Augury is a really cool peripheral move, which has been used for all kinds of manipulation and use of the maelstrom in my games. It's been my go-to for a lot of this kind of thing.

Remember that it's prescriptive as well as descriptive. If you get a gang from an improvement, adjust the fiction to say that you have a gang. This will involve the MC asking questions, like with everything. And you'll find out what happens there.

If you're going out to treat with some savage biker nomads, "maybe they'll become your gang," is a thing regardless of you having an advance available, right? Because maybe you do butter them up and they agree to follow you for the rewards you promise, or you kill their leader and become the new one. You don't need an advance for that, yeah? Not saying you're doing this, but you need to be careful that you don't actually end up plotting ahead that they will win over the savage biker nomads.

That's interesting, I guess I assumed it was standard and have been playing that way. It's actually led to some minor issues with one of my players who seems wary of having his Maestro'd change in a meaningful way. He's picked up every advance except change playbooks or retire, and the Maesto'd just sort of - hangs? He doesn't have a lot of things he chases after anymore. He's relatively comfortable compared to other PCs, and I feel a bit like the character has retired to safety and the player doesn't know it yet. He is also fairly immune to being enticed by offers of experience.

I suppose it's partly my fault, but the guy is pretty much satisfied as long as his establishment is secure, and I've been over threatening the establishment a million ways.

So I guess consider the fact that you could possibly have some PCs sort of stall out if you play this way, as I have. If I knew what I were doing ahead of time, I probably would have done something to head off the issue.

Don't get too caught up in the moves list to be honest. If you're up and you have an idea that is just solid gold, an idea that pushes forward the action in an interesting way, you don't have to verify it fits on the list of MC moves. It probably does, just run with it.

The list of moves is most useful when you're not sure what to do. Skim the list, find a move that makes you excited and flows with the fiction, and bounce back in with it.

That makes sense in terms of driving play forward rather than circling the drain, so to speak. I think this has really turned me on to the value of the countdown in terms of giving the threat teeth.