Wow, thanks for that!

It gives me lots of ideas of how these factors change in my world. Like, there's a savvyhead in town who can preserve good by irradiating it with the psychic malestrom. :)

I'd like to hear where you take this without Wave. I'm thinking of starting up an Apoc D&D game, but I'm not sure where to do it without Wave.

Those look really nice! They put  me in mind of the old white box books (which, alas, I don't own).

So the intent is that a 10+ is normally success with extra candy. Rolling a 10+ should generally be great. Like if you're in combat, going aggro, on a 10+, not only do you succeed, but you also get to potentially avoid damage, kill an opponent, or something similar.

The flip side is that a lot of moves assume a risky situation. Like bending bars. When you do it, maybe you break something, or make a lot of noise. These could even happen when you succeed. So maybe whether you want to bend bars or not depends on the situation. Say you're trapped in the Goblin prison. Trying to escape probably entails some risk. Or you're trying to open the portcullis that blocks the Lich's horde. Risk is part of the situation.

On a 7-9, something bad might happen. On a miss, the DM gets to just say what happens. That sounds pretty bad, right? But the DM must still stay true to the situation. Example: you're making a bend bars move to open a sarcophagus in the old tomb. It's reasonable that you might make a lot of noise and attract a wandering monster, but maybe worth the risk. It's not reasonable that the dungeon collapse on your head killing you instantly.

So did you essentially rely on asking questions and MC moves for the whole first session? It sounds like it worked like a charm!

Really nice. I think you nailed the werewolf, and that vampire sounds pretty awesome too.

Maybe a ghost type character's darkest self is a lone observer who can watch anything unfold, but can't interfere or make their wishes known.

What if a mutant's darkest self is a cyclone of power that can only destroy things.

How about a character whose darkest self can only manipulate: like the skinner, who keeps giving people hold that makes them want to do stuff for you, but completely removes the possibility of authentica intimacy?

Great question!

So Apocalypse D&D has saving throws. They're completely passive, more or less colorless generic rolls a character makes when they're affected by a spell. So far in play they've proven to be rather flat. I think it's because an active move and a reactive move all have intrinsic fictional content, whereas passive moves don't unless you take an extra step to add it.

Saving throws were included in ApocD&D as a point of connection between Apoc and the D&D source material. They provide compatibility where the D&D rules call for a passive roll. It sounds like you might have a similar point of connection with Wraith (a game I don't know at all).

The problem with the passive move is that it takes the form of "when you resist X" where X is an abstract, not fictional fact, like "harm" or "petrification". In a reactive move, X is fictional, like "when Wist touches your skin" or "when you meet a medusa's gaze".

In Apoc D&D, I've been slowly replacing the passive saving throws with custom moves. Thus the save against petrification becomes a custom move on the medusa monster, or flesh to stone spell, or whatever. This works vastly better, as being petrified (or not) becomes a part of the fictional positioning.