Apocalypse World does not have hard and soft moves

The PbtA community regularly refers to a distinction between "hard" and "soft" moves,. But this distinction is foreign to the game Apocalypse World itself, and should not be backported to it. You can run an internet search to see people trying to establish this distinction in that game.

My reference edition here is Apocalypse World 1e (2010), because it's available for free.

Cover of AW 1e

We find our first reference to the hardness of a move on page 117:

Generally, limit yourself to a move that'll (a) set you up for a future harder move, and (b) give the players' characters some opportunity to act and react. A start to the action, not its conclusion.

However, when a player's character hands you the perfect opportunity on a golden plate, make as hard and direct a move as you like. It's not the meaner the better, although mean is often good. Best is: make it irrevocable.

When a player's character make a move and the player misses the roll, that's the cleanest and clearest example there is of an opportunity on a plate. When you've been setting something up and it comes together without interference, that counts as an opportunity on a plate too.

But again, unless a player's character has handed you the opportunity, limit yourself to a move that sets up future moves, your own and the players' characters'.

So we should go hard when players miss a roll, or when we've brought everything together for a wild ride. Otherwise, we'll want to set the play group up for future moves. 

"Hard" is not used in a technical sense here. Rather, this or that move can be hard, as in, goes hard, hard and direct, disruptive, intense, depending on context. Baker tells us we don't have to pull any punches. 

Let's look at the two explicit examples of hard moves in the rules text:

• "Tell her the possible consequences and ask what she does" (191)
•  "Announce future badness" (205)

Notice that neither of these moves immediately irrevocably change the formal game-state. They're not hard in virtue of their type -- there is no list of "hard moves" in this game -- they're hard because, in this specific instance, they go hard, they're direct.

Now let's compare Dungeon World (2012). I believe many of "the community"'s ideas about Apocalypse World, and PbtA generally, are filtered through Dungeon World. Individual features of Dungeon World have become things "everybody knows" about PbtA. (I don't know where I got this idea; I've never played Dungeon World; I've never even read it before I cracked open a pdf to write this post.)

Dungeon World cover

Dungeon World introduces its conception of moves with immediate, explicit reference to "hard" and "soft" moves. On page 164:

You make a move:

• When everyone looks to you to find out what happens
• When the players give you a golden opportunity
• When they roll a 6-

Generally when the players are just looking at you to find out what happens you make a soft move, otherwise you make a hard move.

A soft move is one without immediate, irrevocable consequences. That usually means it's something not all that bad, like revealing that there's more treasure if they can just find a way past the golem (offer an opportunity with a cost). It can also mean that it's something bad, but they have time to avoid it, like having the goblin archers loose their arrows (show signs of an approaching threat) with a chance for them to to dodge out of danger.

A soft move ignored becomes a golden opportunity for a hard move. If the players do nothing about the hail of arrows flying towards them it's a golden opportunity to use the deal damage move.

Hard moves, on the other hand, have immediate consequences. Dealing damage is almost always a hard move, since it means a loss of HP that won't be recovered without some action from the players.

When you have a chance to make a hard move you can opt for a soft one instead if it better fits the situation. Sometimes things just work out for the best.

The writing is admirably clear. No exegesis necessary. We should also clearly see the difference in outlook between AW and DW. A loose, flexible term in AW has become a strictly regimented term in DW. In AW, any move could be hard if it goes hard, while in DW specific moves are hard or soft.

(As an aside, I'm a bit mystified by the combat example; if I have my goblins shoot arrows, I'm making a soft move? That seems very strange! If somebody shot an arrow at me, even if they missed, I'd say their action had immediate, irrevocable consequences; we are now in a fight to the death!)

Tl;dr: AW and DW are different games, AW doesn't have a strong distinction between hard and soft moves, such a distinction is only necessary on a case-by-case basis, for a specific game, not "PbtA generally".