Paul T has given you the best advice! "The best thing to do when you're not sure what your move should be is to ask provocative questions."

But also, don't worry too hard about breaking free from orthodox GMing and worrying about which move to make. It may well be that whatever you would have said as an "orthodox" GM is a perfectly valid MC move. MCing AW is probably not as different from what you usually do as you're worried it might be! Really, all the prep is just thinking up long lists of things that might go wrong or get complicated for the PCs so that when you have that moment of wondering what to say you've got a lot of material to choose from.

Honestly though, and enormously, any time you feel like you don't have a good idea what you're meant to say is a golden opportunity to ask a question.

Well. Sort of. There's still the often skipped question of how a PC reads another person. I would have thought it was perfectly within the intent of the move for a Read a person - "What do you intend to do?" to be answered: "His eyes narrow and you can see his hand twitch as he starts going for his gun."

What's going on in the fiction that has caused this situation to crop up? It may be that if your gang has 2 armour then riot shields is a part of their normal kit, it doesn't need extra mechanics. It may be that a PC has pulled a car door of its hinges and is trying to shield themselves from a rain of molotov cocktails. In which case, it's probably acting under fire. I don't think you need a general rule, I think you just need to respond to the needs of the fiction.

Step back. Ask yourself what love letters are for.

Love letters create interesting and charged situations. As such, the Battlebabe letter isn't bad because it's mean on the Battlebabe, (though a hard roll?) it's bad because unless they roll a 7-9 and get a prisoner then you've mostly resolved the situation within the letter.

Do you see what I mean? Seems to me that having a prisoner is the most interesting outcome, so I'd probably be looking at something like.

You get jumped settling in to your new crib. roll+cool.

On a hit, nice, you got yourself a prisoner. On a 10+ choose one. On a 7-9 choose two.

- you eat 2 harm in the process
- you aren't exactly gentle with them. They're going to need medical attention before they come round.
- someone is going to have to take a long look at you custom gun before it fires straight again.

(that last option feels a bit out there. You can probably think of something more relevant.)

On a miss, you drive them off. But not before they make you eat 2 harm of pain.

That list? Is amazing. And after seeing how a tepid start can make the campaign list along I fully endorse making these things overt and asking questions and poking players until you're satisfied.

There have been times when, as MC, I've been frustrated that all I have are Threats and Fronts, when I've needed some other techniques to tie people together. And it's usually been when I just didn't set things up right, where some characters just haven't had adequate amounts of interesting stuff coming there way.

"Now the guy pulls his own pistol and the play at the table breaks down."

Interestingly, this is where your description of the fiction breaks down. The interloper pulls a pistol, his face is half bashed in, he's been shot several times with 9mm rounds, but he's inside Bob's guard! Bob can't get the hunting rifle pointed at him, and the interloper is trying to press the gun right up against the open armpit of Bob's armour and blow his chest out.

What does Bob do in response? You can't tell what move it is if you don't have a really clear idea of what Bob is doing.

Isn't Brett still handing out his Faceless playbook for posting a picture of yourself in a mask? And there were some threads on Storygames for getting playbooks for coming up with cool custom moves, if I remember rightly.

The former was happening here, http://story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=13879&page=1#Item_18, but I can't see the thread right now so it may have gone cold.