Great response/thoughts/questions.
Let me give my thoughts/remembrance chronologically:
I'll think a little more about an example from my game as GM, but I have this example from the game you GM for us:
The scene: my Paladin and my wife's Wizard race to a glacial alpine archaeological dig site to head off the incursion of extra planar forces animating the bones in the well unearthing a dragon ossuary (as foretold through the spell Visions through Time and leading, unless stopped, to the mass slaughter of the scholars and workers on site). Through a previous Discern Realities move, we know that immediate threats include avian predators and avalanche.
My wife's Wizard fails (6-) a roll to augment her Mage Hand spell during combat with a rampaging wyvern that attacks the site, and your move was to narrate the newly forged wand that powered the spell surging uncontrollably from her hand with electrical feedback and ricocheting down the well. (For the record, I have no issue with this move.)
My thought at the time, partially informed by your own walking back of the description from character-centered mishap to new item surging out of control: rather than separating the PC from this new and interesting piece of equipment, why not introduce the wyvern's mate or an avalanche (from the electrical feedback), already telegraphed threats, into the situation?
Again, I think your move was interesting and appropriate (and built from the established fiction); but my.mind went a different direction in the moment.
1) The avalanche is an awesome idea. As I'm considering it now, that is something I would absolutely do (from an orthodox GMing perspective and the kinds of situational hazard complications I love to deploy). I didn't think of it. I'm surprised I didn't.
If I would have, that is what I would have gone with. Your instinct is right on here.
2) Because I didn't think of the avalanche, my brain went like this:
a) How can I escalate this situation in such a way that it (i) increases the danger, (ii) is thematically provocative, and (iii) engages with the dramatic needs of one or more of the characters? But it also needs to flow from the fiction and genre tropes.
b) How do relatively newly crafted volatile items that have like telekinetic and elemental properties involved? It just seemed like having it explode out of her hand and down into the Dragon Ossuary below was an awesome way to do all of the following things:
* Turn her move back on her and test her battles with her impulsivities. Give her a compelling thematic decision-point to battle her own issues and turn my "turn their move back on them" move into a "separate them" move. And she did not disappoint as she took the plunge down into the deep dark not long after!
* It also set the stage for allowing me to make the big escalation to the confrontation that she wanted with the Devourer and the tearing of the magical tapestry that binds the world.
* It also put Alastor in a hugely compromised position and endangered his understudy, Rose. If she took the bait and jumped down (as I expected she might), it would create a lot of opportunity to test if Memna would deliver himself through the horrible conflict with the Dracolich, and through him, deliver Rose. A bit of play to find out providence if she is meant to ascend or die terribly here and now (and it would be on him exclusively to determine that).
But this in turn creates the opportunity for a new bond with Maraqli about trust.
So anyway...I thought it was genre appropriate, thematically compelling in that it tested Maraqli in ways that matter to the game, and could turn into a nice setup for follow-on escalation and conflicts.
Another example, this from last Friday's session: Alastor, my Paladin, was leading a technical climb up a glacial cliff face in pursuing the wyverns back to their lair, but the dice were not with me. Amid my series of successive failed rolls was one when I attempted to launch myself from a crumbling section by digging my ice axe into the face and swinging myself to a safe ledge I spotted. But I rolled that failure. Your move: I land successfully but the landing is not as safe as I thought; it's solid ice that complicates my footing at every step and I espy a creature of shadow (an agent of our arch nemesis, a necromancer who lives in a fortress atop the mountain) that must have been tracking us throughout our journey.
Again, an interesting move and one I like, but my mind suggested manifesting the mate of the recently slain wyvern as the hard move here.
On this one, my brain went through the following subroutine:
1) A hard move to use up their resources could have gone at the following pressure points; Adventuring Gear, Rations, Weapon/Shield, Armor.
* Adventuring Gear and Rations are a brutal loss (a) given the nature of the expedition and (b) given the fact that you've already lost so many in the course of the effort to get here. You've expended them naturally and I've used them up as complications. Further, I had already used them as complications in this session (on this very climb). So just seems boring due to repetition and a bit too punishing.
* Your Armor is already compromised. That isn't nearly as much of a hit and not terribly interesting to me here.
* You just got your magic shield. It also doesn't make a ton of sense for you to lose it given its strapped on. Boring and not terribly intuitive.
* HP for a 7th level Paladin with the resources at his disposal? Always a good pressure point but (a) seriously diminished due to the class/capabilities and (b) just not terribly fun in this situation.
So "meh" on use up your resources.
So that brought me to "reveal an unwelcome truth" (the ice-covered landing) and "show signs of an approaching threat" (the Nightwalker sent by the Sorcerer).
This stemmed from a conversation we had about (a) it being daylight (when he can summon his minions to thwart you) and (b) the fact that he hadn't done it in awhile. Now both of those moves are basically soft moves (I wasn't using a monster like I did on Maraqli earlier with the Wyvern...I'm just making it present and announcing future badness), so I made them both simultaneously to dynamically change the situation and, together, make a hard enough move against you that I thought brought about an interesting and dangerous conflict.
I didn't use the Mother here because I had used the father earlier on Maraqli's move. Again, I'm not terribly inclined toward making the same move (flying wyvern attacks you in a precarious situation) twice in any kind of close proximity (in terms of play interval) if I can help it.
Further, I like the idea of fighting her in her lair where she is going to be enormously fierce as she protects her younglings. And I can deploy lair/territory based complications better there.
So those are all of my thoughts on those two decisions! What do you think?