Toffee 1069 Popular Post Share Posted December 20, 2018 Healing RP, in my opinion, is one of the most diverse and dynamic subsets of roleplay… when done correctly. As someone who has played multiple healer characters (magical and otherwise) across a wide range of servers , it is incredibly difficult to respond accurately in a healing scenario if the patient does not adequately describe their wounds in an emote. The purpose of an injury describing emote should not be to give a full Wikipedia page entry of the wound and who inflicted it. What should be included is the location, size, and type of wound, whether it is infected, and any other important visible details such as debris inside an open gash. There are five main phases during a healing scenario, in terms of the emotes of the patient: consultation, initial inspection, midpoint reactions, outcomes, recovery. I’m going to step through each phase and give examples of emotes for the patient-- while there are other guides available for how to heal in roleplay, I personally believe in teaching healing through RP, so I won’t be including that in this guide. In order to be able to effectively emote injury and illness in character, it is important to first understand the symptoms on an OOC level. This doesn’t require 4 years of medical school, but rather a quick Google search to make sure what you’re roleplaying is accurate. For example, it may be tempting to emote coughing up blood when your character is a victim of smoke inhalation, but anyone playing an adept healer knows that coughing up blood is a symptom of internal bleeding (you cannot make your lungs/esophagus bleed from coughing too hard). If you can’t be bothered Googling symptoms, you’re in luck: I’ve done it for you! Phases Consultation is reviewing a patient in non-emergency scenarios e.g. check ups of an old injury, pregnancy, or non-lethal illnesses. This is usually done in order to prescribe treatments/medicines, as opposed to a stage in the actual healing process. Initial inspection refers to times of emergency when the healer is looking over the patient for wounds. This is the time where you provide physical tells, such as location and size of a wound, and the sound of your character’s breathing. During the midpoint reactions, it is helpful for you to provide emotes indicating whether or not your character’s condition is changing. Usually reliant upon the quality of healing, this could be anything from their heart stopping, to the bleeding successfully being staunched. However, I would advise strongly against over dramatising an injury unless you specifically intend for your character to die or be permanently maimed. There is a comprehensive guide here which discusses the survivability of wounds: Jade’s Guide to Healing Emotes and Injuries. Outcomes are, quite simply, what happens at the conclusion of a healing scenario. Does your character’s breathing even out and they enter a peaceful slumber? Are they permanently disfigured? These emotes typically signal the wrapping up of a healing scenario, where both the healer and the patient are able to log off or head to other RP. What I typically see on LotC, because of the short time scaling, is that characters jump from being healed in a clinic to full health and functionality the next day. It suits their roleplay, and having any real repercussions for actions taken in RP isn’t exactly en vogue. While there is nothing explicitly wrong with this, as everyone enjoys roleplay differently, there are certainly recovery times for different types of illnesses and injuries. In the recovery phase, characters aren’t at their full physical capacity. This means roleplaying a limp, fatigue, lingering pain, or even fainting spells. I’m going to cover a list of the most common afflictions that I’ve seen in roleplay, but if you have any others that you would like added, feel free to leave a comment below! Table of Contents – Those in red have yet to be added (1) Pregnancy (2) Pneumonia (3) Poison (4) Dehydration (5) Wounds (a) Sword (i) Slash (ii) Stab (b) Arrow (i) Full removal (ii) Intact (iii) Partially intact (c) Flora (i) Branches (ii) Thorns/brambles (d) Fauna (i) Claws (ii) Antlers/tusks/horns (iii) Teeth (6) Infection (a) Necrosis (i) Coagulative (ii) Liquefactive (7) Internal bleeding (8) Broken bones (9) Crush injuries (10) Amputation (11) Hypothermia/frostbite (12) Burns (13) Blindness (14) Concussion (15) Asphyxiation (a) Drowning (b) Strangulation (c) Smoke inhalation Pregnancy Spoiler Realistically roleplaying being with child isn’t entirely necessary or beneficial to the story. I think it’s widely accepted that if a female character is emoting that she has an enlarged stomach, it’s a universal sign that she’s pregnant. Additionally, birth roleplay is entirely unnecessary and should be faded to black shortly after the character goes into labour. However, if you would like a timeline of pregnancy that is friendly with LotC’s time scaling, I’ve put together a timeline and symptom list for each trimester. Timeline: First trimester: Week 1-12 (up to 3 months IRP) (1st & 2nd days OOC) Second Trimester: Week 13-28 (3-6 months IRP) (3rd, 4th, 5th day OOC) ← premature births can occur and survive Third Trimester: Week 29-40 (6-9 months IRP) (6th day, birth on the 7th OOC) Symptoms: First trimester: Fatigue, nausea (morning sickness), cravings/aversion to food, mood swings, headache, heartburn, weight gain/loss Second trimester: Back pain, stretch marks, numb or tingling hands, itching on palms/soles of feet, swelling in ankles/fingers/face, towards end of second trimester feel baby kicking Third trimester: Same symptoms as above, baby “dropping”, contractions (real or false labour), shortness of breath, difficulty sleeping Pregnancy and birth is gross. I’ve left out a few of the symptoms and side effects that would likely not be appropriate for roleplay on the server. They add nothing beneficial aside from an anatomy lesson for the teenage boys playing human nobility. IMPORTANT NOTE: Labour isn’t like what it is in the movies! It’s only in extremely rare cases that a woman’s waters break in a flood, completely out of nowhere. Typically, it is only a trickle and is preluded by contractions signalling the start of labour. Pneumonia Spoiler This is a commonly used illness when someone goes on hiatus and wants to explain why their character has been away for so long. While pneumonia can be lethal to healthy adults even in modern times, the disease was perfectly treatable in medieval times when medicine was limited. For mild cases not causing death, some of the symptoms are as follows: - Fever and/or chills - Difficulty breathing - Rattling cough with discoloured phlegm - Chest pains - Lethargy - Malaise When coming back from hiatus, you can assert that recovery took several weeks. If you wished to have this illness affect your character for the rest of their life, some cases of pneumonia can cause permanent damage to lungs-- meaning that your character could suffer from shortness of breath. Poison Spoiler Poisons on LotC and in real life vary significantly in terms of symptoms and severity. Typically, however, these are the symptoms that you are likely to see: - Blurred vision - Disorientation - Difficulty breathing - Fever - Loss of muscle control, twitching, trembling - Paleness - Sweating - Rapid pulse - Severe nausea - Stomach cramps - Thirst - Loss of consciousness - Headaches Communication with the ET or player who administered the poison is vital when roleplaying the effects accurately. Realistic emotes based on the poison means that the healer is able to better determine which poison was used, and therefore how to counteract it. Simply messaging them “Hey, I was poisoned with Alabaster Leaf” isn’t exactly dynamic roleplay, whereas emoting during the initial inspection: Dianne careened to the side, one hand pressing over her stomach while the other steadied herself against a table. It appeared as though a wave of intense nausea had swept over her, if the green hue to her skin was anything to go by. “I feel… so dizzy…” she mumbled, swaying on her feet. In this scenario, it is clear to healers that something is wrong. They may take action such as feeling the patient’s skin for fever, or trying to purge the poison by inducing vomiting or magically dispelling it. Responding to these emotes during the midpoint reactions informs healers of what type of poison it is. For example: Dianne rolled to one side and vomited into the provided bowl. A sheen of sweat glossed her sickly pale skin, and her breath smelled suspiciously bitter. To the practiced alchemist, it would smell of a poisonous herb-- one that caused dizziness and nausea. It is here that you may want to communicate with the healer OOCly, if their character is renowned for their herbal knowledge, and inform them of the poison used. However, if a player is roleplaying an adept healer, chances are they are familiar with the effects of all LotC herbs, and a lot of real life ones. Telling them the symptoms and smell may be enough for them to understand the general family of the poison used, and therefore take action. The outcome of being poisoned is relatively simple. Either your character dies from what is usually an assassination attempt, or the healer succeeds and your character makes a full recovery. During the recovery phase, your character will likely suffer from dehydration, which I will cover in the next topic. Dehydration Spoiler There are few cases in roleplay where you will feel compelled to have your character suffer from dehydration. I personally have not come across it often, if at all, but I will briefly cover the symptoms and causes. Symptoms: - Lack of urination over an 8 hour period - Seizures - Disorientation/confusion - Weak/rapid pulse - Extreme fatigue - Dizziness Causes: - Excessive vomiting (for example, after being poisoned) - Lack of water (being lost in the wilderness/desert) - Sweating (heavy exercise/combat without drinking) Wounds Spoiler This is a large category with many subsections, as there are many different kinds of wounds. External wounds can often lead to other afflictions such as internal bleeding and infections, though these will be covered in other segments. For clarity, I am going to separate this category into divisions based on what caused the wound. However, weapons such as axes and warhammers will fall under other categories, namely amputation and crush wounds. Sword Spoiler Within this division, there are two main classifiers: slash or stab. A cut tends to be more superficial, whereas a stab wound is likely to have an impact on internal organs. Whether or not a blow punctured vital organs is usually determined during combat-- if it was PvP, by and large you can decide what injuries your character sustained. If through combat RP, the attacker will emote where they aimed the sword. If your character has a vital organ punctured and is not seen to immediately by a healer, they will die. Mundane healers are typically less adept at dealing with internal injuries, especially since the concept of surgery is relatively modern. Slash Caused by a presumably sharp sword blade, slash wounds are typically clean edged and linear. They can occur anywhere on the body, though have different complications based on proximity to arteries or depth of the cut. In the initial inspection, you should be explaining the location, depth, length and status of the wound; status being infection severity (if any), debris, discolouration, etc. Here’s an example: Eugene hobbled into the clinic. He had a blood-soaked hand pressed over a long wound on his upper thigh, which seemed to be relatively deep based on the blood spurting out at regular intervals. His skin was pale and clammy, breath coming in ragged gasps as he moved to throw himself on to a cot. A healer would be able to establish that an artery has been hit, due to the location of the wound and the description of blood spurting out at “regular intervals” AKA a heartbeat. Note how it’s unnecessary to deal in specifics-- you don’t need to describe how the slash is 3.458745 centimetres in length and 0.4476 centimetres in depth for it to be a descriptive emote. For physical wounds, the initial inspection could take place over several emotes as the healer responds and continues to examine (e.g. debris may not be discovered until the healer has actually looked at the wound properly.) Eugene came to with a weak groan, having passed out at some point during the stitching procedure. His skin remained unnaturally pale, likely due to the blood loss, while his lips were painfully chapped. “Water,” he croaked, turning pleading eyes to the healer looming above him. If the wound wasn’t infected (the next segment will discuss the causes of infection), then a perfectly acceptable midpoint reaction is for your character to awaken, or fall unconscious. If the wound was severe, blood loss will keep your character exhausted for a long while. Bruises will likely riddle your character’s body if they received the slash wound during a sword fight or bandit attack, also. There are three broad outcomes of a sword-inflicted injury: death, full recovery, partial recovery. Depending on where the wound was located, partial recovery could mean having a moderate to severe limp, less mobility in the affected arm for swordplay, or recurring pain if there were complications with the muscles. Related to these outcomes is what your character does during the recovery phase. A severe slash wound from a sword would take weeks to heal, even with stitches, and at least two years to scar properly. My recommendation would be to spend at least one day OOC in serious recovery (no strenuous physical activity e.g. combat, long distance travel, or even leaving bed), and 1 week OOC where the wound needs to have dressings changed and causes the character moderate amounts of pain. These guidelines can also apply to wounds caused by other sharp objects that aren’t a sword, for example glass shards. Stab This is where things become a lot more complicated, and therefore deadly. If you would like to create dramatic roleplay for yourself, ergo it is not inflicted by another player, please do not have your character melodramatically fall on a sword. Realistically, if the sword punctured any organs, your character should die. While some stab wounds can avoid fatal injury (especially if it is a narrow blade, such as a stiletto), many cause internal bleeding. I will include a section specifically on internal bleeding for crush wounds-- refer there for symptoms, as this section will only discuss them briefly. Claire clutched at her stomach, which was blooming with red through the pale green fabric of her gown. Her breath came in shallow huffs, while a thin ribbon of blood streamed from the corner of her mouth. As in all other scenarios, the initial inspection emote should provide the healer character with enough information to proceed. Midpoint reactions vary significantly, depending on if there is internal bleeding or not, and if the healer is mundane or magical. In this scenario, the blood coming from Claire’s mouth could be from a split lip, therefore an appropriate midpoint reaction might be: [!] Coughing violently, Claire half sat up only to spit blood off the side of the cot. It was pinkish and foamy, and the girl’s skin had become an unhealthy grey. This keys the healer in to the fact that it is indeed internal bleeding, and they can proceed as need be. Outcomes are largely the same as slash wounds, although for the recovery phase I would recommend having a longer amount of time where your character is bedridden. Strive for realism-- after being stabbed in the gut, would someone in real life be keen to get up and go tramping again a few hours later? Arrow Spoiler While there are certainly many types of projectiles other than arrows (e.g. crossbow bolts), I typically only see arrow wounds being roleplayed. There are three main subsets of arrow wounds, those being: full removal, where the arrow head and shaft have been removed entirely; intact, where the arrow head and shaft are still in the wound; and partially intact, where the arrow shaft has been snapped off, but the head is still embedded. Additionally, arrowheads are made in a variety of shapes from many different materials. For simplicity’s sake, I am going to split the shapes into two broad subsections, auriculate and lanceolate. In short, auriculate has auricles that point downwards at the corners, and therefore can become lodged in the victim’s flesh. I will also be grouping notched, triangular, and serrated arrows into this section. Within the lanceolate subsection (which is almost ovular in shape, with a sharp tip and narrow base), I will be including leaf and bodkin point arrows. Materials often have an impact on the severity of the wound, but let’s be real… the only reason why someone would differentiate during combat is to determine whether or not the arrow can puncture plate armour. Therefore, this guide will assume that materials make no difference to how the wound itself is roleplayed. Full removal Auriculate Due to the nature of this shape of arrowhead, ripping it out while on the field is simply not an option. The auricles are designed to find purchase in the victim’s flesh and prevent removal, much like a barb-- it enters easily, but is not so easily removed. At least, not without tearing through muscle and severing arteries. It would be very unlikely for your character to be able to rip out this type of arrow and survive. Lanceolate This arrowhead, on the other hand, has smooth edges and can be removed by the patient. Of course, any healer would tell you to leave the projectile in place as it is staunching the blood flow, but if your character decides to be manly and tear out this arrow before chucking it aside, treat it much like a stab wound from the previous section when emoting to a healer. There are similar symptoms and outcomes. Intact Both arrow types would have similar descriptions during the initial inspection, because it is lodged. The healer is unable to see the shape of the arrowhead, only the shaft and fletching protruding. As with most wounds, this emote should describe where on the body your character was hit, and how deeply the arrow seems to be lodged. Howard hollered in wordless agony as the healer approached him on the battlefield. An arrow had struck him in the exposed area between breastplate and pauldron, sinking a quarterway to the fletching in his right armpit. Blood frothed from the corner of his mouth and stained his grimacing teeth red. This emote establishes three things: location, the right armpit; depth, quarter the length of a presumably standard longbow arrow (76cm/4 = 19cm); internal bleeding, as blood from the mouth usually indicates damage to lungs. There is no description of the arrowhead as of yet. Come midpoint reactions, the healer character likely would have examined the wound and begun to attempt to remove the arrow. This is where the two shapes come into play, as reactions differ. For an arrow with auricles, the reaction would be something like this: [!] When the healer tried to gently pry the arrow free, they would find that it stuck fast in the soft skin of Howard’s shoulder. He screamed, twitching with each infinitesimal movement of the healer’s hand, before going limp entirely. The pain had rendered him unconscious. Whereas arrows with a lanceolate shape might be something along these lines: Howard hissed air through his teeth as the healer slid the arrow free. Blood began pouring forth from the open wound, but the waiting cloths served to staunch the worst of it. Another side effect of arrow wounds is that, if fired with enough force, they can actually shatter bone. Recovery times will be covered in the broken bones section, but it is also worth mentioning here. Depending on where the arrow struck, bone shard fragments may be able to be found in the wound once the arrow is removed. Treat this like you would any other debris in an open gash, describing them during the initial inspection for full removal, and in the midpoint reactions for partially or fully intact arrows. Further descriptions of how bad the injury is can be later described in the midpoint reactions and outcomes. Bone damage can happen in any of the three arrow wound subsections. Partially intact The only difference with this subsection is how the arrow is described during the initial inspection. Almost all other phases are the same, so long as you respond to the healer’s emotes accordingly. Because the arrow is only partially intact, the opening emote would involve a description of the arrow’s location, but explaining that the shaft has been snapped off. Reasons for this happening vary. Your character could have snapped it off to avoid further injury while fleeing, it could have broken during combat, or your character could have fallen. Recovery times for arrow wounds also vary-- refer to the section on stab wounds for recovery times of clean removal, and to the section on broken bones for recovery when the arrow has shattered bone. Flora Spoiler Unlike with most weapons, wounds caused by flora are more likely to be jagged edged and have far more variation. While injuries can occur from quite literally anything found out in the woods, I have gathered a small collection of the wounds I have seen most often. Branches This section is going to be incredibly short. Essentially, treat the branch exactly as you would a sword in the sense that there are slash and stab wounds. Either the branch pierced your character somewhere, or carved a ragged path through flesh (perhaps when falling out of a tree). The key difference here is that wounds left by branches are going to be irregular, and filled with debris such as bark and dirt. Keep this in mind when emoting during the initial inspection-- the branch may even still be in the wound and have to be removed. Thorns/brambles Puncture wounds, especially from thorns or cactus spines, have a tendency to become infected; see that section in order to know what symptoms to describe to a healer. Typically, the thorns will remain lodged in the skin if your character has not removed them. It is important to emote to a healer the size of the thorns, spines, or brambles, where they are in the body, and roughly how deep they are. This section can also apply to porcupine quills (or something similar), although what is important to communicate is whether or not a quill has expanded while in the wound, or has barbs that affect whether or not a quill or spine can be easily removed. Infection Spoiler Infection is not always severe enough to be fatal, though it is common if the injury isn’t treated for a long period of time, or if it is inflicted by an animal bite. Other causes are: - Resulting from a puncture wound (e.g. glass) - Occurs on hand, foot, armpit, groin area (susceptible to bacteria) - Contains dirt or saliva - Heals slowly (e.g. large wound that hasn’t been stitched) Symptoms: - Yellow, green, foul smelling drainage (pus) from wound - Pain, swelling, and redness around wound site - Change in colour or size of wound after it is inflicted - Red streaks in the skin surrounding the wound - Fever Roleplaying infection correctly can get complicated, especially since the in character knowledge of bacteria in the LotC universe is limited. To keep things simple, I will only be covering broad bacterial infection, and necrosis. To have an infection, you first must start with a wound. The initial inspection will likely just involve describing the wound as usual before an infection makes itself apparent. [!] The ghastly wound on Finn’s leg may have been staunched and stitched, but the man’s breathing remained shallow. His sickly pale skin was hot to the touch, and sweat beaded on his brow. Barely audible, his shallow breaths seemed to take great effort. As can be seen in the midpoint reaction above, Finn has clearly developed a fever. At this stage in the healing scenario, the healer must take additional steps to save the patient-- this means counteracting the fever and tending to other common symptoms of infection. While it is not wholly necessary to explain the exact details of an infected wound, it is important to roleplay infection within the right situations. For example, if your character is mauled by a bear and yet remains in the woods for several hours without seeking medical attention, the wounds will very likely be infected. As with most outcomes, your character can either die from infection, or survive. Should they survive (which happens in 99% of cases unless it is somehow enforced by staff), recovery from fever takes a few days. The redness, swelling, and pain from an infected wound may take two weeks to fade. For LotC-friendly scales, your character should be bedridden from fever for 2-3 hours OOC, whereas the pain/swelling should remain for at least a day OOC. This doesn’t preclude your character from doing things, but be warned-- unless the wound is correctly treated, the infection can become worse! Necrosis While skin becoming necrotic (dead) doesn’t always stem from infection, I’ve included it in this section anyway. A glance at the Wikipedia page for necrosis will hit you in the face with a bunch of big words like “hypoxic infarction”, and a million different types of necrosis based on pus colour and whether or not the flesh has taken on a “cheese like consistency” (good luck eating cottage cheese now). For simplicity’s sake, I am going to split this section into coagulative (semi-solid) and liquefactive (liquidy) necrosis. Coagulative This type of necrotic flesh has a gel-like consistency that remains intact, as opposed to sloughing off. Underneath this subheading falls gangrene, where the flesh has become mummified. Typically, this type of necrosis comes about from lack of blood flow, for example in a crush wound where circulation has been cut off for long periods of time, or frostbite, which will be covered in a later section. It is characterised by a discolouration of skin, usually black or dark green in the worst cases, with red fringing the outside of the wound. Spider bites can also cause necrosis. For emote examples, see the crush injuries and frostbite sections. Liquefactive As the name suggests, this form of necrosis results in a viscous liquid mass of creamy yellow pus around the wound site. It is caused by bacterial and fungal infections, and requires draining. Cutting away necrotic flesh is necessary for the healthy skin to heal. If the wound is located on an extremity (finger/toe), amputation may be necessary. There is a section on amputation specifically, where outcomes and recovery will be discussed. Pauline winced as she peeled the blood and filth crusted bandage from her leg. Beneath, a long wound arced in a jagged, pus seeping curve along her calf. “Damned boar got me good,” she muttered to the healer, grimacing from the foul stench of the weeping cut. This is an example of how a necrotic wound may be described. Pauline has had the injury for a while, and is only now seeking medical attention-- meaning that the wound has had the opportunity to develop an infection. Responses to infections usually falls on the healer character, as once the necrotic flesh has been cut away, the wound can be roleplayed as normal by the patient. 34 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Child Neglecter 2134 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Good post. I approve, especially since I am one to go into a lot of detail with medical roleplay – I follow similar methods. Looking good. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aesopian 1080 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Awesome work, you should make more of these! Really great job. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telanir 6432 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Wow, thank you Toffee for a fantastic guide. It is worth noting how just a bit of insight into our physiology can remarkably improve the quality of our roleplay. Please continue writing your other categories as this is a fantastic reference for all roleplayers to come back to. If you’re looking for any feedback there is one suggestion I would love to mention, let me know. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScreamingDingo 16799 Share Posted December 20, 2018 good **** 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disheartened 749 Share Posted December 20, 2018 As a nursing student, I love you for this. Seriously, I don’t have the patience to even try medical RP because it’s utter **** when 99% of people don’t know what the **** they’re on about. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
__WaterFox__ 631 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Maybe noobs will stop coming to me with injuries they don’t realize are fatal 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarreBear 634 Share Posted December 20, 2018 I really enjoy this and believe it is a useful tool for many players. Keep up the great work and I am looking forward to seeing the other sections once they’re finished! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axelu 3691 Share Posted December 20, 2018 This is really good! Lots of us have needed it in the past, so thank you for providing this to us – the community. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzYmandi 647 Share Posted December 20, 2018 24 minutes ago, Telanir said: Wow, thank you Toffee for a fantastic guide. It is worth noting how just a bit of insight into our physiology can remarkably improve the quality of our roleplay. Please continue writing your other categories as this is a fantastic reference for all roleplayers to come back to. If you’re looking for any feedback there is one suggestion I would love to mention, let me know. Oh hey Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotEvilAtAll 9926 Share Posted December 20, 2018 I’ll have to start using this myself 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeoRabbit99 360 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Please finish this Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parker 389 Share Posted December 20, 2018 what about if you’re sick and tired of bad rp very good i like it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toffee 1069 Author Share Posted December 20, 2018 8 minutes ago, Parker said: what about if you’re sick and tired of bad rp Best thing to do then is pugsy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parker 389 Share Posted December 20, 2018 1 minute ago, Toffee said: Best thing to do then is pugsy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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