Alpha Hack is a partial Apocalypse World hack of James Ward's Metamorphosis Alpha, the game which also spawned Gamma World. I recommend buying James' game here:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/metamorphosis-alpha/1647436?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1

I made this hack because I'm fascinated with Metamorphosis Alpha. I thought the game would be easier for me and my group to play with if we had an Apocalypse World style frame for it. Consequently, the moves are currently very stripped down. I hope to build them up a bit over time.

The rules for Alpha Hack are here:
http://planet-thirteen.com/AlphaHack.pdf

In Metamorphosis Alpha you play humans, mutant humans, and mutant animals on a vast interstellar generation ship gone wrong. The crew is long dead and the inhabitants no longer even know they are on a space ship. Extensive biomes and creature samples brought from Earth have mutated into bizarre forms.

We've found the costs to be interesting in our game so far too. The bard has promised to sing the praises of the priest hireling, keeping him happy (although the players had to do all the work while he gets the glory). Money, on the other hand, is hard to come by (so much so that the party is already adventuring for rent money as it is).*

I think DW is going to play very differently with different groups, and that's a good thing. The fact that the design is starting to underline different assumptions about what dungeon delving is says good things about the design I think.

* I hope I get to play my "When Grik comes to collect for the rent and you can't pay" move.

What happens when the paladin lays on hands and rolls a 2? What hard move are you making?

Normally making more dice rolls in DW, even if the rolls are generating XP, isn't a big deal, because more rolls means creating more interesting and troubling situations for the PCs. That said, Lay on Hands has no downside and no particular DM input on a 7-9, unlike say a basic move.

An interesting fix might be:
10+ Choose 2 (you can choose the same twice)
- The target is healed of damage equal to your level
- The target is cured of a disease of your level or lower

7-9 Choose:
- One of the above
- Choose 2, but your god takes notice of you and the DM decides what they think.
 

Interestingly enough, this has come up in our game now as well. It's no game breaker, but certainly a potential annoyance. I'm going to see how the workardounds suggested here help.

Another thought here and something we do in our game from time to time:

"damage" can also be an abstract concept, like "danger". So in this case, the halflings "damage" could be hacking the enemy to bits, but it could also be forcing them to hesitate, stand down, or fall into confusion.

So, for example, one could imagine a halfling "taking a stand" to cow a single charging goblin into abandoning his charge. Stretch that to "all enemies" thanks to the effect of rolling a 10+, and you have one brave halfling cowing an entire attacking platoon, which is also cool.

I also heartily endorse just hacking them to bits too. That's cool D&D stuff right there.

Yeah, the first rule of Apocalypse World "to do it, do it" definitely applies!

OK, I'm just now arriving (late) to this thread. I love all these ideas. I don't have much of a method to how I handle hirelings myself. And I don't think there is any one way to handle hirelings that will satisfy the OD&D aesthetic completely. All the early D&D editions were silent/confusing/unhelpful regarding hirelings, and as a result we've got decades of divergent traditions on how to handle hirelings.

That said, all the stuff about costs, missions, and so on sounds pretty fabulous. I'd love to have those tools in my Dungeon World/ApocD&D game.

I think what's probably called for is some thought about how the hireling rules support the principles of the game, or perhaps reveal new potential principles that we hadn’t thought about before.

Sage's game has "Leave blanks" and "describe everyone" as principles. Gangs are a spectacular tool to achieve just this. A gang is just a blank that the character is directly tied to, and that is full of characters just waiting for the change to step forward and be described. So when the PC orders his un-paid troop of hirelings into the Dragon's Den and rolls a 7-9 on some move, that's when a particular hirelings steps forwards and says something like, "uh, thing is boss, my names Lucio, and I kind of speak for the rest, and we've been thinking..." Gangs are my single favorite thing in Apocalypse World, by the way, both as a player and MC, for this very reason.

"Describe everyone": I think this also means that specialists have names and goals and personalities. This can be super-super simple (leave blanks); in fact simpler is better, I think.

Making the world real is a very important principle here. It means making the hirelings reasonable people. Asking them to do what's reasonable on a dungeon-delving expedition is normal. Asking them to take particularly crazy risks is a move of some sort.

"Be a fan of the characters": as I see it, this principle means that hirelings are not there to do things FOR the PCs, but rather a way for the PCs to do more interesting stuff. This means that hirelings should supplement or modify what the PCs can do, but not do things for them. So you might use your hirelings as a weapon to hack and slash, or you might order them to unite and fight for you. So a hireling should never be framed as an extra move the player has access to, though it might be a move that they use when they want the NPC to do something for them, or to help them. This is just like the moves to make your gang do stuff in Apocalypse World.

Having prices attached to hirelings sounds great! Apocalypse World says "make them pay." This is the way to do it.

Also, hirelings are resources to be consumed! Dwindling resources are a big part of the OD&D aesthetic. Not only do hirelings get killed off, but they run out of spells, get hungry, and so on. "Use their resources" is one of Sage's moves, and here's where hirelings make it powerful.

On both of these fronts, hirelings are something that let the PCs go deeper into the dungeon and survive longer than they would otherwise. This is a good thing.

Looking at hirelings through crosshairs (if your game has that princple) is pretty obvious. Killing a hireling as your move as the DM is powerful. On the one hand, the PCs are relieved that they were not the target. On the other hand, Rembrant just got flayed alive by a nightgaunt right before their eyes! Thos moments are golden, and also a great time for the DM to be evil.

When I use hirelings in ApocD&D, I follow a few simple rules of thumb.
- Each hireling has a simple personality. I use random and generators I've grabbed from the Web.
- I add needs, missions, moods, and so on as the DM principles demand and when I make my move as a result of a failed roll (especially if it’s a roll to order hirelings)
- Unless my principles or moves dictate otherwise, the hirelings do what they're told, within reason.
- Hirelings are always 1 level below PC level (at least), and level up when the PC levels up. I allow hirelings to do 1 class-appropriate thing per day per their level (like a cleric healing or blessing).