Yes, both named characters were NPC's.

For one, I am happy to see concepts such as love and beauty in gaming, even (or especially) in Apocalypse World.  Nice moment, thanks for sharing the story.

Let's say I have a shotgun.  Let's say some random NPC doesn't.  He has no armor, either.  I chase him into a shed, wanting to take him hostage.  Guns are out, there've been some shots fired, we're definitely out of Go Aggro territory and into Seize by Force territory.

Say I want to Seize this sucker.  I don't want to kill him, though.  What's the deal?  I mean, there's no "deal little harm" option.  I can take the "Take definite hold" option and the "Frighten or Dismay or Whatever" option but he's still taken 3 harm, BLAM!, and is pretty much toast.

How, in the midst of a battle, can I get my hands on this slippery little jerk?

Great discussion and I love how may different views there are of this. Must be a lot of subtly different MC styles out there.

Apocalypse world lets you do just about anything you'd conceivably do in this situation "Make apocalypse world seem real"

1) Threaten him... come with me quietly or I'll blow your head off! Could be going aggro, you have a moment alone in the shed as opposed to out in open battle, or could be manipulating with the leverage being violence (in which case you don't have to pull the trigger) Just here the victim has the choice in the matter.
2) Literally go up and grab him violently. I think this is Seizing by Force with your hands. You hit and take the definite hold option with additional harm if you want to rough him up some, he may hit you back but you've already got him unarmed as you said so worst thing he's going to lay a hand on you. Victim has no choice in this one, you're taking him.
3) Beat the crap out of him and take what's left. This would be again Seizing by force (or going aggro if the MC rules he's not defending himself) and just injure him to the point of non-resistance. Could do this with your hands or gun stock, but I'd allow a non-immediately-lethal shotgun injury, say to the hand or foot or whatever (Anyone see the first few minutes of robocop?) But if you blow that roll you're probably gonna kill him. (MC Move : Trade harm)
4) Hell, no move necessary here. You have a shotgun, guy's in a shed with no armor and no weapon to speak of... fuck him he's grabbed and at your mercy, who's this NPC to me? Crosshairs baby.
5) Something else: Yeah there's a ton of good ways to resolve the situation, none of them are wrong I think, just what fits the flavor of your game and the situation. Just tell the MC what you DO and she'll figure out what that means mechanically, yes?

Hi, quick question.
Is it ok to post (links to) PDF's and other materials we've made for AW or other games? For instance I may want to create a faceless playbook for all to use, is that cool?  Stuff like that.

Is anyone using these?  We tried them tonight in my game and they were a bit baffling really.  I think the situation didn't quite call for them (Too few people) but we all agreed we wanted to give them a try.

Anyone have some wisdom or AP examples of them in use?

Thank much!

I'm just getting to the same situation in my game here

Wow, Dionysus.  That's a lot to look at, you've done some good work.
i like how you've adapted the fronts and threats to individuals and their fears or motivations for the horror genre, makes a lot of sense and is probably extremely helpful with a mystery-based story where remembering and being consistent in detail is so important.

Someone may have suggested this but maybe come up with some different "scarcity" categories which are genre specific to your setting/game. You can categorize threats by what kind of terrible horror they represent "Human Cruelty", "Despair", "Otherworldly Terror", etc.

I'll thin some more about it and post more if I come up with anything.

(for some reason, this is my least favorite custom move, thoughts?)

Hey Judd thanks for sharing your work. Just my .02 so take with a grain of salt.

You're right, the move is a bit bland. Probably it really doesn't do anything a simple hard move won't let you do. Make the pc's act under fire to secure passage over the bridge (fire being it's a dangerous, heavily patrolled place) and a failure lets you make a hard move (e.g. some thugs attack, a squid shows, etc.) A lot of custom moves are like that actually, but making moves out of things like this lets the players have some narrative control and my players so far really like stuff like that.

Other problem I have it it's so specific. Is that ferry guy going to show up every time?  Are they going to end up fighting dozens of river squid in the campaign? I don't think squid #2 will be very fun to encounter.

However I like custom moves, they're fun! If you want a custom move for the river I think the problem with this one is that it doesn't give the players any choices as to HOW to cross the river. Maybe they have an idea? Oh, and you forgot the stat part of it.. figure that was just an oversight.

How's this look:

Custom Move:
When you attempt to cross the Hudson without using the the Kip-town bridge, roll+sharp.

10+ awesome you found a way across which will probably work. Is that ferryman Keeler they talk about around today or do you make it across on your own?

7-9 he's not working today so you have find another way across, choose one:
- you lose something important to you but avoid the thugs
- damn! This must be a common crossing, the thugs are right there as you reach the shore
- there really are river squid, holy shit! Deal with it quietly and you might still make the shore undetected
- you were forced to turn back and waste half a day. That bridge looks pretty nice right about now
- Keeler's going to be pissed what you did to his boat

Miss: You make the other shore all right but those thugs have got the drop on you and that squid's out there hoping they throw your bodies in the drink.

... you list Resources for each of your Threats, was that something you did just for this exercise, to illustrate how you got from the 1st Session Worksheet to a Front, or do you do this even for brand new Threats that you cook up?

Hmm, I listed resources in my actual work (what you see is pretty much word for word what I have in my game notes)  I figure the hold/players will need some resource or other at some point and this lets m see where they need to go on a moments notice.  need water?  Oh man you're going to have to cross the river to Circle Town.  Need some muscle? Maybe you can make a deal with the slaver gangs.  Stuff like that. Again, this is my first time doing this so no gospel here.