Healing RP -- suggestions wanted

'Ey there. My character Rohwyn is in her trial period currently as minister of health in Stormwind, and so naturally I've been doing a lot of thinking about what the minister of health should be doing. Since I've only been playing on DB for two years and both the council and the RP community have obviously been around a lot longer, I'd like some thoughts from you all.

I figure that part of my job on the council ought to be OOC -- helping healing RP to be a little more interesting -- as well as the IC stuff. So whether you RP in Stormwind or not, what are your thoughts on healing? What would you like to see happen? What have you seen done that works or that doesn't work?

My musings, so far, have evolved into the following two plans:

1) I'd really like to gather some of the people who play healers in and around Stormwind and provide some organisation. At present it seems like healing is something that people only do if they happen to be around when someone starts shouting 'HELP I NEED A HEALER! MEDIC!' because a death knight beat them around the head in the street.

I understand there used to be something called the houses of healing, and when Eldamar was the health minister we spoke briefly about organising something again -- a loose confederation of healers, if you will. We could meet up on occasion, train new medics whether in healing with the Light or by traditional hands-on medicine. Would this be well received? Would some of you who already work as healers/medics like this and be willing to help out (since I'm by no means an expert here and neither is my character >>)?

2) Right now, healing RP seems to be one of those things that some characters are willing to do, but the players behind them (myself included) are sometimes thinking 'argh, what a pain in the arse.' I'd like to get some OOC discussion going about healing RP and the various different styles, and eventually put together a... guide, I suppose? Let some experienced RPers offer tips to cut back on the 'Bob heals you with the Light! You're all cured!' moments that often happen in Stormwind, and to try to make the RP experience more interesting for everyone.

--But of course this all depends on what people want or would enjoy, so please, lay your thoughts out there, and thanks in advance.

Light based healing should heal tissue, but scarring would remain. Pain may also linger for a while depending on the type of injury - Having your leg split open, the wound may be sealed but you're still not walking for a while. The healer would also be physically drained, given that your using your body as a vassel for the powers of a overwordly force.

I'd throw some more up later.. but uhm, sort of in a rush. That's my two second guide on Paladin healing anyways.

I think that the light as a healing tool can only aid the regeneration process, but I think if your stomach is sliced, it is medical. Not something the light can fix alone.

Depends on your qualification.

A) A hybrid (Paladin-warrior, Inquisitor kind of priest, etc.)

These guys spend most of their time inflicting wounds rather than healing them; Thus, they're better at first than the second. That, however, does not mean they can not heal at all; In fact, I often use Lay on Hands in RP to save a friend and RP it out as extreme exhaustion, falling to the ground silly. Indeed, sacrifice a Bishop to save the Queen which aimed for the enemy King three steps earlier.

B) A pure Healer

Yes, you are a helpless medical droid who can do nothing but heal. You can cure a broken bone and live with it, you can almost bring people back from Death's door. Key word here is HELPLESS, if the thugs catch you alone in the darkness - you are f'ed, unless you scream and someone comes to aid you.

'S what I think, you cant be good at everything at once; If you chose to be a healer, you can not instantly grab a katana and start chopping enemies like a sushi master, you should at least RP something like "Meditates, preparing for combat rather than spiritual journey" for a couple of hours/days before goin' Crazy Ivan Bladestorms Capitalists.

I my opinion, the Light can actually only do few things in healing.

It can heal minor cuts, bruises and such completely.
It can cure fatigue.
It can act as a pain reliever.
It can aid any regeneration process.

Anything more severe, would require real time, real techniques and real surgery.

However!

What of otherways that you can apply it? I myself, have used the Light like any other magic source, a frost mage doesn't just chuck frostbolts.

For example, your patient is bleeding severely, and you don't have any way of dealing with his bloodloss? Why not, simply apply a shield of Light around the wound, to keep the blood in place?

Why not just use it as a firey light, for such things as cauterization? Painless, cauterization!

Need to have some sort of x-ray, to see the damage inside someone? How about entering an orb of light through their mouth, to either act as a bodily scout, or illuminate the body, so the user can see the damage from the outside?

Or enchanting bandages! With the Holy Light, to allow them an application of a pain reliever, or an renewing effect, to aid regeneration?

Or anything else you can really think of, that isn't to overpowered, that can make a funner process for the healer and for the patient.

Outside of the topic of the Light, but on topic of healing. In my vast experience...I'd say the -main- thing when it comes to healing, is OOC communication with the patient. They need to tell you what's happening with them, you don't decide. They need to tell you how far they want to be healed, if they want a scar, or a broken arm for a week, or well anything. Don't make those decisions for them.

I'm still quite new on this server and RP in general, so perhaps my view should be taken with a grain of salt (it is still filled with blissfull ignorance).

I'm quite interested in what you have in mind. ICly I've been following you (as you know ) but I'm interested in discussing this OOCly as well.

As of late I've had the distinct honor of being aided and trained in conventional medicine RP by Rentarn. His methods are enjoyable to play and by the reactions from the patients, it seems it is well accepted by them as well.

I tried to abstract from his teachings what I should aim for in healing (non conventional) RP. In the end, the RP'ers that are injured want to be 'fixed' within an acceptable timeframe. There needs flexibility for them to decide 'to what degree' they are patched. This implies that the quality of healing RP lies in the richness of emotes/methods you use and less to 'what it achieves'. Rules enrich your own experience but shouldn't submit the patient to it too heavily. Still you want your actions to increase immersive experience of the patient so emotes should "involve him/her".

Of course, this is with (semi)random healing RP in mind. Non random medic RP is usually tied to an event deserves a less 'methodological' approach and a more specific one, in my book.

Cauterize wounds with holy fire!

Seriously, it's magic. The sky and your patience to argue with others over it is the limit.

I'd simply always Roleplay that larger healing spells that heal gashes cuts and other flesh/muscle wounds require a ritual. And that these rituals are either are very expensive due rare items required or very consuming for the caster and subject. And most of all, Require a great deal of concentration so not by any means can be used in combat since interrupting would simply require a stone to be thrown against the head of the caster.

But small cuts and whatnot can easy be healed scarless and what not. As scar tissue is just some sort of default in the healing process of the skin ( I think ) And you would be a crappy healer if you heal with defaults.

But broken bones, entirely removed limbs or eyes are nearly unhealable. And i stay away from healing bones. They just require the normal process of growing back together.

Saevir wrote:Cauterize wounds with holy fire!

*cringe* Don't remind me! xD

On a side note, I can confirm that Rentarn is indeed an excellent healer <3

Me, I just think that healing with the Light would require a tonne of training and skill. I mean you need to learn exactly what to do when you're doing surgery... so I assume you'd needed to have a lot of training with Light-healing in kind. However, I think it's possible to mend a bone, say, with the Light. You'd just damn well better know what you're doing.

It's something my character would not at all be able to do, but I don't see why others with appropriate knowledge couldn't. Otherwise the fact that the Light -is very powerful- is made obsolete.

But to steer the discussion from only being about Light healing... remember I'd love to have some ideas on what to do with healing in Stormwind, too, if you have some. If anything even should be done... perhaps it's fine just the way it is.

Well considering my riptide can hit for a good 3/4 of a WOTLK tank! I say screw your rituals! QQ.

in all seriousness however. I consider it having something to do with the victims and your own adernaline. As a shaman healer I always roleplayed that the heat of battle mean't soldiers could have heavier wounds be healed instantly kind of like a supportive line from the healer as their chopped up. 

Whilst after battle when wounds are given time to bleed, and poisons reach the blood stream, and y'know infections, and you don't have any rush of aderanline or armour to help. I always slap down a totem and RP out a ritual of healing for aslong as I deem fit, usually " Tending to the wounded over night. " If they've almost died. Sometimes even a Few days.

First, I'd love to help you out as Gahalla, Rohwyn. Having been a minister of health myself and being the original organiser of the House of Healing. I think it's a great idea and am more than willing to assist.

As for the healing itself...

I've almost imagined the healing provided by the light (or shadow/nature/spirits/fel/the flying spagetti monster) to have three effects first and foremost:

1. Mending of the flesh
   Instantly mends flesh where it is injured. Reattaches severed bloodvessels, reconnects bones, mends skin and fixes severed muscle and nerve-fibers.
   
2. Restoration of blood
   Restores up to ~450 mL of lost blood (essentially, what a bag of blood does).
   
3. Easing of pain
   It eases the crippling pain that would otherwise render the patient uncouncious/screaming in agony. It doesn't remove it, but helps the patient tolerate it better.

Essentially the three things that's more or less perfect/ideal on a battlefield/intensive care unit. Perfect for light injuries that could kill given time (or if the fight is prolonged).

It has drawbacks though... for instance. The body is mended instantly... which could mean that arrowheads, bonesplinters and such are stuck in the body and that bones are reconnected... the wrong way (the lower end veering off in a 15 degree angle for instance). Given that most tissues are elastic like a rubber band, if they are severed they'd flop back (which could make eg. the m. biceps end up in the chest somewhere or arteries retract or tendons snapping back).
If this was healed they'd simply attach themselves where they are and not like they should be. Which could have devestating consequences (like say... the femoral artery (thigh) ending in the hip. Cutting off the entire leg from bloodsupply).

The easing of pain could also have an extremely injured combatant think they're fit to return to service... where they'd get killed in a few seconds due to their injuries affecting their performance (if they even get that far).

The need for surgery
Surgery is thus needed for things like severed tissues (all of them) in order to reattach them, for broken bones in order to fixate them and such. Naturally, it's also the only way to remove stuff in the wounds. Like arrowheads, bonesplinters, bits of weapon, rubber ducks and other stuff not supposed to be there. I also imagine it being neccessary when the organs themselves being injured.

If a lung has been deflated, it needs to be reinflated again surgically. If you heal now it'll be ruined and no amount surgery or healing will ever allow you to use it again. Good thing you have a spare. If a organ starts failing however, there's nothing that can save it. If one of the kidneys recieved so much damage that it starts failing, then no amount of healing or surgery will prevent that.

Surgery is best used together with healing though. First the patient is stitched and everything is put in it's proper place, then a healer comes along to cast their spells in order to shorten recovery. IRL recovering from these kinds of wounds can take months, even years, I imagine there's not many that'd like to rp through that (they'd be more or less bedridden most of the time). In addition, I often ask healers to restore blood solely during suregy to prevent the patient from bleeding out.

Cure disease...
I'd like to begin with saying that I hate this spell. It trivialises disease completely, gathers them all under one name and says: There! Fixed!. Despite the fact that many diseases are like night and day.

I can accept that it can cure simple bacterial infections and some viral infections. The kind that would infect wounds or cause mild diseases. But not some of the more horrid diseases...

Pneumonia? Maybe, if the patient is strong
Hemorraging fever? Unlikely
Cholera? Doesn't work like that so no.
Smallpox? What are you doing there? Get out!
Plague? Run!
Scourge? Burn the house down!
Blight? You're dead too you know...

Then there's all those physiological diseases... those shouldn't be able to be cured. They're caused by that the body's systems are malfunctioning. Short of modern medicine there's nothing that can be done. Heart conditions, lung conditions, renal conditions, livercirrhosis, aneurysms and whatnot.

Genetic diseases... no. This is because the body "blueprint" is wrong. The healing will do nothing whatsoever. Yes, this includes cancers (tumors however, can be removed surgically).

Metabolic disorders? Will kill and nothing can be done about that. Most won't survive childhood.

Allergies? Shouldn't be around much anyways, it's a modern disease that is almost exclusive to our superclean western world.

Parasites (like lice or worms)... well... I'd say it be better if you just removed the parasite with a salve or some potion than using cure magic.

Dead tissue
I'd say that dead tissue can never be healed and must be removed first. So gangrenous limbs, burns, frozen tissues and such need to be removed first (and in most cases cannot be fully replaced).

Finally... I'd say that there should always be a chance that the healing fails. That the wound simply reopen themselves no matter how hard you try. It just... doesn't stick. At the discretion of the patient's player of course. Ultimately it's their choice in everything.

The biggest issue I have with Healing magic in RP is that someone get's a sword thrugh his chest. Survies, get's to the healer and half an hour goes "Ah, it was nothing!"

Whenever I've healed with my paladin I've OOCly made sure that all I could do IC was speed it up.
I could do nothing along:
Pain Suppression.
Restoring Bloodloss
Healing Bones quicker
Dead tissue.

What I considered the light able to do would be. Close Wounds, this would be no matter the size. I saw it that the Light knew how it would fit together and just closed it.
Doing it will pull extreamly on both the one who got healed and the healer. The more sever a wound the more fatigue produced. As stated no lossed blood would come back, just preventing the loss of more.
Guiding bones to heal the correct way. Basicly a ritual that would a bone heal straight. If it got the rest it should and all that. If walked on the bone wouldn't hold or anything.
And pushing toxins of different kind out of the body. Dead flesh, posion, e tc.
Doing that would also cost a lot. Hurt as fuck, and feel generally uncomfortable.
Basicly what I see the light able to do would be emergency care. It can do -enough- so you don't die. If you've lost a gallon of blood due to a major gash in your leg it will only close the gash. Still leaving a scar. The lost blood it will not fix in any way at all, that you'll have to fix by resting, drinking and eating. The healing would also eat of the heale's stored energies so he/she'd lose some flesh from the healing itself.

I also never just, did a single emote used "Holy Light" and then was done. Even the closing of smaller wounds was more, (unless in PvP, but well that can hardly be looked as ICly since one side fully dies game mechanical wise).
For healing bigger things it would be highly ritualized and take time. I can't see someone alone being able to heal three major wounds after each other and not pass out after it.

Basicly, when it comes to magic healing I don't want it to be flawless. I don't want to remove the recuperation time. I very much think that it should cost both parts. Both getting healed and healing I see as things that would make one very tired.

1: There is a list with the usage of azerothian herbs for medicinal purposes somewhere, I tend to use those for certain ailments if possible.

2: I tend to use the light in a physical way to sew wounds together and then sorta cauterize them.

Marogg/Helanie wrote:The biggest issue I have with Healing magic in RP is that someone get's a sword thrugh his chest. Survies, get's to the healer and half an hour goes "Ah, it was nothing!"

I would agree but... then again someone should not get a sword through his chest unless this level of damage is agreed upon by the other RP'er. As such the level of damage should be in agreement and then the level of healing is planned/agreed accordingly.
If someone sticks a blade through another man's chest with no questions asked.. then so shall it be healed with few questions asked.

On the blood replenishing, you can buy that kind of IV-bags in dalaran.

IV

Jeanpierre/Jeanclaude wrote:

Marogg/Helanie wrote:The biggest issue I have with Healing magic in RP is that someone get's a sword thrugh his chest. Survies, get's to the healer and half an hour goes "Ah, it was nothing!"

I would agree but... then again someone should not get a sword through his chest unless this level of damage is agreed upon by the other RP'er. As such the level of damage should be in agreement and then the level of healing is planned/agreed accordingly.
If someone sticks a blade through another man's chest with no questions asked.. then so shall it be healed with few questions asked.

Well, the bigger wounds I always met was after a pvp event. And after war there would be bigger wounds than in some silly emote fight.

But a war is usually a prepared event and as such there tends to be a gathering of medical experts. This is perhaps something for the minister... an attempt to keep a check on such presence. Well
Anyways, the goal is, as always, to have fun for both healer and victim. Suffering from big injuries increases the immersive experience but we do not want to enforce them.

Perhaps, try to create groups of players, Medics and Healers, that will work together, and all groups will work together under some organistaion. Each group will have a Priest, who can aid with the light, and a Medic/surgery guy.

Rasonal Dranger wrote:Perhaps, try to create groups of players, Medics and Healers, that will work together, and all groups will work together under some organistaion. Each group will have a Priest, who can aid with the light, and a Medic/surgery guy.

Priests of The Cathedral?
Apothecarys Conclave?

Ah whatever method you use, Light, bandages, potions..ect. It comes down to it that you put some effort in RP'ing it out rather then "poof, you are now healed!"

I've always RPed out healing (as a shaman); as being very ineffective, and much like a sledgehammer approach if you don't understand anatomy and medicine already - you just ask the spirits of water and earth (and maybe fire) to help, and you sort of throw them at the person in the hope that something good happens, and if that doesn't work, you throw more - exhausting yourself rather dramatically of course.

And then, if the character does have an understanding of anatomy, they can fine tune the role of their magic and how they employ each element. Instead of just asking spirits of water give the poor soul some more blood, you use a subtle combination of fire, air, and water, to energise them (fire), to purify the blood (water/air), and to get it flowing smoothly again (water). Regardless of this, the more severe the wound, the more I've stressed that the healer and the healed will be tired afterwards. If someone has been run through by a sword, Halya will tell them (after she's done healing them, of course), that they should spend days in bed, and that they'll be ravenously hungry. The logic being that she's used the bodily energy reserves to do the work. And then she'll go sit quietly on her own for a while.

Healers are silly, they undo my work!

I think Dorik is right: give it some effort, whatever the tool used. The goal is to create an immersive experience or be part of one. Use rules and methods to give it a more structured, taught, realistic feeling... but in a world with as many gizmo's and magic as we have, we can take shortcuts where deemed fit to improve the gameplay.
On one hand we should avoid this:
-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhAwNgYGkYg
But who knows what the limits of magic and Gnomish engineering are?

everything you think about healing in this game is just an assumption made by you.

You can't know how healing would actually work in character