AP: An Angel, a Driver, and an Ambulance

I got a chance to play with my roommates this weekend.  Chris played Shelby, a Driver with a Battered Ambulance, and a combat dune buggy strapped to it's roof.  Lisa played the Doc, an Angel who rode with Shelby. 

The two of them made a yearly circuit across the old Trans-Canada in the scorching summers, and then south along the crumbling I-5 in the winters. At each holding the Doc would ply her trade, and the Driver kept her moving onto the next holding. 

They established that they'd done this for almost 5 years, surviving the awfulness of the lawless highways to bring a little bit of good to each location.  The Doc would bring not only healing but learning, training people in each holding to hold a bit of information on things like hygiene and nutrition. 

They also brought in CB radios, which was new and interesting.  They broadcasted on channel 9, and those holdings with a radio would call in if they needed assistance. I made one of the future fronts all based on threats coming in on the CB radio, everything from ravings of a Hive-Mother who's voice on channel 5 hypnotized those that listened in their sleep, to a guy that used a wide gain antenna to play old music on channel 22. I also used the CB as a way for them to hear the bickering between holdings, announcing some off screen badness.

The Doc used the modern Hippocratic Oath as her moral compass. By the way, that oath has some really fantastic lines.  here's one:

"Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given to me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God."

Considering she took healing hands, it is difficult for the people of the holding to NOT see her as a God. 

After playing a bit through the first session, I had enough to know what they were kind of looking for.  I put together a front and a few threats, and then off we went!

At one holding they had to deal with a group of sick kids (put them into a spot). The bites they had on their feet and ankles (future badness) led them to discover an infestation of cockroaches in the holding, aggressive ones about the size of a man's fist.  (this was a landscape threat move from the lake, a breeding pit)

I had a great scene of them squirming out of all the old drains in a locker room (the holding was in an abandoned high school), deforming their shape to get through the small pipes.

There was a really neat moment of the Doc opening her mind to the maelstrom, where she saw through the eyes of the cockroaches, and saw that they were being bred near a nearby algae infested lake.  The breeder was a rather unscrupulous bar owner, who blended the cockroaches into a delicious juice that the holding adults purchased as booze, and she watched the breeder through a thousand segmented eyes feeding the bugs human flesh.  (Announce off screen badness)

The bugs had a taste for people now, and those that escaped his breeding pit were multiplying in the old sewers under the holding, and biting down on the smaller, weaker children.

After some rolls, the Doc figures out the cure for the sickness, the bug juice itself.  "The source is also the cure!" It also explained why the adults, who drank the stuff, weren't getting sick. Of course, we were talking about BLENDED Cockroach. (Barfing... literally... forth apocalyptia, present an opportunity and then ask)

Shelby and the Doc proceeded to try to stop the bar owner and his goons. (They were family Brutes, so they closed ranks) That ended in violence, and during the fight the the Doc killed the boss (I presented her an opportunity and then asked), and Shelby took down the rest. Their blood attracted the the bugs, who swarmed the corpses, forming this living carpet of crawling bugs. They quickly took several bottles of the bug juice and burned their way out of the bar, destroying many of the cockroaches in the process.

They re-labeled the bug juice as "medicine" and prescribed the kids a few spoonfuls each day, to stave off any further sickness.

"Plus, it's good protein.  What?" said the Doc, always practical, while Shelby gagged.

It was a great session, and they're both excited to play again.  The Angel and a Driver is a great pairing.  Plus "Shelby and the Doc" sound like an old 80's TV show. 

Oh. My. The Apocalyptic Oath is brilliant, and the bit with the bug-juice inspired. Will you be playing again?

Both players have been asking to play more, which is great hope for another session.  I'm hoping to get a game together sometime in the next couple of evenings, once I put together a few more threats and adjust the fronts. 

Because they want to be traveling doctors, I'm trying to think of Fronts that might follow them along the roads. It's a little tricky, as I'm not able to build upon existing relationships so much if they keep on moving.

Well, I understand that they're enjoying their shtick, but I can't help but point out that five years doing the same thing is a big 'up yours' to the game's slogan: there's no status quo in Apocalypse World. So surely part of what you want to do is paint a target on their little routine, either by ramping up the difficulties of travel or providing reasons to hang around -- whether it's negative (towns in desperate endless need) or positive (remarkably nice places where they actually kind of fit in.)

I would use a lot of Landscape threats, and plenty of road gangs and bandits. Give them different shticks and personalities, and make some of them not overtly threatening like we have to kill you but just other nomads who could be helpful but could be tricky. Look for afflictions like Gasoline Scarcity or Rust Storm. How about weird Maelstrom psycho who speaks to them over their long-dead radio. etc.

Also they need to stop for food and water. Make them Afflictions with countdowns too. Whose hunger and thirst threatens them? Theirs does.

I'd read about real world group like Doctors Without Borders and take notes.  It's Apocalypse World for reals out there.  If you're using the Transcanada/I-5 axis as a play setting, you can use a bunch of similar threats/issues as single Fronts, I think.  A disease vector attacking one village might be attacking many; when you've identified it and found a simple countermeasure, you might be able to neutralize it as you go.  Or, given the CB radio aspect of it, spread some public health tips to other settlements. 

Also Afflictions, Warlords, and even Grotesques can affect a larger area: a single disease in many areas like I said, or a Dictator trying to crush all the villages on the coast, or a Delusion that will lead to a mass outbreak of violence and murder. 

Honestly, read up on public health in Africa, you'll get enough play material for a year.  Old epidemics, new epidemics, epidemics made worse by folk beliefs, epidemics made worse by war and unrest, epidemics affected by climate, hunger and thirst and their effects on health... You can have fronts directly threatening or trying to co-opt the honest Doc as well.  Eventually with advancement the characters will get access to expanded moves and maybe even make Canada safe for Canadians again!

P.S. If you get to it, please post what Seattle looks like in your grim future, I'm collecting them.

Well they've got a yearly circuit, right? So they are returning to see the same things/places/people again and again, right? I'd pull back my vision a bit and treat the whole annual circuit as a hold. With a relatively safe circuit rider, there's got to be trade and romance and politics between the holds, too. So maybe the triangles look a little bigger:
Gams (from First Hold) needs Doc to fix her wonky leg, and is waiting for Doc to get there already, dammit!

Roark (from Two Sticks) the savvyhead has a mad theory that River Six folks are poisoning the water and wants Shelby to take him along on the route so he can prove he's right, and he'll trick out the car in exchange. Except he's a carrier for something scary. Shelby=Roark=Doc

The folks at Three Hills are suffering some sort of water-born illness. The hard-holder Alison is desperate for help, and will do anything to stop it, even sabotaging Shelby's car. Dixie, the battlebabe, wants a way out quick - and he has a car. Shelby=Dixie=Doc=Alison

Four Stones actually *is* poisoning the water, but they don't know it. Somebody falls in love with Doc, because she saved his life, and he's trying to entice her to staying with him, despite his wife's objections. Roark=Doc=innocent Four Stones folk, Somebody=Doc=his wife

Wind, Doc's old friend who is the hocus at Hand Hold has been having visions of the stranger who comes to infect them all, and is keeping a look-out for Shelby and Doc to warn them. Roark is the stranger. Roark=Shelby=Wind=Doc

SUV (from River Six) wants Gams to rot from gangrene, and will delay Doc from returning to First Hold as long as she possibly can. Plus, SUV has the hots for Shelby. Gams=Doc=SUV=Shelby

Also, in the tradition of circuit riders everywhere and always, they'll be pressed into carrying mail and messages, possibly including "kill these two and I'll pay you good".