Apocalypse World Moves In Risus

A reader writes:

Wondering if it is possible to add a bit of crunch to the Risus system by adding in Apocalypse World moves. How would you do it?

Interesting question! Though I've been making great use of techniques learned from Apocalypse World in my BtVS:RPG and Gurps games, I confess that this particular question wouldn't have occurred naturally. In Buffy, I use Apocalypse World MC moves, front worksheets, and countdown clocks for trying to get a handle on a very complicated collection of competing plots and characters. I do that as well in the Gurps game, but I also use the elementary move mechanic to streamline action scenes and to make narrow successes more interesting (succeeding by 3 or less would be the equivalent of a weak hit in Apocalypse World).

But adding crunch to Risus with Apocalypse World-style moves? Hmm, that's a stumper.

In the great debate between hacking Risus and playing it straight, I kind of fall in the middle. I'll gleefully hack the combat rules but I do like my Risus characters to be free of extraneous fiddly bits. For me, one of the main appeals of Risus is being able to represent a character with a single collection of cliches, some narrative fluff, and maybe a Hook, a Sidekick, or some Lucky Dice. That's just how I roll.

So I wouldn't personally tack on the type of moves that appear on the various AW play sets (Angel, Battlebabe, Chopper, etc). In my humble opinion, each of those playsets is already a cliche and all that stuff would come under the preview of stuff that the cliche is good for. Of course, a Brainer can touch you inappropriately with his/her/its violation glove. And of course, the Driver is unquestionably awesome when behind the wheel of his bitchin' ride.

Of course, I'm an excellent driver

But that's not the end of the story. I think there are things that can adapted from Apocalypse World to improve or at least flavor the experience of post-Apocalyptic games run using Risus.

Thoughts:

• Hx: This is a mechanic that has no Risus equivilent and is, in fact, really cool. You could implement it as a special form of Lucky Dice, but that seems a little too static. I might import Hx wholesale and use it as a means of advancement, much like in AW. Of course, it should be scaled appropriately so that it can be used is regular Target Number rolls or combat. So instead of Hx going from -3 to +3, I'd say it should go from 1 dice to 6... Maybe... 6 dice in anything is a lot. On second thought, maybe the +/-3 is better and would be applied as a modifier to other cliche rolls (straight modifier rather than changing the number of dice in play). 
• Countdown Clock injury. What a great way to mitigate the death spiral! Replace cliche damage with a tick on the countdown clock. And like AW, a player can take debilities (Hooks) instead of taking harm. (I'd make it much like Risus in that damage on the clock doesn't have to physical injury) 
• Strong hits, weak hits, and misses. For TN rolls, there should be a TN for a strong hit and a TN for a weak hit and weak hits should always introduce interesting complications. Similarly, Single Action Contests and Combats can be adapted to include two levels of success as well (similar to standard AW moves). I like the choices you get to make at the various levels of AW success. 
• Sex moves. Ok, every character should get to pick the most appropriate sex move (if that's an important element in the game and your group in comfortable with that sort of thing). It would most likely relate to your primary cliche and players would have latitude to invent new ones that are comparable to those listed in the AW rules. 
• Moves (take two). For the various moves on the play sets, I'd assign them different Target Numbers depending on the character's focus. Let's say, pick a favorite and even a putz should be able to succeed easily. But the other moves are more difficult and may only become viable as the character advances. 
• Vehicles and Crews. With Grunt Squads and Yes Men, Risus already handles crews, gangs, and holdings quite well. But I do like the color that you can assign to them with AW. Would I use Sidekicks for vehicles? Or Lucky Shots? As per Q is For Questing Dice, I think I favor the Lucky Shot/Questing Dice approach (and each AW-style qaulity can be represented by a single Questing Die. 
• Barter. AW barter is about the right level of resource management for a Risus game. I'd steal this wholesale. 
• Basic Moves. I might adapt the various basic moves as Target Number rolls. This wouldn't be a new rule, per se, since Risus already supports treating any challenge as a TN roll depending on the whims of the GM. But adapting a specifically AW-style approach to move and counter move might make the game feel more like Apocalypse World. And it doesn't have to totally replace full combat.