Not sharing Moves Sheet with players

I haven't seen it in the forums and thought I would see what people's thoughts/experiences were in this regard. I've tried Dungeon World a few times now and haven't shared the moves with the players as handouts. I showed them briefly what a move looks like and gave them an overview of some types of moves, but again, did not give the handouts.

Just by way of explanation, I've been gaming for 30+ years and one of the best things about Dungeon World that I like is how open-ended it is. I understand you conceivably could do this with any game, but it seems to work particularly well with Dungeon World. By not having a sheet of moves in front of each player meant that instead of only considering what they could do within the context of moves, they were told they could do whatever they conceivably/realistically thought their character could do in the given situation.

As a result, we had a very free-flowing game and as GM I had a copy of the moves in front of me on my GM screen and would ask for rolls when appropriate and advise as to the results according to the appropriate move, all without the players having to know any of it.

It would seem to go with the "Never speak the name of your move" but isn't directly addressed. I'm wondering why this approach isn't more common?

As feedback from players, they found the freedom a little overwhelming at first as they're used to more traditional games, but quickly found their groove and really enjoyed not being restricted by rules or having the rules interfere with the game the way they so often do with games that require building a dice pool or using a particular set of rules.

I can see how some might object to it as being hoarding of information, but if they asked for any of the information I would provide it. Not having the sheet of moves in front of them seemed quite freeing.

There was some similar discussion here.

I have mixed feelings about this. During the first game of Dungeon World I ran I handed out the Basic/Special Moves sheet to each player so they could see what the moves were like. Two of the players (veterans to RPGers) glanced over the moves and then pretty much played without referring to them unless one was triggered. The other player (an extremely casual player) always looked down at his sheet when I asked him what his PC did. He saw the listed moves as his only options available. I tried to break him of this habit by prompting him with "Don't worry about what's on the sheet. What would Galadiir do in this situation?", but it didn't really work.

So yes. If I ran the game with this player again I would probably not give him the sheet of basic moves. It only limited his creativity, and I want to try and get him off that crutch. However, as many moves require the player to choose one or more options, as the GM I don't want to read down the list of choices every time someone makes a move. It's much easier, in my opinion, to simply point to the text of the move and say "Pick one of these options". Also, when running any game my eventual goal is to have the players internalize the rules, and some people do that by having constant access to them.

Lastly, if a player accuses you of hoarding information by not giving them the moves sheet, they probably won't like playing Dungeon World all that much. Many rules and situations have to be adjudicated on the fly and I know that would drive "rules lawyer" type players crazy. :)

My players would not go for it if I had not shared the sheets, what i made clear though, is that those are references for how things can be handled, not to what actions they can take, with what do you do and asking questions to define what they want to achieve and how they are doing it, they totally forgot about the move snot on their character sheet, only referencing those when they were not in the actions happening at the table.

Also, I only had 1 moves sheet per two players, so they had to share. At the second session the move sheets were looked upon when I asked them to choose a question for discern realities or to check what they can spend holds for Defend.

My players and I were too used to the I attack, roll attack, roll damage mindset, and having them see nothing at all would make them more lost than glad, on the 2nd session they are just not caring for move any more, their actions are now framed by their characters only, not the system.

I guess it depends on how much your players like to describe and be creative on their actions in the other games you played.

As Hyvemind said, the most important thing when the moves are on the table is making it clear to them that they don't need to choose from a sheet, they need to choose what they want their characters to do, within the character's capabilities.

...other player (an extremely casual player) always looked down at his sheet when I asked him what his PC did. He saw the listed moves as his only options available.

I had a similar situation arise with one of my players when I handed out the basic move sheets for my first game. After discussing with another DW GM, I tried holding them for the next intro session for new players.

While it worked well at breaking them of the habit of looking at the sheet to work out what to do, it was also somewhat annoying having to go through the outcomes of moves everytime. Given that, I handed out the Basic Move sheets after a couple of sessions.

Best of both worlds.

Logistically speaking, I see these problems:

1) Discern Realities requires that the players know what questions they can ask.  On solution might be to have them ask 1 or 3 questions of their choosing, but you only answer questions from the Discern Realities list.  Like, they might ask "are there any tracks here?" and you answer the question "what isn't what it seems?", telling them that there aren't any tracks but it seems like someone swept the area recently, carefully covering their tracks.  Or someone asks "is she lying?" and you answer "what here is not what it seems to be?"  I think you'll sometimes give them answers they weren't quite looking for, but that's probably OK.

2) Spending hold from Defend is also tricky without knowing what their options are. Like, how do I make decisions about how "hard" to defend someone if I don't know how much hold I've got or I don't know the possible outcomes it can have?  

3) Many advanced class moves interact with the basic moves. As I advance a level, how do I know the value of Follow Me if I don't know how Perilous Journey works? How do I know when to use Blot out the Sun if I don't know when I'm triggering Volley?

I think these are surmountable, but they are real issues that should be addressed. Otherwise, you're taking away player agency.