I have a group that's about 5 sessions into a game - I'm the only one who's played Apocalypse World before, but things are going very well. Everyone's taken to the game, everyone's having a blast, and everyone's understanding the mechanics and enjoying all of the interesting things they lead to.

The one sticking point is the Battlebabe sex move.

It's very evocative when you read the playbook - it really helps you to understand who the Battlebabe is - and I can see how it pushes people to think about sex and relationships from a purely freeform, character/plot perspective: the sex moves never push the Battlebabe to say yes or no to sex.

But in practice it doesn't seem to be working very well. For one, there's no way any of the players would turn down sex between characters to avoid triggering the other character's sex move anyway - if anything they're looking forward to the moves, to seeing what they do, what they tell them, how they change things. I've heard people say that it opens up further opportunities for the Battlebabe to seduce people since they're not facing negative consequences, but (a) seducing people into sex isn't as incentivized when it doesn't apply a sex move of your own and (b) again, none of the players were going to avoid seducing each other for fear of one another's sex moves anyway. Admittedly, this might be because none of the other playbooks in our game (Gunlugger, Driver, Maestro D', News) have particularly one-sided sex moves for the Battlebabe to worry about, but either way that's the situation.

So when characters have sex and it triggers the special moves, all of the players look to the special moves excitedly. They read off the interesting thing that happens. The Gunlugger reads off his move and starts deciding whether he's going to give his partner the bonus and what that means. And then the Battlebabe says "Oh, sorry, nope. Nothing happens.". And all the excitement over triggering the special moves just evaporates into disappointment. It's even worse with the Maestro D' since they already don't have a move that triggers during sex and nothing special happens when they hook the Battlebabe up either.

One of the consequences has been that the other players' characters just aren't seeking out the Battlebabe. There's no incentive. The wild, sexy-as-death character is functionally-speaking the least attractive to the other players. The mechanics certainly aren't pushing players to "mistake looking at them for falling in love". The Battlebabe doesn't get much out of it either and, socially, I think the player is avoiding sex in the game because it just feels bad to get people excited about engaging their playbook's special move only to negate it (I think this because the player has told me exactly this).

It seems especially obtrusive when virtually everything else in Apocalypse World goes so far out of its way to avoid things that simply cancel other things out. A partial hit is still a hit and things keep going. A miss doesn't stop the action - you never say "You missed the shot? Okay, what do you want to do now?" - the MC rules exist in part to prevent exactly this kind of thing where one mechanic would make something happen and another's only function is to make it not happen, leaving you right back where you started. And I get that the Battlebabe exists in part to "break the rules" (or at least expectations generated by the other rules), but this one particular mechanic seems to be souring people every single time it's come up in the game.

So I have three specific questions:

1. Is there something I'm missing about the battlebabe sex move that would ameliorate these specific concerns and maybe get the players more engaged and less discouraged by the mechanic (especially the Battlebabe)? (I say "these specific concerns" to emphasize that it isn't very helpful, for instance, to just say "It means the player will never be tempted to say no to avoid the negative repercussions of other players' special moves!", since the players don't seem to be worrying at all about avoiding each other's sex moves anyway.)

2. Does anyone have any decent alternatives? I searched here and on google and the only one I could find was "The Battlebabe chooses what sex means to them, so they can choose any sex move from any playbook.". I'm not really very fond of that - even though we don't have a Skinner in the current game, it seems like it steps on that playbook's toes and makes sex profoundly stronger, playing a very different role that doesn't really fit the Battlebabe. I'm wondering if other people have used other alternatives.

3. What about Battlebabes acting as sexual mirrors? Something like: "If you and another character have sex, make their special move as though you had their playbook (instead of them making it). If the effects of the special move are unchanged (i.e., if the special move was reciprocal), only one person experiences the effects - your choice." The Skinner thinks they're gaining some control over the Battlebabe, but the Battlebabe is really gaining control over them. When the Driver fucks a Battlebabe, they're so cool that the Battlebabe might have to prove it was no big deal. The Hardholder is used to being the one who gives people things, so they're shocked when the Battlebabe gives them something. The Hocus and the Battlebabe don't get entangled like usual - the relationship is only one way and it's whatever way the Battlebabe wants it to be. The News is used to asking for information and offering it in equal parts, but the Battlebabe either offers information without asking (after all, she doesn't really care what your deal is) or asks without offering (after all, her business is none of yours). Sex with a Battlebabe is never what you expect. The Battlebabe upends every relationship.