Yeah, totally!  I have a hard time wrapping my head around Conditions, and I think I need more time and practice coming up with and/or recognizing them, but that seems like the perfect use for them.

Hah!  When you announce future badness, misdirect and say: "Huh, that's funny.  This powder smells a little odd to you.  Whatever.  You certainly shot the hell out of that guy now didn't you?"

I suppose that is less than straightforward, considering that there is a custom move involved, but I can just imagine the players remembering it later when their gun jams.  THEN they can have their "Why that rat-fink son of a bitch!" moment.  And just to hammer it home, say something like "Remember that weird smell you were noticing?  This round, the one that didn't fire? It stank all wrong."

For location custom moves, saying that there is one sounds like a really good way to entice the players, which is both cool and tricksy.  I'll have to keep that in mind.

Heh.  I hadn't even thought of that.  It does kind of specify that there are more than enough bullets to go around, doesn't it?

I also hadn't thought of it as being an omni-present difficulty: more like, the players find out at the worst possible moment that someone (one person in particular) has been selling them shitty ammo.  What do you do?

But I can definitely see where you're coming from on the "too many rolls" front.  I dislike systems that force you to make lots of rolls... which is why I thought about using Take away their stuff instead.  The truth is, I haven't even had a chance to run AW yet.  So I'm curious: in your games, do you see people having to deal with their guns being unreliable already?  Just from the MC's hard moves?

So, I've had this thought rattling around in my head for a while, and the "Harsh moves following success" thread (sorry for no link, still new at this) moved me to ask:

How can I make potentially punishing realism more fun for my players?  This could go for any number of things, but I've been thinking about all of the ammo that people have been shooting for the past n-years since the world went to shit.

Unless survivors have been finding fresh ammo, or there are ammo factories that still function, a lot of the ammunition that people are using will be made from old pre-fired brass.  I just keep thinking that brass that has been used for who-knows how many years and who-knows how many firings is going to get fucked up some time... and it stands to reason that it will sometimes happen to the PCs.

I know that some of my friends reload their own brass back home, and they don't have big problems, but I'm also willing to bet that they take much better care of their brass than most survivors can afford to.  I've been thinking that this calls for a custom move, maybe:

Too Bad You're So Cheap, pt.i
When you buy ammo from Le Roy, that scop-eating scrounger, you get it for cheap (half price).

Too Bad You're So Cheap, pt.ii
When you fire Le Roy's ammo, roll +turns of continuous fire (this gets shaky, but you could just say "number of contiguous moves involving shooting").
On a 10+: Fuck fuck fuck, my gun is a mess
On a 7-9: You can spend time to clear the jam right now, or you have a brand new club
On a miss: No problem.

Having written this up, I'm realizing that it might just be appropriate to disguise "take away their stuff" with a gun jam at an opportune moment.  Or maybe you can change part two to say:

Too Bad You're So Cheap, pt.ii
When you are using Le Roy's ammo in a fight, the MC gets 1 hold.  The MC keeps it until you clean your gun.  They can spend 1 hold at any time that you are shooting to tell you:
-Your next rounds are duds
-Your gun has jammed
They can spend 3 hold when you are shooting to tell you:
-The brass has ripped in the firing chamber!  You've got a cleaning kit around here somewhere, right?

I don't feel like this is quite right, but it seems like a good jumping off point.  What do you think?

Starting places that occur to me include: why bother making all this fuss when we already have "take away their stuff"?  If you are going to use the above rules, what about autofire / continuous fire weapons?  Would you find this fun, or frustrating?  Both?  Would you decide it was time to get bows and crossbows?

What other similar issues have you folks run into?  Hell, am I wrong to consider introducing such potentially punishing realism?

My pleasure!

On the theme of following blood, you could also go for some kind of tracker move. Try something like:

Bloodhound
You've got a good nose. When you are trying to find someone who has been hurt, roll +their-current-harm, and double it if they are an NPC.
On a 10+, pick 1 from below and 1 from the 7-9 list:
-you know where they're crawling to
-you know just where they're hurt, take +1 forward when you finally close in on them
-you know what they've got with them, they can't pull any tricks on you when you find them
On a 7-9, pick one from below:
-you're hot on their trail, they must be somewhere just ahead but you can't see them yet
-you're certain that you could come back to this trail later, provided weather holds out
-you can see them, but they're waaay ahead of you. Hope you're ready for a long haul
On a miss, MC moves as they see fit

I'm not as sure about that last option for 7-9, but it made me think of the white hats chasing Butch Cassidy near the beginning of that movie... maybe they didn't catch him that time, but they learned more and they'll get him someday, somehow. If you have any ideas to improve it, especially the 7-9 options, I'd appreciate them.