Making Your Move

Whenever the situation is clear and you want to push the action along, make a soft move. Say something that prompts the PCs to act and/or increases the tension. Make soft moves all the time, as part of the core loop of the game.

When the PCs ignore trouble that you've previously established, or when they roll a 6- on a player move, then make a hard GM move. Establish badness. Make something happen that the PCs don't want, or make something that the PCs want no longer possible.

You can also make a GM move when a player's move prompts you to add something to the fiction. For example, when they Defy Danger and roll a 7-9, you're told to present a lesser success, a cost, or a consequence. You might use up their resources as a cost ("You can do it, but you'll have to drop your supplies.") or put them in a spot as a consequence ("You make it, but the ground shifts as you land and starts to give way."), or demonstrate a downside as a lesser success ("You get clear, but Andras is still limping and falls behind, the creature's closing in!").

Always make a move that follows from the established situation and/or your prep. If they're tracking crinwin through the woods and they roll a 6-, it'd be a perfectly fine move to reveal that they're lost. But it'd be weird and uncool to say "Rocks fall out of the sky and smash you, everyone take 1d10 damage!"

Along the same lines, your moves should reflect the specifics of the situation. Say that a PC faces a charging aurochs, triggers Clash, and rolls a 6-. If the PC is a mighty-thewed Heavy who braced his spear against the charge, then your hard move would look very different than if the PC was a willowy Fox who tried to dodge the charge and stab it like a matador.

Don't say the name of your move, just say what happens in the fiction. Don't say, "You rolled a 4 so I'm separating you." Say "Rhianna, you wake up and realize that Caradoc's not on watch. He doesn't come back anytime soon. His blanket is discarded by the edge of the firelight."