I was playing in an original flavor AW game for a little while before the GM and assistant GM had a baby and stopped having time for regular games. Both me and the GM disliked it, but for different reasons.
Because it was fairly easy to raise any skill other than Hot (and really easy to raise your key class skill to the max of +3 if it wasn't there already, after moving most of the abilities off your bad skills), it was rare for the players to roll less than 7 (1/6 or less, unless they were really out of their element). This is the main thing that annoyed the GM.
My main complaint was that that 1/6 chance was for the player to get utterly fucked, with preparation only determining which ways the GM could fuck you. Bring a few soldiers to help capture a dissenter? If you do well on the capture roll, they helped you out; do poorly, and they were loyal to the dissenter the entire time. Scrawny McPisspants has exactly the same chance of getting the local bruiser to back down whether he goes solo with embarrassing slogans written on his forehead as he does when he shows up to a coward's house armed and with backup—that backup and gun are only helpful if the intimidation doesn't go well and the enemy decides to shoot his way out. Now, it does make things very fast to run, but it also means that tactical thinking is a waste of time in most cases. It certainly helps the tone of the game—living on the edge is quite appropriate for a post-apocalyptic setting—but it had a bad effect on me as a player: it's the only game I've played in (including Paranoia) where I didn't want to pick up the dice. Sure, I could usually get better success chances than in almost any other game I've played, but I really didn't want to fail.
I think that's what ultimately killed AW for me: the feeling that the only decent way to get something done was to manipulate the other players or the GM into them wanting to make their characters help yours. Even if you are using maxed-out skills and going after what would seem like easy targets, having to make three rolls to get a plan in motion is already putting you at a disadvantage—and the dice gods help you if you ever had to use a skill where you had a penalty (see Hot, and the inability to get more than 3 points of upgrade—good luck jumping through a bunch of Weird- and Hx-related hoops to make up for taking a penalty to Hot in your starting build).
edited 2nd Oct '12 1:53:52 AM by Ironeye
I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.

There doesn't seem to be a threat for this, so I'll start one.
Monster Heart is a game in high school setting where players play as supernatural beings. It is a hack on the Apocalypse World system which I found to be very interesting, particularly after reading the thing.
Just a basic idea for people:
The rules are simple: only players roll 2D6s at any time. They have several stats which can change depending on the focus of the game (Monster Hearts has Hot- manipulating people; Cold- resisting and rejecting other people; Volatile- aggressive actions; and Gaze into the Abyss- teenage daydreaming, but can be use to look into the supernatural realm). The stats adds or takes from the roll (max +5). On a 10+ the action succeeds without flaw. On a 7-9 the action succeeds but with a condition/consequence (there are several for the GM to choose from). 6- is a fail. Interestingly, the GM never rolls: all consequences comes from the players rolls.
What is most interesting is the concept of "strings". You have strings on other people where you can use to encourage them to do something you want them to do (gain an XP for it. 5XP to gain an advancement). You gain strings via interactions and what you do to people.
It is possibly the most elegant and simple narrative-focused RP system that I've played. Anyone else with experience in a Apocalypse World system game?