That was actually part of the problem: once it became apparent that everything was disposable, then... everything became disposable.

Maintaining the tension of keeping NPC important yet completely expendable is a tough lift. For us, once it was clear that NPCs (and gear, and just about anything) could be eliminated by an endless number of methods, it became difficult to ascribe any weight to them. No one mourns toilet paper. The only schemes that mattered were our own, since NPCs were just there to impart pathos and import rather than able to actually meaningfully affect the story.

That's actually a large part of their expendability: they have no mechanical role in the system other than being there to try to marginally fuck with you - say shit, do shit, whatever - but as they can't effectively roll dice against you, they just push you to the limit and force you to make the roll... at +3 or more. Their large and obvious divorce from the mechanics of action resolution naturally divorces them from heavy PC consideration. In some sense the game plays like a superhero game, in that most folk you encounter provide only noise and background, and only supervillians - Fronts - really can do anything meaningful. Toss in the post-apocalypse despair and it's little wonder to me why I marauded through the game like the Punisher.

We weren't antisocial: we were effective. With Sharps at +3 (or greater) and Hards at +3 (or greater), it gets pretty trivial to find out who your enemies are and then eliminate them. Apocalypse World's mechanics encourage some seriously easy mind person reading.

I mean, why pillage farmers when you can make a better world with, say, a windmill powered by hope, and then convince those farmers to join up with you because you basically can't lose gang fights, are being nice, and are devastatingly effective at eliminating threats the moment they're detected? This wasn't about HAHA NO ONE CAN STOP US KICK THAT PUPPY FOR FUN, it was more, "hey with a few dierolls we know more than everything we care to about our opposition and then with a few more we can eliminate them and a few more by the Angel and Savvyhead we can invent all kinds of mechanical and biological solutions to resolve the immediate post-apocalypse-ness in this neck of the woods".

I mean, the disease cure was brutal and effective - eliminate the sick, heal the well. So was eliminating the raiding gangs and using the power vacuum to insert our own gang as armed transport and trade facilitators. So was a lot of other "find evil, shoot it in the face" sort of solutions.

If anything, the "realness" made things trivial; it seemed only contrived crapsack grimdarkness would keep the challenge coming. The AW mechanics support some pretty easy rides to glory: playing it real made the PCs' jobs easier.

Grim, considering the game is now six sessions in, and difficulty as a generic concern was eliminated at least one, probably two sessions ago. I was under the impression that the game's lifespan would be longer.

As a character in that game with +3 Hard able to perform as any stat for any basic test other than Sharp (which the character has at +3) and Hot, well... yeah.

Not only that, but having a Savvyhead's Oftener Right to call on, with the Quarantine's Need to Know, most every test is made at +5.

As a Touchstone, I can just straight-up nominate a character to disarm/disable/kill. So, that gang? It's a weapon belonging to another character. I can disarm it. If need be I can kill the enemy gang leader.

I mean, sure, they have to be in range. That's not really a big deal, especially if I get to burn two holds on that Indomitable test and 1, cover range with a machete in hand and then 2, disarm/disable/kill.

There's little need to read a sitch or person, or manipulate or seduce them if you're going to just steamroll through whatever's in front of you; maybe ask a few NPCs for their advice on the way to maybe pick up another +1 if you think you need it (a roll using +3 Hard, +1 Need to Know means only a roll of 2 fails) and combat becomes trivial. Reading is interesting in that it gives you insight into other entity's motivations, but being able to trivialize them is a little deflating for a MC.

I know that stacking enemies - namely, overwhelming Indomitable with multiple, dangerous foes (perhaps even necessitating a "What's the nearest escape route" Sharp test at +3) is an answer, but when a character is otherwise acting pretty low-key until the shit hits the fan that comes off as a "rocks fall, everybody dies" kind of response.

I feel for the MC. I do. There are a few contrived situations where perhaps "rocks fall" is a congruous approach. But the larger trouble is that challenges don't scale, and that trouble remains.

An approach much like gang-gang warfare would be a good hack, where Level or some other generic measure of awesomeness beyond stats can be used. A Level X character facing a Level Y challenge is a net mod of +(X-Y) to the final roll. It's a simple mechanic, easily understood, and only lacking a measure of X and Y... but given AW's "fuck it" approach to mechanics, I imagine no one would be particularly distraught to apply Level (or Magnificence, or Animus, or whatever one would want to title it) as an advance, have it require all stats at -2 or greater, cost a typical XP advance, AND lower all stats by -1 when taken (as it effectively adds +1 to all stat tests), and go off on your merry way.

I mean, some benchmark Level (or Difficulty, or Challenge, or what-have-you) should be defined for every basic test such that an MC would have a decent guideline to judge test parameters (namely its Difficulty) according to examples (ie., reading a lover's person is Difficulty -2, reading a stranger's person is Difficulty 0, reading a shadowy figure in interacted with within the maelstrom who may or may not actually exist as a complete persona is Difficulty 3).

Right now, "fuck the PCs up their weak stat" is not only inadequate and contrived, it's not addressing the underlying issue of difficulty not scaling. There can be a better solution, and I'd encourage other MCs with difficulty issues to examine the idea of Level/Difficulty.