Your take on Medical RP

[Wonderland_Boy 1081]

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the medical rp community has been slowly dying over the past few years, while there are some people that still do it, the amount of times we get to do this sort of roleplay is almost inexistent compared to how it was on the beginning of Aevos and Almaris, an exemple would be how clinics would have so many injured soldiers to deal with after every single siege and battle that the doctors would get panicked due to how hard it was to solve it. Or how often we'd have medical lessons because it was pretty fun to try to memorize the stuff we needed.

I want to know why this is happening and if there's even a way to work around it, if you've got an ideas just leave them here

[Cheese 8881]

I mean personally, any lack of medics just puts more strain on the few there are when people are injured (imagine 2 medics scrambling to heal 5 people after an event. it’s not fun). This just makes fewer and fewer people want to do it.

 

Additionally, a lot of medical rp is tied to alchemy nowadays. If you don’t have alchemy yourself you usually have to find someone who can make potions for you (which can take time, money, and herbs), or if you do have alchemy, you could be making more money selling different potions 

 

these are just my guesses so don’t @ me…..

[Netphreak 510]

I'll try to be as constructive as I can be.. Medical RP was one of the more sought after forms of RP due to their relatively important position on a wide variety of circumstances and situations, often being brought to events and warclaims to assist on the battlefield. It's nice when you've got people to watch your back while you're doing what you need to do (Medical RP). 

However, there's only so far that you can go with it and with said limitation; becomes stale. Certainly you can and should incorporate Alchemy to your Medical RP, it just does nothing but enhance the very aspect of how you can RP it. I've not experienced Medical RP at this present time because I don't play anymore.. But from what you're saying, seems like people are kinda just on the sidelines, shrugging their shoulders and saying "Meh." 

It's too stale, it's the same thing over and over and over again. There are a select few who would be happy just doing Medical RP and nothing else. There are others who get their fix by delving into many other tasks and professions and others just don't dabble in Medical RP at all unless it becomes absolutely necessary to do so. (Bout to kick the dookie bucket)

BUT, do what you do. Shrug.

[TheOnlyTub 550]

I have to admit I’ve never done true medic RP in a clinic where I have to heal someone, and as I typically play characters that try and stay out of danger I rarely find myself in a clinic. HOWEVER, I have done healing RP before as a necromancer, binding flesh together and reattaching limbs to ghouls and unwilling sacrifices alike. I think medic RP is really stale, like how Netphreak says, and I think medic RP can get too overcrowded or limited like how Cheese says.

 

I think medic RP needs to find its balance which can only happen if people change the way they RP injuries. Oftentimes “field medicine” can be used to stave off bleeding out or something until you find a proper doctor, so that takes away the need to have like 20 capable surgeons on standby. Alternatively like the post you just put out Wonderland, there can be a place where people are guaranteed to find a doctor. I think people just need to be more careful about medical do other than just “I apply the blissfoil salve” or “I use the organ mender”. Unless ofc you play a necromancer, in that case, just weld their flesh back together.

 

TLDR: please play a necromancer 

[sapphic_spidy 1089]

Part of my enjoyment with medical rp is playing all of my characters doing it differently :3

I enjoy playing my character with intention in any scenes- combat, social, medic rp, etc. Sometimes it does feel a bit stale, as it's the same thing repeatedly, but sometimes that also makes it fun to roleplay my characters getting just- better and quicker at some tasks, while not being the best at others

 

Castien is mean, and is able to carry conversations at people while doing his work. He has been shown to be a skilled surgeon, but is lacking when it comes to treating established disease or any facial injuries. He's amazing with sutures, multitasking (including two patients at once), and quick judgements, however he has no idea how to treat a stomach ache, and has done medical work while intoxicated on more than one occasion. 

 

Alice has no idea what he's doing, doesn't remember the names of the herbs, and uses dirt as a disinfectant. If anything he's a nuisance to actual healers and will taunt patients he doesn't like while they are actively bleeding. But he's resourceful, and if he's your only option, he can do some things. He can make pretty great food and drinks to mask the taste of things like bloodlotus! However he uses alcohol as a painkiller. 

 

Sydney (RIP) over-relied on kani for healing, but he could do sutures pretty well, as it's something his sister (double RIP) taught him how to do, so he always held it close to him. He was not an incredibly skilled healer, or especially intelligent, but he was competent enough to be able to fix injuries.

 

Kiva has not gotten to explore being a medic yet but I have a feeling they might be headed that direction soon. They'd definitely utilize alchemy, possibly to a point of over-reliance? I'd have to see them in action to be fully sure. They're also liable to fretting and stalling on important choices :3

 

I'm also oocly not the most intelligent but I do my best. Hopefully through larp i can better understand how weapons and armor work to apply that to medic rp and just rp overall

 

I think people just,,, don't like playing injured characters to be honest. The RP can be boring for the injured if your character is unconscious. idk 

I have fun with roleplaying when my characters are injured and when my characters are the doctors

[Lirinya 4021]

I think there's a few reasons for this. But in the nicest way possible, I think it can also be caused by itself.

 

From what I've experienced, there's this belief that to do medical RP you have to know a lot of OOC information about medical procedures. Why should I have to know exactly how to set a bone, to set a bone irp? Why should I have to know the various types of sutures, to suture a wound? Can I not be vague and ultimately still have the same impact? I don't have any current healer type character but my most recent shelved one ran the old Nevaehlen clinic and people were generally understanding that "hey im not an ooc doctor so some emotes might be vague".

 

Being a medic also involves players getting injured. I'd argue that mundane doctors are the frontline. You get rushed to a clinic, you find a doctor, who treats surface level wounds then calls for someone magical.

 

But why play a mundane doctor with or without alchemy when there are magics around that allow the regeneration of body parts? All you need to do is send a bird to the right person.

 

But following that, no one (a vague summary) wants to play an injured character. I recently failed a blasting potion with a roll of 1, so was obviously going to take some fallout for it. I couldn't rp her while waiting for someone to find her (i left an RP sign for when someone did find her) and then afterward, she was recovering in the clinic. There goes my night of rp, you know?

 

My favourite type of medical rp is what I consider battle medic stuff. Life-saving medicine using salves and alchemical stuff, and basic stitches and splinting to get people stable. But even then, I've been told it's not enough. Of course it isn't. My makeshift splint for your roleplay leg wouldn't work in a real situation. Sorry, though. I'm not going to spend time researching online to learn how to splint a bone. 

 

[MadOne 4945]

Im put off by rping as a medic and getting healed by one since some medics roleplay the profession like modern doctors instead of being a medieval physician. Every medic seems to be able to sort out every issue ever and you heal in the next year. Though i recognise that characters getting better is practical and the blame leans more towards the patient, i still dont vibe with the style that much when my medic is talking about blood cells and bacteria.

[6Dark 431]

As someone who has done both mundane and alchemy medic rp, there are differences to both but I have had quite the experience in mundane. Like Lirinya said, you need to know a lot of OOC information for it (which I firstly started by reading a TON of books about being a medic, messed up a lot, then gradually got better, and some people may not want to go through that). Alchemy is far easier obviously, if you know the potions etc. But it could get quite stale and repetitive, especially if you get the same type of injuries, by then it just turns into an emote copy paste.

Mundane is quite limited. As Cheese said, you need Alchemy to go along with medicine, and not knowing Alchemy can really limit what you know and what you can do. 

With me, it also doesn't help that the first proper time I wanted to do mundane medic rp, I was thrown in the middle of a huge metaplay scenario BECAUSE of my characters lack of skills at that time. It was completely demotivating. That's just my 2 cents on it.

[squakhawk 14038]

25 minutes ago, MadOne said:

Im put off by rping as a medic and getting healed by one since some medics roleplay the profession like modern doctors instead of being a medieval physician. Every medic seems to be able to sort out every issue ever and you heal in the next year. Though i recognise that characters getting better is practical and the blame leans more towards the patient, i still dont vibe with the style that much when my medic is talking about blood cells and bacteria.

 

agree with this

 

 

i feel like sometimes medical rp really negates the opportunity for growth and character development. I remember doing an event where there were a lot of people with different burns and the medics just emoted rubbing a herb on them and explaining in OOC the burns will heal in a day and return to normal. And it's just kinda lame. I get wanting to feel helpful and resourceful in a noncombative role but I feel like there's more options for this that focus more on stabilization rather than full on curing anyone of any ailment at anytime with impeccable knowledge.

 

@Parionplayed like a talk-therapist in haelunor and gave my character a prescription for a herbal remedy and that ended up being a big part of her character, particularly with followup appointments. It was a neat type of medical roleplay I hadn't seen done before and made a really big impact on my character and how she proceeded. 

 

I think we got to encourage people to let themselves be wrong or do things incomplete. There's nothing super wrong with the all knowing cure-all medic, I just think people will often find they much more enjoy the latter on both the healing and healed end of things if it allows for characters to develop rather than erase problems.

 

(This is also why there is no *cast heal* magic approved because of this philosophy under the lore criteria for healing)

 

If you want a longer read

[Lirinya 4021]

4 hours ago, squakhawk said:

 

I think we got to encourage people to let themselves be wrong or do things incomplete

Problem is then, not too many people want to rp injuries. Especially those who just seek out a happy, perfect character, you know? Obviously I don't have stats on that- I know some who actively seek out injuries and things for the purpose of storytelling, but many more who refuse anything because they don't want to injure their precious character.

[Wand 1220]

It definitely comes in waves and depends greatly on the community you're a part of and the people in the scene. It has its place absolutely, but it's often draining and tedious unless you get creative, and that can get complicated very quickly in a large setting of say dozens of players or more. It's easiest with one on one, when both the healer and the other side can set a pace. That gets complicated in a city where say, your NL could be wounded, and their guards are rushing them along to be healed, and there can be characters around you imaginably getting impatient. It's rough to sit there for like an hour or so or more depending on the severity of it.

I used to play a cleric from Axios to Atlas until it got shelved. The magic back then required basic knowledge of anatomy to heal the parts you were interacting with. If I didn't know what an orc muscle looked like, I couldn't heal it basically. These days, things are definitely including much more alchemy, or at least the very basics being the Herbs themselves - Tippen's, Blissfoil, etc you name it, with premade kits of bandages and so on (which I'll say is at least better than doing the equivalent of a 21st century surgery on the guardsman that just got his arm broken in a patrol and has bone sticking out of it, but can definitely be repetitive when healers have to stay optimized to deal with supernatural or severe cases often). Things got more efficient and that's not a bad thing when not everyone wants to spend time doing the healing RP. Hell, even back when I did cleric healing, I had the Emperor at the time with a wound and don't blame him one bit for ordering takeout and eating while the healing emotes went on.

Medical settings also tend to get messy the more players get involved (naturally) - you want to keep it tidy in RP, but everyone's going to be worried about their loved one, friend, ally, etcetera that's on the cot getting healed, so you get crowds often in cramped spaces
(Would love to see more family members throwing themselves incoherently at bedside wailing and needing to be removed or pulled back, gotta play up the dramatics of it after all, and that definitely keeps a scene diverse)

Something I do see great work on is the occasional medical 'lesson', where there's characters sat down and interested in what's being taught, even if it's basic wound dressing. I'd definitely suggest if not doing medical RP (which requires you to get there before whoever has Shaman/Kani/Alchemy Life Waters does as well), then try teaching medical RP that way.

Ultimately, as long as both sides are engaged that's what matters most, and it's hard sometimes to ask people to stay engaged or interested with anything medical when all they can do is emote pain or repeating the state of their wounds back to the healer without it getting tedious. Otherwise, it's just RP that comes and goes as people have different interests, and I can't blame people for putting it in the category of things like sleeping, eating and other tedium that has to happen but just isn't always fleshed out so they can focus on something else.

[squakhawk 14038]

1 hour ago, Lirinya said:

Problem is then, not too many people want to rp injuries. Especially those who just seek out a happy, perfect character, you know? Obviously I don't have stats on that- I know some who actively seek out injuries and things for the purpose of storytelling, but many more who refuse anything because they don't want to injure their precious character.

 

Fair point

[Ankan 2875]

9 hours ago, squakhawk said:

 

agree with this

 

 

i feel like sometimes medical rp really negates the opportunity for growth and character development. I remember doing an event where there were a lot of people with different burns and the medics just emoted rubbing a herb on them and explaining in OOC the burns will heal in a day and return to normal. And it's just kinda lame. I get wanting to feel helpful and resourceful in a noncombative role but I feel like there's more options for this that focus more on stabilization rather than full on curing anyone of any ailment at anytime with impeccable knowledge.

 

@Parionplayed like a talk-therapist in haelunor and gave my character a prescription for a herbal remedy and that ended up being a big part of her character, particularly with followup appointments. It was a neat type of medical roleplay I hadn't seen done before and made a really big impact on my character and how she proceeded. 

 

I think we got to encourage people to let themselves be wrong or do things incomplete. There's nothing super wrong with the all knowing cure-all medic, I just think people will often find they much more enjoy the latter on both the healing and healed end of things if it allows for characters to develop rather than erase problems.

 

(This is also why there is no *cast heal* magic approved because of this philosophy under the lore criteria for healing)

 

If you want a longer read

 

Cane roleplay gang.

[Samson Option 9652]

6 hours ago, Lirinya said:

Problem is then, not too many people want to rp injuries. Especially those who just seek out a happy, perfect character, you know? Obviously I don't have stats on that- I know some who actively seek out injuries and things for the purpose of storytelling, but many more who refuse anything because they don't want to injure their precious character.

 

I'd wonder if the decline in medical roleplay isn't just that: A social pressure response against those players who come to LotC wanting to abstract themselves (their real-life selves) into these avatars of "happy, perfect". I am content with the form of medical roleplay that "magically" ensures players don't suffer consequences being reduced and actively being discouraged while allowing those who, just as an example, might be in some sort of medical field in-real-life wanting to use medical roleplay as a vehicle to teach & practice their skill/profession where it isn't resulting in "magically cured" but rather "remedying the injury/illness throughout the stages of consequences towards recovery".

 

I'm down with the irl nurse teaching me something neat about traumatic injuries. I'm not down with medical roleplay being used to prevent substantial consequences to their character because woest me we cannot have a blemish upon thy pixels. (that last part isnt directed at you, just some dry humor)

[FadedMoonlight 450]

19 hours ago, Cheese said:

imagine 2 medics scrambling to heal 5 people after an event. it’s not fun

I don't have to imagine this, it's just my stupid medic life