We use the following house rule and it slows things down a bit.

No XP on a 6-; instead you earn a "karma point". These points may be spent to re-roll the dice (of course you can't use the point you just earned to re-roll that roll).

We just use End of Session and Bonds XP awards.

Quote from: RenoGM on September 15, 2013, 02:25:55 PM

When I first read through Dungeon World I thought that the 7-9 results were going to be the most interesting but I also asked myself "How often are those 3 numbers going to come up?" I was pleasantly surprised to discover that those numbers come up way more than half of the time. Awesome!

Almost like they were statistically more probable... dun dun DUN

Math was never my strong suit!

I'm with you Scrape. When the dice hit the table consequences occur.

I like for the players to always feel that their dice roll causes something to happen, even if it's something bad. I try to avoid a dice roll that results in "nothing happened". For me that's what every other RPG out there does, but Dungeon World is constantly "pushing" things forward. Characters act, dice may be rolled, cool stuff happens!

At our table no one makes a dice roll without a little thought beforehand because there is no "opting out", something is definitely going to happen! Are you prepared for the consequences of your action? If so, roll those bones! If not, you may want to consider a different action.

Ahhhhh... I think I see where I was failing to "pick up what you're putting down".
If I'm following you, the "ugly choice" might be along the lines of: 1) disarm him but suffer damage, or 2) fail to disarm him but suffer no damage. With option #2 being the "opt out", a failure but no real consequence.

I guess why I wasn't following you was because my idea of the "ugly choice" would have probably been along the lines of: 1) you disarm him but suffer damage, or 2) you disarm him but wind up prone at his feet. It just never really occured to me to allow a "simple failure" as an option on a DD 7-9.

Thank you sir. Annother arrow for my quiver of GMing!

Another thing I tend to do is instead of designing whole adventures and plotlines and such (play to find out what happens) I like to design interesting "sets" for things to occur. Think about a cool location and all of the interesting things that could happen there. For example I just finished adding a location like this to my notebook:

Crumbling Cellar on the Waterfront
The old cellar is falling apart and already filled with ankle-deep water.
- Slip and fall [maybe d4 damage]
- Drop something that disappears in the shallow water
- Step into a hole or opening [may be very deep]
- Stray [shot/spell/attack] hits wall; water begins flowing into cellar
- Stray [shot/spell/attack] strikes a rotten wooden support; debris crashes down
- Foot caught [in a crack/under a tile] pinned in place
- Flooding suddenly gets much worse; and faster!

Keep in mind that I wrote this without any thought of when or where I'm going to use it. Just a tool in the toolbox for the time and place that it feels right.

Virtually any "combat maneuver" can easily be handled with Defy Danger. In the game I'm running I think the players do stuff like this even more than Hack & Slash.

Just a few thoughts:
1) Make sure your players read the awesome Beginners Guide pinned on these forums. I have my players read that before reading the core DW book; in fact, two of my better players have never actually opened up Dungeon World!

2) Every player is different in regard to how much creativity they feel comfortable with, or are capable of. This is probably the biggest part of DW that you need to customize for your table. I have two players that love being asked questions and exercising their imaginations and four others that would rather not. So I usually ask "either-or" style questions or, more often than not, I  ask questions requiring a little "less" of the player.
Don't say: "Fighter, tell us about your home village."
Instead say: "Fighter, you grew up in a small trade community on the edge of the Dragon Mountains governed by the Church of Order. When you were a child did you often get in trouble with the monks of the church, or did you conform with their tenants and expectations?"
In the second example you're feeding a lot of creativity to the player, hopefully this inspires his imagination, but ultimately you're just asking for a simple "choose A or B". These kind of front-loaded questions often get a players creative juices flowing more so than asking an open question in a vacuum (the first example).

3)  Making GM Moves may be the most "complex" part of the game for many GM's. You don't want to keep doing the same things over and over. The moves in the rule book are intentionally vague to keep from becoming restraints and hopefully stimulating your own creativity. I don't know how easy to adapt my technique is, but this is how I run things in our game. Basically in my mind's eye I am constantly looking at the scene from a "cinematographer's" view. Where are the characters? What's on the set? Where is the viewer's eye drawn? What's at risk for the heroes? How much "energy" does the scene need? With all these elements swimming around in my head, I perform moves based on "What would look cool and lead to more interesting situations?" Here's a quick example from the other night when the heroes fought a pair of bog trolls (I'll just focus on one of the characters for this example):

GM: "A huge stump hurls toward the group from the far side of the mire, what do you guys do?"
Rogue: "I'm diving for cover!"
GM: "As a reminder you're still in knee-deep water; Defy Danger-Dex."
Rogue: "I leap to the side and move to flank; oh, rolled a 7, what happened?"
GM: "You avoid getting hurt but you're knocked down and the tangled roots of the stump have you pinned. Going to have to roll STR to get free."
Rogue: "That's not good; damn, rolled a 3."
GM: "Ouch. As you struggle you force yourself deeper into the mud. You can't keep your head above the foot-deep water."
Rogue: "I try and take a deep breath before going under. Defy Danger-CON?"
GM: "Sounds good."

In real life if you have ever asked yourself, "How can this getting any worse?", and life showed you how it can get worse; that's a GM move! Think in terms of all the things that can go wrong and that will force a character to deal with something new.
- Its claws slash at your chest as you dodge away, unfortunately the straps to your pack are cut and your equipment tumbles down the ravine
- The barbarian's axe is completely embedded in your wooden shield
- You loose your boot (think Die Hard!)
- The viceroy agrees but the crowd clearly thinks your a whiny d-bag
- You successfully remain hidden, but you're laying next to a nest of angry fire-ants
 
I mainly focus on the environment and the things that make life more "complicated". These things usually inspires fantastic GM moves. I am always picturing in my head elements that would make this scene more "visually" appealing. Watch the final battle scene of The Avengers, it is an exhilarating visual spectacle. The action flows from place to place, character to character, event to event.

4) Pacing can always be a problem. I try and always start things off in the middle of a situation the heroes have to deal with. Sometimes I even start an adventuring "part way in":
GM: "Alright guys, you agreed to rescue the chamberlain's nephew and things went really well tracking the bandits to their fortress and breaking in. As the rogue finishes unlocking the nephew's cell you hear a strange alarm sound and the smell of brimstone in the air!"

These are just a few initial thoughts but I'm sure this community will give you tons of great advice. Welcome to the Dungeon World forums!

Every player is a little different too. I've got a couple that like contributing to the campaign world but I also have a couple that want to experience a world that's more fleshed out.

Either way I really try to define the tone, theme, motif, and style of the campaign before getting player input on the specifics (of course all those things are greatly dependent on my players preferences). I've found that giving the players some broad guidelines, like; dark and grim or swashbuckling adventure, really helps them get on a similar sheet of music.