This is one of those things I've learned to do well, but have a hard time explaining to people in writing. I'd love to see something in writing from someone who can explain it that way.

But, in a nutshell, the game is a conversation and there is no turn order as you know. There may be lulls in the storytelling you're not quite picking up on yet. Or opportunities for you to put a soft move out there to threaten the PCs, forcing them to deal with it. Even on a 10+ H&S, they're going to roll damage and look to you to see if the thing is dead. If it's not, soft move!

Thanks for the AP! It was a pleasure running the session for you and your friend. I really liked the fact you had a paladin and a thief and they were able to get past the default (negative) interaction that might otherwise be very common to two such disparate companions, which I have seen all-too-often. You guys also gave out a lot of great world-building material - a civilization in decline, slouching toward feudalism, a great city on the sea which is the bastion of civilization and where the thief was no longer welcome, barbarians in the north who worship an animistic god, a dark swamp reputed to be home to basilisks, and of course the recently-annexed town of Goldlach where our adventure began...

Some stuff that I thought was cool about what you did:

- The opening fight with the orc in the abandoned manor was just great. It was exciting, full of interesting action, and the air was full of tension as you searched her and wondered what Terrible Things might be lurking inside the manor if that was the doorman.

- The thief felt empowered to use some of the fiction we'd established during character creation to "create" the secret stash of the Dancing Man, a squatter who had lived in the mansion before getting the hell out of there once The Digging began. Inside was a half-drained bottle of fine wine and a rusty tin locket with a timepiece on it, the latter of which was fully established by the thief. I wonder what role it will play later.

- The battle with the umber hulk. You talked to it. It talked back. Some weirdness ensued. Its grubs were involved. (You had to have been there.) When I ran another group through this same dungeon, it was a straight-up battle. It was neat to see some variety.

- Your paladin and his "invulnerability to the touch of incorporeal creatures" was really neat. Just so happened that a wraith was already at the location and it made for a very cool dynamic as it couldn't do anything to you except banter while it tried to kill the thief. Some really great teamwork ensued as you destroyed the crystal that spawned it just in time to save the thief. Very memorable.

I wasn't aware of any pushback during the world-building discussion. That could be due to the online interface. Would you say that this was an issue of approach on my part? How can I alter that to make it less, I dunno, is "intrusive" the word? In my mind, as you were giving me material, I was making connections to things you and the other player had established. A civilization in decline, a single bastion of civilization, and the heathens worshiping an "older" take on your own nature god... I was definitely feeling like that was all connected. That the barbarians would surely in some future game try to sac the great city, and that somehow only you, a paladin of a reformed god of beatific and harmonious nature, may be the only one to stop the tide of barbarism and blood that might snuff out the last light of civilization. I very much wanted to see where that was going.

As I look at my notes, I could easily see 10 levels of play out of what you've given me and I know there's more rattling around in your brain as borne out during your exploration of the manor, the umber hulk's lair, and the tunnel that has "broken" into a vault of great evil. I'd also love to see what's going on between the thief and the Duchess who recently annexed Goldlach. There's got to be a good story there, more than the thief is willing to admit to his paladin friend!

I look forward to running future games at your leisure and, having played in a game you ran last night, know that you "get" it (if my opinion can be considered as any sort of informed one), so I'm sure many, many great sessions lay ahead for your gaming circle. I'm happy to have helped out wherever I could and pleased that Dungeon World will be spreading to your community.

@ stras
We didn't have a bard at this game, but I think C&O has been deliberately changed from a previous edition to reflect that it's only useful on players as opposed to NPCs. I'd normally write that off and let it be used on NPCs (and do, as a house rule), but the deliberateness of the change makes me wonder if Adam and Sage didn't have some firm reason to do it.

@ noofy
Have you had an experience where the player isn't interested in a line of questioning and you did or didn't know it? Obviously, there's an easy solution which you've already discussed and that'd work for me. Just curious if you've seen anything similar in your games.

"Asking questions always relaxes me. In fact, I sometimes think that my secret profession is that I'm a private investigator, a detective. I always enjoy finding out about people. Even if they are in absolute agony, I always find it very interesting."

- Wally, My Dinner with Andre (1981)

Okay, I'll bite. Here's a magic weapon a PC in my game recently acquired. It's got a move of its own.

Gloom   
Forceful, Thrown
Forged in the Gray Wastes of Niflheim, this pitted iron hammer is black as Death’s Door and has a haft of intricately carved bone white as the driven snow. When an ignoble creature is struck dead by this weapon, you consign its dishonorable soul to Hel the Merciless, Daughter of Loki. Gain 1 hold. While holding Gloom, spend this hold, one for one, to do any of the following. Lose the hold when healed by magical means.
•   Ask a proxy of Hel a question about death or the dead
•   Command an undead creature to perform a task
•   Fill someone with despair

I like that custom move. Thanks for the examples as well.

I have a player that wasn't sure how far he could go with his fiction when describing the effects of Messy and was being a little timid as a result. I'm okay with things being somewhat dark (It's not TV. It's HBO.) so I said just go for it and we'll see what happens. If he hacks one of my NPC's hands off, I'll just beat him down with the stump. Or scream, run, and inevitably recur with a hook and a grudge. Or pass out from shock if he's a mook. It makes for good story.

What are some good examples of a player taking good advantage of the Messy tag for their weapons that have it? What sorts of good fiction have you seen in your game with this?

I tend to think of Weight in the DW context as more than just the number of lbs/kilos something is. It's also about bulk, unwieldiness, or care required to keep something from being smashed (as in potions or the like). A shield, because it ties up your arm would thus have equal or more "weight" as chainmail which is, for all intents, like wearing heavy clothes.

At least, that's how I justify any "inconsistencies." So far, that has worked in our games.

I wonder how much of this is based on one's definition of melee. Because there's the plain English version of the word and the one with a ton of subjective gaming connotations.