Number of players: 4
Number of PCs: 7 in total. 1 retired, 1 died voluntarily
Max number of active PCs: 5 for 0 sessions (one player has chosen a second character, but hadn't developed her until the end of the session)
Number of sessions so far: 8

Character progressions:

Smith: Battlebabe => Operator

The Colonel: Hardholder=> Retired
Specialist Frank Drake: Quarantine

Kickero: Angel=> Dead
Ultra: Faceless

Navarre: Gunlugger
Tammy M Jackson: Savvyhead (second character)

No allies yet. The only one with advanced moves is the Gunlugger, and ze has -2Hot still.

At 8 sessions and practically a whole new cast of characters, it feels like a completely different game, just with a set backstory. In fact, we haven't been able to play very regularly, so with the new characters, I ran it like a 1st Session, and it went remarkably well.

I just wanted to see if I'm reading the playbook right:

1) Operator starts off with some starting gigs. She assigns crew to each one.
2) Before she even rolls moonlighting, it is assumed that these gigs are hanging jobs waiting to be worked. In other words, someone has employed you to do something and is waiting for that job to finish.
3) You roll moonlighting and take profit or catastrophe.
4) You erase the profited and/or catastrophic gig because they are done. And you deal with the consequences.
5) Whenever you get a new gig, any new gig, you add one to your juggling.
6) Whenever you finish a gig on-screen, you take profit or catastrophe (based on the narrative).

So does that mean it is possible to have more juggling than gigs?

So with unworked gigs, does it literally mean you haven't touched that job, or does it mean it's ongoing (the crew member is still in the middle of employment and it hasn't reached a conclusion either way)?

For inspiration:

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396171/

and the book it was based on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume_(novel)

I suppose you could go the D&D route and ask what sort of perfumes the skinner wants to make and base the "ingredients" on that. For example, I want to make a love perfume. Ok, first you need the distilled essence of true love.

Er, how do I get the distilled essence of true love?

Well, first you need a way to detect true love between two or more people.

Um, how do I do that?

Oh! Well, you need to make a true love detector (or something more awesomely named than that)!

I actually use the rules straight from the Angel playbook. 4 days unconscious under an Angel's care for 1-harm, 1 week for 2-harm, and roll on an Angel kit if the NPC doesn't die instantly for 3-or-more-harm.

The poor Gunlugger keeps getting harmed!

Session 3 saw the liberation of a town oppressed of fascist rule, and the Gunlugger took a week off narco stabbed to recover from the fight.

Session 5 saw a missed roll with a grenade. The Gunlugger hit 10:00 out in the wilderness and had to bravely hold his/her guts in while stumbling back home! The Angel had to knock her out for 24-hours.

So all of us are getting an education on the healing rules!

I have to say I love the Gunlugger and his/her player. In real life she's this kind, sweet gal, but in the game she's this awesome stone, cold killer. The contrast makes it even more awesome!

1) I pretty much let the players run with the creation of the world. I'll add details as they are describing it, but they lead, I follow.

For example, my Gunlugger gained a gang. I asked her where the gang came from and she told me that they had abandoned a town to join her (they were her family). When I asked why they abandoned a perfectly good town, she told me that that area on the map was getting swallowed by a Dustbowl.

So now my Hardholder has to worry about the incroaching Dustbowl!

2) The chopper's gang is a great series of NPCs to create triangles with!

Also, when they arrive at each town, ask if they know anyone there, especially if those people will be helpful to them. Players are always angling to make things "easier" on themselves and will create an array of helpful NPCs. But NPCs who are helpful to one player aren't necessarily helpful to another!

3) My group has a hard time with holds. They tend to spend them all in one shot because they are afraid that they'll forget later on.

4) Every NPC is a threat, but if I don't quite know what sort of threat, I'd let it simmer for a while and ask questions about the NPC(s).

5) I have trouble with Fronts myself. I tend to lump them together conceptually first by Fundamental Scarcity and then by location. Sometimes Threats kind of hang out on the side until I find out that they should belong in an already established Front.

Yeah, I try to do that, but sometimes it ends up with a moves snowball, and suddenly I've spent 45 minutes with one player, and everyone else ends up bored.

You know, I think I just figured out a solution: ask for actions and moves with the active player, and spend time with questions with the narcostabbed player(s). They may not be doing moves, but at least they are adding to the fiction. Heck, even ask them what their favorite NPCs are doing.

It feels like you want a harm-like move, except with +barter instead of +harm. But contextually it should be rolled right away.