-level of "this happened and these are the circumstances" (which should probably be established before going into the scene in the first place.) This can leave certain PCs out, and become boring for those that don't get any screentime.

If that was your intent I could totally see doing it, but I'd say you should apply it less as "play out all of them" and more as "play out the ones that tug at your interest, specifically" (and of course ask the PCs if they want to do so.)

If you mean scrapping the current HX system altogether to instead throw each PC in a scene together and watching it play out (or using the current HX system and spring-boarding off into a scene with those characters):

This could be alright as long as you know something about the character's histories with each other to begin with, or the PCs can tell you quite plainly how they work together.

Certain characters may be close friends (and would be suited to a scene that gives them opportunity to show how their friendship interactions are, or showing what they do for each other in times of need, ect.) others may only know each other through work (and would therefore not make sense to be shown in a scene outside this area) while others come together only with the presence of other people; Friends-of-friends and all that (so it would not make sense to put them somewhere where they were hanging out by themselves without a reason for it, at least not off the bat.)

I guess in short it depends very highly on the MC's understanding of what the PCs want out of their own relationships (which can be said even for starting up a game in general- always ask plenty of questions), and the PC's ability to even come up with this stuff on their own just based on what little introduction they've had to the other characters (assuming you're scrapping the HX system altogether, which is what I feel like you were implying? I might be reading wrong!)

There are also people who are going to be bored/annoyed with playing out things that don't have to do with the quote-on-quote ""real plot"" (which for some can be explained with "this is setup to the plot," but for others that will not be listened to) so that's something to keep in mind as well, if you're saying you're going to be playing out scenes that happened in the past.

In general I think a lot of it has to do with the particular group of players that you have; The HX assigning as it is now is very helpful to get things started, though, so I wouldn't recommend scrapping it completely (particularly for first-time players.)

A last note I would give is that there's not much stopping you from going through HX as normal and then doing this already- most starting sessions I see have that sort of feel to them. "Let's give a chance for each character to interact one-on-one" as the first session is often a well-used thing, especially because it makes an easy setup for things to come (whereas playing out past scenarios that may have very well happened years ago may not do much for you heading forward other than saying "hey, that's cool.")

I think that, in short (regardless of what method you're using) you should probably do this if you feel that it'll add something to your game, without taking away anything else. I'd probably go case-by-case instead of making a mechanic out of it, unless you really think it'll improve yours and your player's experiences.

That's all my thoughts on it, anyway! I hope at least one of those two inturpritations of what you were saying was correct, but if I was reading wrong feel free to tell me.

So I had an idea for a character (I'm thinking Radiohead for the name) whose "thing" is making music from old scraps of recordings from the golden age, with chunks of the maelstrom ingrained in it; He's found a way to record vague sounds from the maelstrom, and incorporate it into his music. The maelstrom in the game he's going to be for is all about feeling and emotion; making people feel and learning from emotions. So he basically uses the sounds as a "booster for nostalgia;" something that evokes certain feelings of the past based on the sound presented.

I wanted the sounds to be a direct link to the maelstrom, where your weird effects how much you're effected. But in this case being TOO weird would cause it to be disorienting, dizzying, a direct link to opening your brain to a bad time (stand mesmerized and literally transported to whatever memory you're getting feelings from, maybe?) I figure non-weird folks don't have much reaction to most of it, because they're not tuned to the psychic maelstrom.

I kind of switched around the bad being at the very top because I wanted it to be a bit rarer/more likely for people who have high weird? The idea was that the average Apocalypse World goer is weird enough to get a little something-something from it, but most people are not quite weird enough to have any really bad experiences (usually.)

So here's the move, I've constructed it from least to most reaction just because that seems to make more sense to me when I'm reading it:

When you hear one of Radiohead's tracks (that you've never heard before), roll+weird. On a miss, it's just normal music. As normal as weird cut-up radio sounds can be, anyway. On a 7-9, the music brings up feelings; That gnawing of nostalgia at your gut. Feelings of a time long past, that you can't quite put your finger on. On a 10+, you get actual, literal sensations from that memory. Fingers on skin, the sound of someone's laugh in the music, words whispered from someone long dead and well-missed, the first sour taste of not-quite-ripened fruit you ever got to try, a shot in your gut and the smell of smoke filling your lungs. Whatever the most memorable moments from that memory, you feel them, hear them, taste them, smell them. On a 12+, you're overcome with the feeling of sickness. You know something bad's going to happen, if you stick around. You have two choices: Get out of there, right now, or treat it like you opened your brain and failed the roll.

Any feedback on this move? Does it feel awkward/weird or do you think it'd work out well enough? The only thing I'm a bit wary of is that the players might be confused about very high = bad in this case, like with the harm move, but I'd guess it'd be easy enough to explain.

Update: We just played a session for the first time since I made this thread! (Mostly because mom was sick and couldn't play for a few weeks.) All this advice really helped!

Grey, of course, had no qualms about leaving as soon as someone came begging for help, and has decided (a little bit surprisingly, actually) to not tell anyone why they're going just because Natascha asked her not to. This includes leaving her cousin (Orchid, another PC) out of the loop and... apparently traveling away from the holding while things are being stolen and there's word of people with big guns doing suspicious things out in the forest, which she's going to be heading directly into.

It actually surprised me that she had such little problem with packing up shop to help one person, and although she has an infirmary with some helpers, it's still no secret that she is The Angel and generally the most well-versed in medical things. Not to mention that she's taking one of her assistants with her, which means there's... one medic left in the holding?? Technically two, but one of them is part of Omosho's cult and only really has a basic understanding of herbs and how to help people when they've got little problems, not how to stop people from fucking dying. (And, funnily enough for me, she's happening to leave the one assistant that has a morphine addiction with some of her supplies, alone. THAT'S going to be interesting when she gets back, anyhow.)

It's really interesting, but I'm also not entirely sure how I'm going to juggle all the horrible things that should come about from all of this short-sighted decision-making! And I don't know if it would be in bad taste to punish her for taking up the situation that I presented her with, even if she was entirely capable of denying it or trying to think out a better way of doing things.

By "unproductive," I mostly mean characters who seem to not do anything of interest when not explicitly sent out to help a different PC.

I'm having a lot of trouble, specifically, with my mom's character Grey- an Angel. She has the move Healing Hands as well as a workshop like a savveyhead's. And the thing is that she's super interesting when she's interacting with the other PCs and helping them with their problems! But, as it happens, when I throw anything her way that is supposed to be "all Grey" (because at this point in play, both the other two PCs- the Hardholder Orchid and the Hocus Omosho- are off doing their own things) she just kind of... Pawns it off to someone else.

A good example of this is a character in the holding, Clint, who has a busted arm and needs a prosthetic piece to get back to his normal every-day life. (Or at least as close to it as he can get.) I gave her a list of things she'd need to make it (per the workshop) and she immediately went to seek out Omosho to go out and find things for her (without accompanying him on the search, although that has some reasoning behind it.)

Since then I've tried throwing several other characters and scenarios that she could help with outside of the other PCs, who are doing things that she either has chosen not to help with or that they don't feel they need her help with. But each one gets batted away, usually with a statement of "Well, I don't want to pry into their lives, so I won't concern myself with it."

I'm at a loss for what to do, and whether I am at fault for it or not. Either way it's getting frustrating for me and for her- on my part for me trying and failing time and time again to get her into something interesting, and on her part for feeling her character has nothing of worth to do.

Has anyone else played with characters like this? Is there any good way to get them into the action without having to shove them into other PC's business "just because?" Or is that exactly what I should be doing?

Thanks preemptively for any responses!

Yeah, you've definitely got a point! I think that why I went with the "random rolls" is that my group is still kind of stuck thinking it should all be random. Particularly my mom, who has already complained it's not fair that I get to make "as hard a move as I like" when they give me an opportunity (such as missing a roll.)

I think maybe I'll do something along the lines of randomly pulling 3-5 from the table (to appease the "we need it to be random!" comments she keeps making) and decide from those, or otherwise figure it out along the way. I think I might also make little tweaks to the effects as I pull them, based on the situation and the state of the maelstrom and all that cool stuff. Maybe make the things on the table a guideline to follow, which I can tweak and change to fit my and the maelstrom's agenda. I actually quite like that idea, now that I think about it- a decent compromise between the ideal I have and my mom's want for everything to be "random."

I might even drop the randomness altogether later, if I deem it appropriate and the players are alright with it, too.

Anyway, thank you so much for your response! It gives me a lot to think about and good ways to change things for the better, not to mention cool insight and ideas for the maelstrom itself!

Hey, thanks for the responses! This makes my MCing a lot easier, then, when trying to figure out who should be where. We should be able to play again within the next few days! So that'll be fun.