The Angel
When you’re lying in the dust of Apocalypse World guts aspilled, for whom
do you pray? The gods? They’re long gone. Your beloved comrades? Fuckers
all, or you wouldn’t be here to begin with. Your precious old mother? She’s
a darling but she can’t put an intestine back inside so it’ll stay. No you pray
for some grinning kid or veteran or just someone with a heartshocker and
a hand with sutures and a 6-pack of morphine. And when that someone
comes, that’s an angel.
The Angel is a post-apocalyptic medic with access to golden age medical equipment able to revive even DOA's. As other characters is depending on him to treat their injuries, he has a chance to see them at their most vulnerable. He is a primarily Sharp character, with a claim to Hard, a good Cool and a low Weird, (or vice versa if you'd prefer.)
My take on it
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Being an Angel sucks. On a fictional level, you are trying to care for people in a world without resources, without social security and satuated with violence and brutality. That's as it should be. On a game level, you aren't really given tools to act proactively in the world. That's a problem that should be adressed.
I could make a case for every playbook being the most powerful one when playing on their strengths, but not the Angel. His strength is caring for the sick, that can't really be played on. It solves exactly one problem: Sick people. You can't really use that for power, you can't use it to blackmail, mind-control or conquer.
Hey, wait, that's the key, isn't it? That's why they call you the Angel. You're not into the power play. You still have the faith or dedication or empathy to dedicate yourself to caring for others.
If anything the Angel has taught me to find and focus on the importance and challenges of every playbook. So, the Angel can't be a power player in the story about who will control the valley, but he can be the spotlight on a different level, like a hero in hospital drama, yeah? So make that as important, interesting and challenging as the politics and feuds of apocalypse world.
Create compelling relationships that Angel care about, that motivate him to action, to help those in need. Create challenges that the Angel can work proactively on, like battling the stagnant water supply, the nanobot disease, the cheap Hardholder or the Chopper raiding caravans of medical supplies. Create resources that makes the Angel cool and helps him to work proactively, like authority over people working for him, the respect and service of the general populace, and strong NPCs who owe him a big one for saving their lives.
For a good example on how to do this, take a look at The Sunken Sydney one-shot scenario, where we basically set up the Angel as the hero, with skills highly relevant to the scenario, their own boat and potentially an infirmary from the start. The Infirmary move is almost mandatory if the Angel is to build a story on his endeavour to fight a large scale health problem. Consider giving it to the player for free. Make it your objective as an MC that the Angel should have his hands full with shit that feels relevant and important, not just when someone has been shot.
I really envision the Angel as standing up for the little man, the local community, taking a stake and getting involved in the fate of people around him.
And there is one thing that the you get as the Angel, and no-one else: You get to save other characters' lives, care for them when they're the most vulnerable, get to know a side of them that no-one else will.
What if you'd like to play a cruel, power-hungry or generally fucked-up Angel? Of course you could, but that would mean you'd lose your most important strengths: The respect, the trust, the close relationships, that good feeling in your gut for doing something good and important.
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Angel – It's a thankless job!
About that feeling: I work in public health, which can be a lot of stress and frustation. Now imagine doing it in the post-apocalypse! But whether you're stressing over underfunding under a capricous hospital board, or stressing over having to do surgery with eating utensils for Fuckface the psycho Hardholder, there is still meaning to what yo do. Deep down, you know you're right, and that they are wrong. You know you're doing what's right, and damnit, you'll get it done. Not for Fuckface, but for the patient.
Why the Angel is the best playbook to play:
You get to be the good guy. You get to have the moral high ground.
What it brings to the world of the apocalypse:
Humanity, morality. A moral touchstone, if you wish to, for everyone else. And with the Angel in play, other characters' wounds has to be cared for by a PC with agency rather than an NPC among many.
Fundamental scarcities of the playbook:
To reiterate: Give the Angel social influence so he can be proactive. Give the Angel possibilities so he can be proactive. One thing you could do is to give the Angel a little imaginary workspace, so you ask the Angel what he wants to do, and the Angel tells you that he wants to make ground water drinkable, so you answer ”Okay, but you'll need some time to examine the bacteria, you need 4-barter worth of material, and you'll need Rex to help you” See my focus article on the Savvyhead why the workspace is so great.
Try out the Bond for Apocalypse World rules, they're better than the original Hx rules, and they give a more powerful boon for medical care – By the end of the campaign, the Angel could have a permanent +3Hx with everyone. And while I'm linking to house rules, check out these visceral harm rules.
Moves and crap analysis:
Did you know that the Angel has two +1hard improvements? A +2hard really helps driving through with that righteous ambition to protect the downtrodden and save the injured.
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Healing touch and Touched by death is an interesting combo for a -1weird angel. Vincent writes he makes it his personal mission to bring an Angel with healing touch to +2weird. Sound advice. Touched by death is really cool that way, in that it is huge flag asking the MC to lay the death and the drama upon you. And once you're at +1weird or +2weird, a whole new batch of moves open up to you, Visions of Death in particular sticks out to me.
Sixth sense and Battlefield grace are good to help the Angel function in the world, but not very exciting to talk about. Professional compassion has a cool name, but I'd rather use the Bonds rues and get the Angel to high Hx/Bonds with everyone else instead.
Moonlighting is available to you as an improvement. Great way to get more involved with the community!
If you have an ambulance, stuff those medical supplies in the trunk and get Daredevil and A no shit driver. I think a car + A no shit driver should be in the list of improvements for the Angel.
Disciplined engagement is cool. Go aggro with +2hard, when they suck it up you can hit them for 1-harm and then ask again. Bonefeel is probably a lot more useful for a medic than a technician. Scent of blood is a possibility for a die-hard medic. You dont have to be fighting just because you're at a battle, you know.
Visionary and Towering presence if you want to play up the Touchstone angle.
Just like the Gunlugger, the Angel might come more to its fullest potential as a second playbook for the character, rather than the first. You switch to the Gunlugger when you're desillusionised with kindness. You switch to the Angel when you're desillusionised with violence and power.
Relationships and dynamics:
Good questions to ask: Why are you an Angel? Who sets you up with your angel stock? What do you absolutely have to fix right fucking now? Some questions to humanise and connect the Angel with people and the community, if that's the route you want to take: What is your secret fear? Who depend on you? Who do you depend on? What could you change for the better?
The Gunlugger and the Chopper might be your best customer, or at least a source of customers. Tension might ensue. The Chopper in particular, not only does his gang terrorize the landscape, they brutalize each other!
The Hardholder is an obvious boss, but try to avoid the simple boss-underling dynamic, make sure to preserve the Angel's independence and add some other important people in the hold, like the quartermaster and the gang lieutenant for a dynamic of ambitions.
Working for the Operator could be made more interesting and dynamic. The Savvyhead is a good match in that you could do some cool cross-discipline work, trying to improve or exploit the setting. And everything I wrote about the ambulance, yeah, you could just team up with the Driver instead. How is that for a game? Operator, Savvyhead, Driver and Angel!
The Skinner is also a playbook depending on social power, a game with a Skinner and Angel could potentially explore the nuances of that more deeply. The Maestro 'D can be a completely far out character, but can also work to ground the game more in reality, seeing as even our world has Maestro 'Ds and Angels, or rather bartenders and doctors.
The Brainer is a kind of anti-thesis, what with them being weird and exploitative. In one game, we actually had a kind Brainer with Healing touch, masquerading as a doctor. The Hoarder can also be a great nemesis, with great love for things but no love for people, if medical supplies is a part of the hoard it takes whatever rivalry or co-dependence there is up a notch. Could be real interesting, and elevate the story of the Angel and the Hoarder both.
The Touchstone is the paladin to your cleric. So I've painted the Angel as a moral touchstone throughout this article, but the Touchstone (released later) is explicitly the moral touchstone of Apocalypse World. However, I feel the Angel does that job in a more subtle and satisfying way. First of all, the Angel heals instead of fights, and second of all the Angel doesn't have powers that say ”I'm the morality”. It's a lot more humble. I wouldn't use both playbooks in the same game.
j3c
