Imaro
Legend
@Imaro
Is it helpful to know that many groups run Dungeon World with an established setting? That there are adventure modules written for it? Is it helpful to know that our Blades in the Dark crew treats acquiring turf differently? That some players are all about The Devil's Bargain while others are not? That some Apocalypse World games use the battle moves while others do not? That principles can be actively prioritized in different ways? That we sometimes alter the principles? I know some people use Fiasco style setup for Monsterhearts to generate some of the initial fiction. When I ran Masks I did not use the default setting and went for something more X-Men like. One of the core features of Burning Wheel is the spokes on the wheel concept where you slowly bring in more advanced mechanics as fits your group or not. Some games run forever on just simple tests and bloody versus combat. Some use the detailed combat rules, but not Duel of Wits. Some do the reverse.
There's a fairly strong DIY mentality to the indie culture and we absolutely customize our games. We just tend to view doing so as hacking the game and hacks our encouraged. During my last Blades in the Dark session I advocated for harm because it made fictional sense to me. When I run Monsterhearts I often limit playbooks. When I ran 4e I did so by altering the rest structure and having very infrequent combat. I know @Manbearcat uses far more skill challenges than combat encounters.
I think you either missed my point or I didn't present it well... at the end of the day it's the codification of the outcome by narrow moves that I feel puts the constraints on the GM/DM (and even the players to a lesser extent) in DW and in Apocalypse World games in general. The player is deciding the pretty narrow parameters in which I must respond through their die roll, and for me as a DM/GM I don't want that. In the example there's only 1 out of 3 player outcome choices that allow me to express creativity and then even with that one (danger) the ultimate outcome has to be an increase in danger... what if that's not what I want? To me that feels like a distinct lack of GM/DM freedom in creativity and lack of flexibility. Unless there's some way to disregard the moves and play more freeform... but then, as with the BW example earlier, it seems to loose what makes it DW.