Can MC use players/characters moves?

I played and GMed few sessions of AW already, but I'm still unsure of this - and repeated searches through the rulebook didn't answer this in straightforward manner.

Can MC use basic and/or character special moves? From what I understand he can only use the MC moves - which usually allow for the same things, but without dice rolls and mainly as reactions to what players do (or as actions when they do nothing).
But that would mean that you can't (for instance) have NPC skinner who would hypnotize one of the players.

Is that correct, or did I miss something when I read through rulebook?

You are correct, PC playbooks and what lies therein are for players only. Also they're not character classes, but characters: they're unique, there's only one Battlebabe (or whatever). But :

• don't forget you can turn their moves back to them : "hey, Sunset, that's a 6- right here on your Hypnotic roll. Jackaba is unfazed, and he holds one over you. You can spend it like an hypnotized NPC would, and until you do you can't take direct action against her."
  
• you can give custom moves to your special NPCs, like say an NPC that would looks a lot like a Skinner : "when Arby's talk to you with his soothing, melodic voice, roll +cool. On a 10+..."

Hope that helps!

Hello

Yeah, helps a lot actually - makes sense. I assume that point is, that players are always focal points. It's not NPC/MC testing if the move on the player succeeded, it's player testing whether he wasn't affected?

Yeah, helps a lot actually - makes sense. I assume that point is, that players are always focal points. It's not NPC/MC testing if the move on the player succeeded, it's player testing whether he wasn't affected?

Exactly!

Good advice, gregpogor. Turning a move back on a PC is one of my favorite responses.

For zefir, this is maybe not exactly what you were thinking, but maybe you can do something similar by triggering player moves, as an NPC move?

Dremmer is one big, mean, scary son of a gun. When you talk with him, you're acting under fire.

Good advice, gregpogor. Turning a move back on a PC is one of my favorite responses.

For zefir, this is maybe not exactly what you were thinking, but maybe you can do something similar by triggering player moves, as an NPC move?

Dremmer is one big, mean, scary son of a gun. When you talk with him, you're acting under fire.

This is actually pretty cool idea - thanks for this.