The way it should work (I'm not super sure how it does work) is that the rules require the Keeper to know (and therefore the players to say) exactly how the monster is injured. The harm done, what the character is doing, specifically, and the kind of monster they're fighting all inform what moves the Keeper chooses for the monster's wounds.

You keep doing 2-harm with your handgun, and the Keeper can keep saying "You blow another hole through the Vampire, but it doesn't seem to care" But if you describe your character swinging for the neck with your 4-harm axe, and you roll 10+, the Keeper, making the world seem real, needs to describe something quite different.

Apocalypse World does have a cooperative element in creating the setting, but it's not an equal relationship around the table. The players don't get to say what's real in the world except as it relates to a question the MC has asked them, yeah? Or as it relates to their character.

It would be weird if a player was all like "There's a big holding just over the hill from here, where they've got lots of water"

Usually it would be like

"Hey, where are we gonna get water from, is there anywhere around here?" and the MC says "I don't know, <i>is</i> there anywhere around here?"

and they reply

"Oh yeah, how about there's a big holding with lots of water over the next hill?"

and the MC gets their fingerprints all over it, and says

"Yeah, absolutely. It's called "Watertown" and it's survived this long because it's water-rich, and has a fuck-off big gang defending it, with big walls and fixed guns on the walls, and ruthless security. There's a dude hung by his neck off one of the walls, and a sign on him which says 'WORTA FEEF'."

So it's collaborative but not equally collaborative.

Secrets: Secrets are plans that haven't come to fruition yet. Everyone should make plans but be prepared to change them.

As MC, you can do fun things with custom moves and secrets, like have everyone roll and choose from a list at the same time, without knowing what the others have chosen.

Rolling Go Aggro and Manipulate together makes sense, I think. What are they "sucking up" though, when they force your hand?

By "last bit" I meant the bit about Operatives just winning against all but the best opposition.

Maybe you could check out Ghost Opera? I'm thinking about a hierarchy that tells you who is at an advantage in a fight, or if you're evenly matched. I did a similar thing in Dungeonfuckers.

Something like:

Are you outnumbered more than 3 to 1?
Are you caught off guard, ambushed, or compromised?
Are they highly-trained, specially equipped, or very well prepared?

If you answered no to all questions above, you succeed as if you'd rolled a 10+. Otherwise, roll the dice.

Oh! There should definitely be a "It's worse than you thought" move for wounds. So you want to get them checked out as soon as possible.

Ideally, the rules are compelling enough, and the expectation is powerfull enough, that if you don't tell the player their character is a paraplegic now, they'll say "hey! why aren't you following the rules?"

That's maybe not an easy place to get to though, and I don't know if these rules create that expectation well enough.

One of the things I've noticed about the harm rules is that, while they're functional and do what they're designed to do, they're quite different from the rest of the game's rules, in that they're quite abstract and "mechanics first" rather than being specific and "fiction first".

One of the effects of this is that even when a character has taken a bunch of harm, it's quite easy to forget about that in practice, and have them walking around chatting and fighting and chilling out like they're just fine.

There's also the whole thing with the harm move where I always forget about it.

So I made some different rules. They need some work though! Please help me! I originally made them for my dungeon exploration/alien sex game "Dungeonfuckers", so I know they work more or less, but I'm not sure the effect they'll have in Apocalypse World.

Here's the pdf: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1164498/Blood%20and%20Guts.pdf

The basic idea is that when you get injured, the MC chooses an injury for you from a list. The injury changes our expectations of what the character is capable of, and what may require an "Acting Under Fire" roll. The injury also acts as a Threat, with a set of moves the MC can make for the move.

Let me know what you think!