How does This Killing Fire work?

Question

The text of Immolator's advanced move This Killing Fire says:

Add the following tags to your options for Burning Brand: messy, forceful, reach, near, far.

Given that there are the options:

• hand
• thrown, near
• +1 damage
• remove the dangerous tag

Does the This Killing Fire talent increase your options pool to nine options? Like so:

• hand
• thrown, near
• +1 damage
• remove the dangerous tag
• messy
• forceful
• reach
• near
• far

I'm confused because I don't exactly know what the difference between thrown, near and just near are, considering they are different tags on the equipment section. I can't think of any situations where it matters if the fire is being flung at the enemy in the form of a flaming arrow (near), or as a throwing dagger (near, thrown).

Answer 1

Yes, your options expand.

The difference between thrown, near and near is that the latter is not thrown. That might not seem like much difference from a mechanical perspective, but in my experience with Dugeon World, there a many opportunities for unusual situations to arise where small fictional differences can make all the difference.

So when picking which to use, make it fit the style of your character, but otherwise don't worry about it. If it ever matters you'll know it when it happens, and then it will be good to be clear about what you're physically doing.

Answer 2

The difference between near and thrown, near is that a thrown weapon is lost when it is thrown and must be recovered, and you cannot choose to mark off extra ammo (or in this case, an extra use) on a 7-9 but must deal less damage or put yourself in danger to get the shot.

The burning brand itself is a singular weapon of pure flame. Throwing it when it still had uses remaining would leave it burning wherever you threw it to, and you would have to recover it to continue making use of it. Letting it operate with just the near or far tags means it can hurl bolts of flame or copies of itself or whatever fictional convenience lets you attack at range and still keep hold of it.