I haven't seen it in the forums and thought I would see what people's thoughts/experiences were in this regard. I've tried Dungeon World a few times now and haven't shared the moves with the players as handouts. I showed them briefly what a move looks like and gave them an overview of some types of moves, but again, did not give the handouts.

Just by way of explanation, I've been gaming for 30+ years and one of the best things about Dungeon World that I like is how open-ended it is. I understand you conceivably could do this with any game, but it seems to work particularly well with Dungeon World. By not having a sheet of moves in front of each player meant that instead of only considering what they could do within the context of moves, they were told they could do whatever they conceivably/realistically thought their character could do in the given situation.

As a result, we had a very free-flowing game and as GM I had a copy of the moves in front of me on my GM screen and would ask for rolls when appropriate and advise as to the results according to the appropriate move, all without the players having to know any of it.

It would seem to go with the "Never speak the name of your move" but isn't directly addressed. I'm wondering why this approach isn't more common?

As feedback from players, they found the freedom a little overwhelming at first as they're used to more traditional games, but quickly found their groove and really enjoyed not being restricted by rules or having the rules interfere with the game the way they so often do with games that require building a dice pool or using a particular set of rules.

I can see how some might object to it as being hoarding of information, but if they asked for any of the information I would provide it. Not having the sheet of moves in front of them seemed quite freeing.