So, to reword in order to get another look at the topic:

if fictional effectiveness is "how enmeshed in the world the character is" and mechanical effectiveness is "how well the character can navigate the world" then our mythical z is... "how much the character instigates change in the world?"

That's not right, the moves are inherently about instigating change.  Hrm.  "How much the character reflects/highlights the nature of the world?"  There's something there like the contrary in Hyemeyohsts Storm's Seven Arrows.

gah!  My mind boggles!

wait, what?  That made sense?

Ok, mechanical effectiveness:  How their moves help to up their statistical chances of acting the way they want?  So for instance, gunlugger has two moves that switch hard in for basic moves as well as a move to max out that stat?  I definitely see the gunlugger as being one of the most mechanically effective classes to play.

Fictional effectiveness: uh buh huh?  Are you talking about how much they introduce or control the fiction around them?  So moves like frenzy, or wealth, or fortunes are inidcative of a character that is fictionally effective?

I don't really know what Mindshare effective means.  I'll be staring squinty-eyed at the Battlebabe to see if I can figure that one out.

Yes, but it still has to be recognizeable to whoever you are preaching to.  If you start spouting off about how the lizard people are not being honest with us and are about to betray us all so they can implant their brood pouches in our eye sockets, people are going to be really puzzled if they haven't seen any lizard people.  The madness has to make some sort of sense to then, a description of something they are already familiar with.

yeah, it's an interesting tone of voice.  It's both a reaffirmation of your love of the characters, a goad to action, as well as injecting some real colour.  I always have this weird dichotomy of "the MC is sincere in his sympathy/affection/support" and "The MC is messing with your shit and doing so in front of you and fully aware that you can't do anything about it."

It's pretty awesome.

I've been tyring to think of something sensible to say about this thread, and I'm really not going to say much more than Vincent did:  So what?  Ok, you're playing to make for interesting intercharacter drama.  They are playing to find out about the world (or, as michael pointed out, playing a character interested in finding out more about the world).  So make interesting intercharacter drama out of them trying to find out more about the world.  Finding out why the psychic maelstrom IS interesting to me, so when my players start searching for it it makes for good story.

For the record, I would rather cut my own throat out than play an RPG that ended up like Lost.  Being told all of this stuff that threatened me and mine and made for all this interesting stuff was "just because" or "don't worry about it" is completely messed in the head.  But that's just my opinion.

yeah, it's causing me some flux.  Augury tends not to be a problem:  Most of the weird can be explained as "That's just how this world works, and your just saying it has to do with the religion."  My problems are still coming from just not getting the cult:  What they've been promised, what they expect, what they need.  And it's hard to take frenzy as anything but that, whipping people up in to a frenzy.  I guess this really is just a thing with me:  What was said in the example I gave didn't feel convincing to me, it wasn't impassioned enough.  I'll have to see how that plays out.

But I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.  But Chris is totally right:  When you say "speak the truth to a mob" do you mean the truth of what you believe, or truth as you have presented it?  What's the leeway for the twofaced hocus?

I cleaned up some of the text on that last one, but the gist is the same.  here are the letters for the gunlugger and the angel as well.  The choppers not in the next session, he gets a letter when he comes back for the next one.

Dear Midnight,
Things are looking up for you, aren't they?  You and Tork are all buddy buddy now, so you can hang out with the Rollers more.  Shithead still has it in for you, but it's not like he's gonna do much to you without the rest of the gang behind him, and besides he's off on that super-secret mission thing with Tork.

Which actually has kind of fucked you over.  when Tork took off with Shithead, Dice, Gnarly and III Bullet took over.  Whenever you push the issue about heading over to Temple Point, Bullet comes up with another reason they can't spare a guy:  looters, protect the bikes, Steinway needs us, man man... yadda yadda.  Maybe he's still holding a grudge over that whole "head butting him hard enough to make his nose bleed" thing.  I know, right?  Such a baby.  Anyway, the Rollers have spent the last couple of days holed up in the hall,  Occasionally heading out on a foray with Man man to beat up some Gogol Bordello guys, doing a lot of drugs.  It's kind of frustrating. 

But hey, it's not like everything has been for nothing.  All this time among people, you're practically popular.  Roll +hot.  On 10+ choose 2, 7-9 choose 1
-   Despite everything, you've managed to get the stuff to fix up your bike.    Looks like you'll be able to get over to Temple point under your own power after all.  Tell me who you got it from, and what you promised/did for them.
-   All the craziness means you've been in demand.  Most importantly, the GB guys have hired you on to bodyguard.  Tell me what they offered you, and what/who you're guarding.
-   Junk has taken a real shine to you.  Not in a horizontal sense (not yet at least) but she's actually shaping up to be someone worth spending some time with.  Tell me what you guys are about, and what you dig in her.

On a miss, I'll choose one of these, and tell you how it is.  Trust me, you won't be so happy about that.

Anyway I'll let you get on your way, you got things to do, stuff from the past to find, people to kill.  Just remember what your brother told you yesterday morning.  Or was it the day before?  I dunno, the day after you woke up with a cat in your room.  But yeah, He told you "keep you chin up and your eyes clear if you don't want to end up like dad.   And get a fucking haircut, you look like a goddamned drowned rat."  Toodles!
Love and Kisses,
Your MC
 
Dear Raf,

Shit's been tough, huh buddy?  Well listen, we're all rooting for you kiddo, we're behind you 110 percent.  I know things have been messed up, what with you having killed that boy and all, but we know you didn't mean it, just like with your sister.  It's not your fault, y'know?  It's not like people keep dying on you whenever you try to heal them directly so you have to use these blunt instruments instead.  Not like people are relying on you and you keep screwing up.  Nothing like that at all. 

Really It's all that Silver's fault.  If she hadn't fucked with you, that boy would be up and about right now, just fine, laughing, singing, having a grand old time.  Instead she decided to do.. . whatever it is she did and now he's gone gone gone.  So yeah, Not your fault at all.

Things ain't been going so well since... well, y'know.  Man Man and Gogol Bordello are all over each other, and Steinway's had to send Treble and his boys out to keep the peace.  Which means you've been a little busy, what with all the brouhaha.  It's kind of fucked, all the players can't really hit each other direct as it's against the rules, but all their lickspittles and groupies and fans and such take the hints they drop and away it goes.  Shit's been nasty, bad enough that Steinway's apparently going to hold a big meetup, what they call a Jam to set things right.  here's hoping it works.

But we're glad to see you're keeping shit together.  How you doing that?  Go ahead and tell me and then come back to this letter.  Roll +cool to find out exactly how close to the edge you are.  10+ choose 1, 7-9 choose 2.  Regardless, you're down stock, down about half.
-   By farming out the easy stuff to shegusa and mox, you've been able to stay ahead of the curve, but barely.  Unless shit gets cleared up, you're going to start losing people or having to turn them away untreated.
-   Steinway took a turn for the worse.  He's stable for now, but the drugs aren't working anymore.  You've got him on some powerful shit that's holding him together, just and just, but they're harder to find.
-   In the confusion someone has been stealing supplies from the infirmary.  Mostly pain pills and the like, so you can still treat people, but it's getting hairy every time you need to do something major.

On a miss, it's all true buddy.  Sorry.  But hey, one-hundred and ten percent, remember.

Love and Kisses,
Your MC

ok, maybe this will highlight an element of step-on-up, and why it's not Story now, and why that conflict is a bad thing and something that needs to be differentiated.

In a D&D game back in the day, our DM described what to everything we could tell was a troll.  had all the behaviours of, looked like it, we as a group agreed yep, troll.  Cool, kill with fire, bob's your uncle.

Except that our DM had decided that, because he thought it was unrealistic that our characters could recognize monsters just because us as players recognized them, he was deliberately misleading us.  turns out it was something else of equal challenge but with completely different weaknesses and strengths.

I can't speak for the other players, but I for one was pissed when I figured out what was going on.  not because it "broke the fiction" that this thing wasn't a troll, but because if we had a particular approach and tactic laid out all about beating a troll.  Yes the description and all that was done in fiction terms, but what was the driving force in that game for me as a player was to win, and I felt that I was cheated of that by a cheap trick.  And while what he did was really fucking problematic on a Social contract level, it also was because his desire from the game was different from mine/ours.

This is, most definitely, not Story now.  Did it matter to me that the fiction make some sort of coherent sense?  sure, for aesthetic reasons.  But primarily it was about overcoming the challenge.

Simon, can you see why what I described is NOT Story Now play even though things are done in a fictional setting with fictional coherence?  now, maybe if I had been bothered by the fact that the monster was misdescribed, had somehow made the story less interesting, or had broken my fictional conception of the world, then I could see the argument.  but really what was broken about it was that it was the DM deliberately messing with a tactical advantage I gained by changing a detail in the world.

Come to think of it when I play like this I view making coherent fiction as a strategic obstacle:  how do I explain my real-world knowledge in a way that makes sense fictionally, so that I can use it in game?  I'm trying to make coherent fiction because doing that is a rule of the game, not because it is why I'm playing.