Fighting multiple opponents

This is good conversation that is absolutely not a wast of my time, for sure! It's really helping me think about angles I hadn't previously considered.

Yeah, your point is more clear now. The "attack" can be damage, but it could also be "you're grappled" or "he trips you" or something. We're both just saying it doesn't have to be damage and damage alone. The monster full-on attacks and that can be anything within the fiction.

I meant that most often people think that on a 7-9, you ALWAYS suffer damage, no matter what.

I'd say I was *usually* dealing damage, and I need to cut back.

I'll also raise a possible extra wrinkle based on the example Matthulhu pointed out, where a goblin attacks and deals damage, which is that a Goblin as written up in the monster section doesn't have a simple attack in its list of moves. A 7-10 would seem an appropriate time for an Orc to "Fight With Abandon" or an Ogre "Rage", whereas the Goblin can hardly Charge! anew, and its other moves (call more Goblins, retreat and return) aren't attacks. So isn't "it strikes with its spear, dealing damage" not a reasonable conclusion?

That's not the only conclusion, of course, but we're in a position where the game is telling us to make an attack that didn't ought to be a hard move, but its up to the fiction to tell us what sort of attack that might be.

Perhaps "it strikes with it's spear. What are you going to do?" (suitably embellished) is good enough.

Now I'm arguing with myself. Time to go away and cogitate further.

I think that you're overthinking this. A monster's list of moves is not a comprehensive list of actions, it's just there to give you an idea of how they fight. Of course the goblin can stab with the spear. He can also trip you with it, damage your armor, throw it at you, and use it to keep you at a distance.

Dungeon World is not completely different than other RPGs. It just places a greater emphasis on the game fiction and uses a different method of resolving actions.

In DW, you describe a monster's attacks just like any other system. But where D&D says "he stabs your leg for 5 damage," it's just flavor. In DW, it means something. You can say "he stabs your leg for 5 damage, and you fall down." That's an attack! Don't get too caught up with the specifics, I think the whole point is to use your imagination. When a player's roll triggers a GM move, just narrate whatever you think should happen. Whatever makes sense, you'll know what to do!