I'm reading what you wrote here with upmost attention, since UA and AW are two of my five favorite games. And everything sounds pretty solid from here. Especially the way you're thinking your playbooks (I LOVE the way you deconstructed adept schools). I'm gonna steal the shit out of your ideas, that's for sure.
I'd simplify the madness meters a little bit myself. Nemesis, the ORE game with MM, has only four, and I think I can deal with only three (something like violence, unnatural and...
sumthin sumthin, I dunno, Self maybe).
I'd do it with an armor-like mechanic myself. 1-Hardened (you're accustomed to that shit) to 3-Hardened (you're a sociopath), and stresses like harm (1-stress is already pretty stressfull, 5-stress will
definitely make you lose your shit and demand therapy unless you're a sociopathic bastard, and even then you'll have scars).
Four counters (if you count harm), and four types of armour is the most I can manage, myself. I'd even try to model different types of stress with only one counter if I could. I'm a firm partesan of the KISS principle.
Still,
Seize by Force is being cut completely. It just doesn't seem to fit the vibe of UA to me.
Are you fucking kidding me? A move that's all "I
want that shit
now, no matter how badly it will hurt" in a game about obsessed people fighting for power? A game about consequences ? That coined the phrase "when you're hungry for power, you'd better be the one with the fork" ? I can't see
any move that suit UA
more that Seize by force. You put it back in now, or I will.
I kid of course. That's your hack, do it any way you want. But if I ever play a UA game powered by the Apocalype, Seize by force will definitely be part of it.