Reset Password
Existing players used to logging in with their character name and moo password must signup for a website account.
- Ameliorative 1h
- Napoleon 5h
- Bruhlicious 4h Deine Mutter stinkt nach Erbrochenem und Bier.
- AdamBlue9000 1s Rolling 526d6 damage against both of us.
a Mench 8h Doing a bit of everything.
- notloose 3h
And 13 more hiding and/or disguised

Healing and MedTech in Withmore
How do you envision and handle it?

I am very curious to hear peoples' take on MedTech and healing in Withmore as I have seen it played out in different ways by different people.

=====

My Approach:

I respect the mechanics and theme first and make everything else fit. What does this mean? Well, if the game does not show my character as injured or ill, then they are not injured or ill. And I accept that it is a world with bio, cyber and genetic technology that far exceeds out own. I even see it in places like the Mix for those fortunate enough to be able to afford it (like PCs).

General:

I look for injuries and illness in a few areas. The obvious is the ‘ht’ command. Anything below excellent condition or any mention of bruises, cuts and the like suggests I am injured. Also of note is the ‘@nakeds’ command. This will show you exactly where your bruises and bullet holes are.

Next is ‘@stats’. If I see stat damage or a line indicating illness or injury, then I am ill or injured. Stat damage is usually indicated by a little red minus sign next to one of your stats. Not all of these minus signs are the result of injury but if they usually aren’t there then show up after a fight or fall or something, it’s probably stat damage.

Next are messages. If I receive messages about my crotch burning or the like, I respect those. These can be automated messages or messages from the GMs. Usually these will accompany one of the above but sometimes they don’t.

If none of the above are the case, then I am fully functional. I work fine and as intended.

Healing Times:

As far as I can tell, characters heal quickly in this game so that people will take risks and not be stuck RPing bed rest for days on end. It is my impression that staff wants you out and doing cool stuff if you want and not force you into excessive down time. Of course, if RPing bed rest is your thing, I've yet to see anyone chastised for it.

As a rule, if I go to a Doc and they heal me, I take that healing as having happened right then and on the quick. This is because Withmore Docs are not using our stone age medical methods. They have advanced bio-thingies and machines that execute kickass algorithms as they slice, dice, regrow, reseal and generally fix you up. In the world of Withmore people grow bodies and twist your DNA. They meld man and machine. This isn't you daughter's medicine.

If I don’t see a Doc I still respect the game mechanics (as in I am functional unless the game indicates otherwise) and just gloss over the details. This will vary depending on what exactly happened of course. I am not alien to RPing an injury for a little longer than usual but I don't usually take it too far without really good reason.

Pre-Clone Scars and Damages:

I get pretty picky here because I am all about systems. Here is how I decide if I get a scar or lasting damage. On the damage side, I generally assume that if I’ve seen the Doc, there will be no lasting damage beyond scarring. As far as scarring goes, I make any puncture, cut or the like a scar (as seen in @nakeds) if I don’t see a doc or if it’s still around after the Doc has done their magic. The exception to this is when the GMs step in and suggest otherwise. Then I RP what I am told.

Scars and Damage post-Clone:

When I clone out, the only scars or damage that survive are those that have either been around for a while (thus becoming a part of my self image and would be jarring for my character if they no longer have them) or those from injuries that had considerable impact or meaning to the character when the injury occurred. Other then that, I am a clean slate. Missing parts are back, unimportant and newish scars are gone, and I’m as healthy as my stats say. Again, if the GMs say different, I RP out what the GMs give me.

Cloning Impact:

For me this depends on if it was a corpse clone or a normal clone. I feel it is important for those to be very different experiences. If you real ‘help clone’, it talks at length about how terrible corpse cloning is but makes little mention of the trauma that is normal cloning.

So if my character is corpse clone, I will likely RP as if they just got out of a terrible torture session. If they clone out normally, the are disoriented for a bit, are sensitive to bright lights and loud noises, and take a bit to get their legs under them.

=====

That’s my take on it. How I like to RP injuries and MedTech in with more. How do you approach it?

I think the only big difference here between myself, and what you do is scarring.

I remember one significant character of mine, whose name I think I still can't say because it wasn't that long ago decided he'd not pay the lev fees, and took a nasty tumble. Cutting his hand and almost bleeding to death on the levs to his new exciting job. He managed to get patched up, before death. Considering the injury was to his hand (Hemophiliacs of withmore, people.) He got a scar there, because it musta been a hell of a gash to almost bleed to death from a wound to your hand.

He cloned out, a good while after that. Several updates after in fact. But, his new sleeve kept the scars. If a scar is there, it's damage. It's something that's permanent. It becomes sort of hard wired into you, especially serious scars. So, if it's a big, major scar that would never heal over fully without cloning, he keeps them post-sleeve. The hand scar, and a few others I won't mention as to not give away his identity stayed until he permed.

=====

Another was a character of mine who had a permanent injury, as part of his backstory/history. Something I was ICly building up towards fixing, with notes and the likes being made, Cyberneticists and ripper docs being contacted about it, I was trying to build a little bit of a plot around fixing that injury.

Because it was something that was so substantial to him being him, it was his gimmick, so to speak. I kept that with the new sleeve too. A lot of stuff like that is up to us, until a GM says otherwise. And if a GM had said "Look, you sleeved out. It's not there anymore." That woulda been fine, they're the GMs.

=======

Injuries, I tend to gloss over a fair but, until it becomes stat reductions or severe. If I'm in slight discomfort, I tend to ignore it, because it's what I do IRL (my spine is slightly crooked and hunched, causes me pain now and then.) But if I'm critical, or laboring in intense pain, you're likely to see my char doubled over on the floor, begging for Anor to swoop down and ram a javelin through their skull. There's been a few slip ups, one instance lead to a GM having to point out I was in crit, when I thought I was way higher. Sometimes we forget to check, but it was soon amended, my @tp was adjusted to have my char literally laying in the middle of Sinn St shaking and barely alive.

Fortunately, never had an STD yet, so there's still time to have fun with that one.

===========

Drugs is a fun one. I know this strays away from the initial topic, but I think it should be covered too. I see a lot of people, who sometimes by no fault of their own take a drug, and forget (or choose not to) RP out the actual high.

Going back to Handscar guy. Him and his first ever room-mate got really fucking blazed one night on Jackal and joints. I remember us both being sat on the couch, he was talking about his daughter, I was talking about why I left home and how I got the scars that I redacted from earlier. And suddenly, we both sorta musta afk'd at the same time for like 5 minutes or something, because we both come back and to break the silence, we both RP out being spacey from all the drugs. Which then lead to us giggling at christmas lights, drinking his entire kitchenette out of booze and making far fetched plans that we both knew were never gonna happen (As one does when they're blazed.) It was some of the best RP I had in my relatively early Sindome days (Going back way over a year and a half now, so I was about a year in) A simple scene, but because the effects of an item that a lot of people use just for stat boosts, were RP'd as they should, and RP'd themely, I loved it.

=======

Doctors are weird. NPC ones specifically. When I can, I'll always go PC > NPC for medical treatment, even if it's more expensive. I know Chow is a quick fix when ya bleeding out after the latest sniper shot up Fuller. But if your arm isn't hanging off, or you're not crit and bleeding, go for a PC. Try to leave yourself to the whims of them. Put the OOC trust in someone to make a potentially life changing thing happen for your character. A thing that could lead to a plot, and development. If you get shot in the chest, and you're treat by a PC doc who tells you that your muscles are gonna be fucked up without more treatment than an emergency run to Fuller or CGH or whatever, or physiotherapy even (yet to see that RPd) then roll with it. If you don't want to roll with it, because you're worried about a negative impact, GMs are there. I like injuries. I like the gritty, hard survival side of things. I know we have mechanical ones, I remember someone lost a hand a while ago from an explosion or something. But little things. I'd like to see more doctors throw people potential hooks, even if it means consulting the GMs first when they're available. That, or more mechanical injuries. Let's make it fucking hurt when you shoot someone.

=====

Alas, a lot of this is left to how we want to RP our characters, unless told by the higher powers otherwise. I just know I like my "real world consequences" a bit too much, even with the high-tech theme. We can't all afford that new skin, after all.

Medicine happens at the speed of plot. When I was a new player, the first time I got seriously injured I really milked it. When it became something that was happening on a daily basis it started getting a little more handwavey. Maybe there aren't people to RP with in the hospital. Maybe you'd rather see a doc and then go get a drink at the bar while quietly bleeding through your shirt instead of lying in bed breathlessly whispering to your loved ones about how wonderful they are. There're all kinds of drugs and cyberware that can help justify walking it off a little more quickly than might be realistic.

As for clone stuff, a neat one I heard once was that Genetek might clean up most of the mess and replace missing limbs or whatever, but they might leave some things in because either you as a paying customer requested it or (and this was neat) some kind of Clone Dysmorphia can pop up if the clone that pops out is too different from the body that was scanned in at Sense/Net. Since that's not officially documented anywhere it's not Actual Canon, but it might be something your character would believe in and worry about enough to say 'hey OK let's leave the knife scars on my face please, I don't want to develop a complex'.

Something that made me think of this thread;

Does anyone else ever notice people try and hand wave their injury in favor of a "lesser" injury? For example: Bill shoots Eric in the face. Eric gets away and his life is saved by 2103's advanced life saving medicine. Eric tells people and Rp's he was shot in the foot.

On one hand, I get it. You moved in the heat of combat text jumbles and got away and a lot of stuff happened so you can't exactly scroll back to the messages to see, but there is now code that if you look at your @nakeds you will see where your injury is. I believe others can also see it if you aren't covering it. It also makes more sense to RP a foot shot you can RP around and walk away from as opposed to a head shot. The kicker her is it's 2103. In 2018, sure, you would be in the ICU and your chances of survival are 50/50, and you would probably live a life of extreme handicap if you "recover". In 2103 however (and especially since internal bleeding and such isn't coded) You get Super dynamite medical gels and bandages that heal it up.

On the other hand, you shouldn't RP something lesser, especially since it is now coded into your @nakeds, in favor of a more extreme injury. If you got shot in the face, then you got shot in the face. It happens.

Yeah. The furthest I would go on that is to fudge a little to explain how I was just shot in the head by a magnum and still have brainwaves. It's still a head shot but I will try and make it sensible if the need for detail arises. But I am also in love with the way Sindome merges wounds and @nakeds so I could never imaging seeing the game say I was shot in the face then pretend it was my foot. Not unless I was me forgetting to check on it all and honestly not remembering all the places the bullets passed through my flesh.