That is a solution, but I feel the NPC-rich playbooks are the most underused.
I feel there's a solution we're missing here.

Perhaps the lightest option could be "they are overwhelmed, enraged, or terrified by the pain?". Not knocked unconscious or anything, but their behavior definitely changes.

Thank you all so much for your responses!

*snip*

I see your point about AW being communal. Solo RPs always lack that element, by design. They make up for it by being much simpler to setup.

If you want the result of Open Your Brain to be a surprise, maybe try answering the question before looking at randomized pictures, then look at the pictures and then require yourself to come to a different conclusion than the initial one.

I like that! I'll try that next time I'm playing. That, and...

I'll tell you what, give me an example of a situation under which you're opening your brain, and I'll whip out some cards and give you an interpretation to show you how you can make it work in your game.

Well, this is a first. Someone wants me to relate my roleplaying stories. :P

Okay, let's take the story of my Gunlugger, John 2:14. She's in a hardhold in a swamp, it's basically post-apocalyptic Jonestown complete with charismatic cult leader (modelled off Nick Cave, natch) and Christian overtones. Funfact, my first thought for the game was "How about Outlast 2, except good?"

She's just decimated a rival family's gang by herself. They're after her for being in a relationship with a woman - a psychic one, no less. The cult leader is slack on punishing her since she's head of town security (being the biggest badass and has the only gun in town), so the family took matters into their own hands. After failing a seize by force to mop up the survivors, she gets clubbed in the back of the head.

She wakes up crucified (with rope, thank god) in a dank basement across from a woman named Veil holding an axe and wearing nothing but a cloak and about three layers of blood. This is a fairly small hardhold and John has never seen her before. They stare off for a while, saying nothing, before John bolts for the door and Veil bolts too. John manages to lock the door on her but Veil grabs her left arm and chops it off before she can.

So, John is in a dark, labyrinthine basement. A madwoman pounds on the door behind her, her guns are gone, she's missing an arm...
And there's something watching her.

Hopefully that should be enough material for your reading, Munin!

If you're playing on a forum or play-by-post, how do you use 'at the start of the session...'-style moves?

When I think about average denizens, I generally think of that truck gang from The Road, The Wretched (the poor fuckers begging for water) from Mad Max: Fury Road or the children from the ending of the BBC drama Threads (Can't find any good links to that particular scene, but if you need inspiration for a particularly bleak Apocalypse World, give the whole thing a watch).

Like life in Apocalypse World, they are brutal, nasty, and full of surprises. Make them slightly alien. Not unknowable. Just every so often have them react to situations like no sane modern person would.
Example: a Gunlugger PC kills a troublemaker, then watches in horror as a dozen children descend on the poor bastard in a feeding frenzy. After all, he's dead anyway, and that's perfectly good meat.

I don't think how they live is as important; worldbuilding like that is fairly simple once you know the basics of societies. Playing up scarcity and barfing forth apocalyptica are easier to forget and much more important.

Man, thank you all for the great advice on how to handle this. I definitely like the idea of a custom move for turning people's loyalties. Your input shall make the town of Salvation a more interesting place to live... If not a nicer place. :P

Hey, I just started my first game of Apocalypse World. It has a Landscape threat in it, and I'm looking for some clarification on how they work.

The threat in question is the town the players are based in, Salvation. It's a Mirage, with the impulse of enticing and betraying people. I'm thinking the town itself promises to be a place of safety and warmth, but if you settle down there you get fucked over by politics.

However, the moves for landscapes are a little unclear to me. I can understand them being indirect, but I'm not sure how I would present them in the fiction. The 'Present a Guide/Guardian' and 'Open Another Path' confuse me the most; what would that mean in the context of a shantytown divided by cutthroat politics?

Apologies about the radio silence, but I've done some revision and streamlining of the Ditto, based off Daniel and Munin's thoughts. Take a look; hopefully Ditto v2.0 has improved from the last version.

Back in the Golden Age, folks had time to think about stupid crap. Shit like, "What's a human?". That got too hard to ponder, so they asked this thing called a 'computer' to figure it out for them.
While the sky turned black and the firestorms raged, a computer the size of hardhold thought long and hard about what a human was.
In the end, it was boiled down to three rules: a human has to think. A human has to reproduce. A human has to die.
But then the computer had nothing to think about and no-one to give it orders. So it decided for itself: if I follow these rules, can I make a human?
As you know yourself, Ditto, the answer is 'kind of'.

Get these two and one more.
error: entropy
You are succumbing to entropy at a startling rate. At the start of every session, roll+cool.
On a 10+, all systems optimal.
On a 7-9, choose one bug. These are in play until you get repaired.
* Your body will malfunction at an inconvenient time.
* All harm you take is doubled.
* If you refuse an order from anybody, it's acting under fire.
* If it's not a highlighted stat, you can't use any moves that roll using it.
On a miss, the MC chooses two bugs.
If someone wants to repair you, roll+Hx. On a hit, they can operate on you like a Savvyhead making something with the goal of repairing you. On a miss, they just can't figure out what's wrong with you.
You cannot operate on yourself.

c+p: (consciousness)
If you have intimate access to a person, you can copy their brain and place it into a suitable body, creating a robotic clone. Roll+weird.
On a 10+, hold 2.
On a 7-9, hold 1.
Spend your hold one-for-one on the following:
* The soul survives the copying process. Otherwise, they're a 'flat person'; they cannot do anything of their own initiative.
* The mind is intact and healthy. Otherwise, they're prone to delusions and psychosis.
* The body is mobile and functions well. Otherwise, it's immobile and prone to breakdowns.
On a miss, your creation despises you and breaks out of captivity. Tell your MC that it's a mutant - they'll get what you mean.

take_pity.exe
When someone repairs you, they mark experience.

initiate.(grief)
When something you created is destroyed, mark experience.

(set: $everything to 'die')
When you Seize by Force, roll+weird instead of hard. When you make a battle move that calls for hard, you can roll+weird instead.

free.will: overruled
You can control your creations remotely. You use your stats and don't suffer any harm they take; however, while you control them, you are not aware of your surroundings.

return; favor
When you help or interfere with someone who repaired you, what you add to their roll is increased. +3 on a 10+, +2 on a 7-9.

Name
Simon, Sho, Sonny, Hal, Orsina, Caroline, Ash, David, Kyoko, Maria.

Look
Mechanical body, dead body, mix and match body, skeletal body, makeshift body, spiderlike body.
Red eyes, dead eyes, human eyes, glowing eyes, video eyes, no eyes.
Filtered voice, monotone voice, singsong voice, stuttering voice, glitched voice, child's voice.

Stats
Cool -1 Hot =0 Hard +1 Sharp +1 Weird +2
Cool -2 Hot +1 Hard =0 Sharp +2 Weird +2
Cool =0 Hot -2 Hard +2  Sharp +1 Weird +2
Cool +1 Hot -1 Hard =0 Sharp =0 Weird +2

- Get +1cool (max cool+2)
- Get +1hard (max hard+2)
- Get +1hot (max hot+2)
- Get a new Ditto move
- Get a new Ditto move
- Get a vehicle (You detail)
- Get a gang (and Pack Alpha)
- Get a move from another playbook
- Get a move from another playbook
****
— get +1 to any stat (max stat+3)
— retire your character to safety
— create a second character to play
— change your character to a new playbook
— choose 3 basic moves and advance them.
— advance the other 3 basic moves.

Hx:
Ask one of these questions; just one.
* Which one of you has me down as property?
For that character, write Hx+3.

* Who was someone I knew before I became like this?
For that character, write Hx+3.

* Which one of you had a hand in my creation?
For that character, write Hx+3.

For everyone else, write Hx-2.

Ditto Special
When you die, you can do one last move. Treat this move as if you had rolled a 12+ on an advanced move.

Do share your thoughts.