Sorry to dig the topic, but how you deal with NPC healing and jingle? And, as well, stock. If angel really uses his angel kit's stock on NPCs, then it should be fairly costly for a chopper to call for a patch-up job after some job gone wrong way(assuming chopper who cares about his boyz). Or it's supposed to be their jingle(which they get how much, interesting)? Or they're not too important, so stock should be spent only if they're dying, thus making NPC healing not too costly?

An Angel only has to use stock to stabilize someone who's dying, and even then they can choose not to spend stock and to roll +0. So as long as none of the chopper's gang is dying, it shouldn't cost any stock and even then it might not cost any if they use cheap treatments instead of using the "good stuff" to make sure none of them die. Then you'd just be paying the Angel for their time/skill.
If a lot of the men are at risk of dying, maybe some of them will die unless you spend extra to convince the Angel to use more expensive treatments, in which case more barter means more lives saved?

Thanks for the replies!

Allison, I think the considerations you suggest for whether a Manipulation roll should be called for seem like good ones, and I found that helpful. But it seems like you are also suggesting the player's may roll Manipulation even when the fiction doesn't call for it in order to generate experience, which I am not sure I agree with. Am I correct about that, or did I misunderstand you?

Sheryas, it seems like you are saying that all moves can be used whenever a player wants. Wouldn't that conflict with the "to do it, do it" rule, which states that a move must exist within the fiction to be rolled, and visa versa? I took the point of that rule to be that it isn't totally up to the player to decide whether a move applies or not, they must take specific actions in the fiction to use a move. Now of course there isn't a clear line between player intent and the fiction, so maybe what you meant was that any given situation can be manipulation or not based on the approach taken, and that is within the control of the player? What I am looking for here are the fictional cues that tell me whether or not a move is applicable, I don't have trouble deciding with most other moves but I'm having a hard time telling what is meant by "manipulation" here.

Noclue, I think that's a good suggestion for how to go forward with that particular situation. But I'd also like to clarify how this move works, going forward into future situations.

You might find this post interesting on the subject of Seizing by Force.
http://mightyatom.blogspot.com/2010/11/aw-seize-by-force-is-peripheral-move.html
There are a couple playbooks where I could see Seizing by Force getting used more (Gunlugger comes to mind) but yeah, like you say it's mostly Going Aggro with firearms more common than melee weapons.

Sadly the battlebabe's ice cold is not standard here, or else it would have fit the division much better (and sadly the system gives me virtually no incentive to get it--more of a disincentive, really--because I can just raise my Hard as high as my Cool instead, and save the precious cross-class move slot and be just as good at seizing by force).

I'm not sure what you mean here. What would it mean for Ice Cold to be the standard?

When you have leverage over someone you can Manipulate them to get them to do what you want.
When is making a deal with someone manipulation, and when is it just making a deal? Every transaction could be viewed as manipulating someone into giving you something in return for the money which you are using as leverage, but that's tedious and I suspect not the intent of the rules. But what about paying someone to do something they wouldn't otherwise do? That could be a bribe, using Manipulation, or it could be offering a barter with strings attached (automatically hitting a 10+ on Manipulation), or it could just be a deal, no mechanics attached.
This came up in play when a Hardholder wanted to hire the Savvyhead to work on a project, I had him roll because "to do it, do it", but now I'm questioning whether that was really manipulation or not.
There are plenty of situations where leverage is being used to get someone to do something they otherwise wouldn't, and I suspect it's not manipulation, but I can't put my finger on why not. Thoughts?

Sometimes it's easy to come up with a move when a roll fails. When a character is acting under fire it's usually clear what the danger is. When they are going aggro or seizing by force it's usually a dangerous situation, so again it's clear what could go wrong. A failed roll to open your brain is sometimes tricky at the start of a game when it isn't clear how the Maelstrom works yet, but eventually I know what the risks are.

But when someone tries to read a situation or a person, or manipulate or seduce someone, it often isn't clear to me what a failure could or should mean. I think part of the issue is that the player is making these rolls to gain knowledge or advance their goals, and not to prevent something bad from happening, so it isn't obvious what dangers there are, above and beyond simply failing.

Do you have any favorite hard moves for failed Sharp/Hot rolls that might be broadly applicable? Or do you have any suggestions for assessing what an appropriate hard move might be when nothing is jumping out at me?

I was just seeking advice on how to be a more effective skinner without trying to rock the boat. It seems that many posters say to be more adventerous, which i guess i will try to do and hope it wont end badly.

I really recommend you talking things through with your group to make sure you are on the same page, so you can know that it won't end badly.

You guys need to talk with one another about your assumptions and goals for the game and how to discuss, in-game, when things are happening that are leading to unfun events for somebody. (edit: And how to head off those unfun events before they actually happen.)

+1

I'd second noclue's comment that a Battlebabe without her gear is still pretty effective.

I can give you some advice on how to get experience more quickly as a Skinner, but the fact that you had two character deaths in quick succession and some other comments you made make me wonder if there aren't more serious issues with your table dynamics. I don't know your situation well enough to give specific advice but I'd make sure to talk to the other players about your frustration and make sure there aren't some unresolved issues.

As for using Manipulation, my first question would be what does your Skinner want? If you have an goal you are pushing towards you'll naturally find a lot of opportunities to manipulate characters to support that agenda. You mentioned that you were having a hard time finding leverage to use, I recommend reading other characters and asking what they want you to do or what you'd need to do to get them to do what you want, that may give you ideas for forms of leverage you didn't even realize you had.

What moves did you take? If you have Artful and Gracious, or Hypnotic, those are two more ways to roll Hot, the first of which is very easy to arrange.

I disagree with your statement that you need to get into fights to roll Cool, you act under fire any time you try to accomplish something while exposed to risk, which can include stealthy actions or maybe physically risky behavior like scaling a wall or walking on perilous ground. It can still be more challenging to arrange for Cool rolls than some other stats, but it may help if you keep in mind that it comes up in many risky situations outside of combat.

Hopefully that's helpful, and if you tell me more about your characters moves and goals I might be able to give some more concrete suggestions later.