Seize by Force and Harm

So we played our first session of AW today. Overall it went really well and I'm very pleased with the system.

PCs: Battle Babe, Gun Lugger, Brainer, Savvyhead

Lots of fighting. Much more than I would have expected, but I shouldn't have been surprised what with the BB and GL in the group. Anyway, conflicts quickly escalated to full-on gunbattles and we ended up with some pretty big fights right away.

Due to me not reading the rules quite right, whenever a character received Harm but rolled a miss, we didn't issue out any Harm. This worked pretty well. But near the end of the session it became clear we were doing it wrong, and that any time you take harm, you Take Harm, end of story, even on a miss.

That means that every time you use Seize by Force in a violent conflict (or at all?), you're guaranteed to take harm. This doesn't seem to be that big of a problem if you've got 2 Armor and aren't going up against any heavy weaponry. But if you're a Brainer or a Savvyhead, you're hosed; there's no way to get involved in the fight without getting chewed up pretty bad, it seems. And since you may use the Seize by Force move more than once in a single battle, the risks are even higher.

It seems the option to reduce harm by 1 on a miss (in exchange for a complication from the 7-9 list) is meant to help with this, but since at least some harm is guaranteed in every fight, how do players w/o heavy armor get through it?

So following my long, stream of consciousness setup (sorry)...my questions:
(1) Am I correct that you always take Harm when using Seize by Force?
(2) Other than heavy Armor, how do you mitigate Harm in a battle or other violent conflict?
(3) What's the design impetus? Are we trying to discourage characters w/o heavy armor from getting into gunfights? Is there just too much action in my game so far?

Thanks. I'm really enjoying the game.

Jake

1) Yes, correct.

2) Go aggro instead!

3) Same reason, to get people to go aggro instead. Seizing by force came into the game quite late, because there was a need for it after all, but when I added the option to just up and grab, no negotiation, no hand-off of decision-making, I needed it to be the most punishing option available. Otherwise it's the least interesting.

So yeah, the savvy head and the brainer, and probably the battlebabe too, they should go aggro instead of out-and-out seizing by force just every single chance they get.

Yup.  Brainers and Battlebabe's even get moves for going aggro.  TO answer the question about seizing by force safely, however

--make sure to choose "take little harm". 
--There are a lot of moves that give armor.  If your Brainer is comfortable with her completely unacceptable status in society, she could get the Battlebae's impossible reflexes move and run around in underwear all the time.
--Your savvyhead can and should use her workshop to *make some armor* if she's fighting a lot.  Daredevil can stack on top of that if she's an especially bold type. 
 

From general to specific: Act under fire, go aggro, seize by force.

You should see the first two a lot. Seize is a pretty particular thing (force on force) and most characters can and should avoid it.

Yeah. Just being in a battle doesn't mean the only option is Seize by Force. It depends on what you're doing in the battle.