Une conversation intéressante sur AW : les bases de quand le MC fait ses moves et lesquels.

Une conversation intéressante sur AW : les bases de quand le MC fait ses moves et lesquels.

Originally shared by Joshua Fox (Rabalias)

Help me internets.
I've noticed in Apocalypse World and other AW-engined games that I find it tricky to avoid lurching between unmediated in character conversation and rapidly escalating mayhem. Sometimes that's fine, but sometimes it feels like it makes the game move too fast, too aggressive, and too focused on what I, the MC, am doing.

Apocalypse World MC moves
"[a list of the MC moves, and then...]
Whenever there’s a pause in the conversation and everyone looks to you to say something, choose one of these things and say it."

I've tended to not read this literally. After all, sometimes when there's a pause in the conversation and everyone looks at me to say something, they're actually waiting for one of my NPCs to say something. So I just say what they would say, right? Not always as a move. Similarly, sometimes I'm helping to elaborate on what the world is like by just describing stuff. I'm following the principles rather than making a move. Technically, by the above text, I'm breaking the rules right there. (Right?)

However, sometimes it's obvious that it's time to make a move. The most obvious time being, someone fails a roll. Then you really have no choice but to take one of the options on the list. I tend to find that this very rapidly escalates the situation.

There's another time when I believe I'm meant to go for the options on the list, and that's when an action taken by a player hasn't triggered a
player move of some kind. For example: in Sagas of the Icelanders, female characters don't have any kind of move for a physical challenge, so if one comes up it seems I have to make a move. (An obvious possibility is inflict harm, but not the only possibility.) Again, I find that this means outside the player moves we move into a situation of rapid escalation.

I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong here. It's not that the game isn't fun, but sometimes the action gets a bit samey, as it's either talking or MAYHEM.

So, I'd like to hear what the flow of your *W games is like. How literally do you read the above text? How far does your MCing mostly involve making moves, and how far does it take a less prescribed approach? When you are making the moves, is it always rapidly escalating action, and if not - what's it like?