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Roleplaying Injuries


Smilesville

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We all know it's bad not to roleplay injuries - being hit with a taser and running off as soon as you jump up without a substantial RP reason, for example, is bad form that's likely to get you a room in that lovely garage sitting below the map. However, my experience has been that there's a lot of room for interpretation and a bevy of misinformation surrounding exactly what sorts of injuries will incapacitate a person.

 

How often have you seen this argument? "I shot so-and-so in the back, but they kept running, so they were powergaming."

 

Without much knowledge of how firearms and/or human pain response work(s), one might erroneously believe the above statement to be true; furthermore, this brings us to a difficult judgment to make due to the limited capabilities of our engine and typing speeds, not to mention potential desync that can result in two individuals who make correct judgments based on the information they have - while also having conflicting judgments with regards to the situation due to no fault of their own.

 

It's entirely possible someone may report me if I run away after being shot in the head, but I could easily claim that the part of my head they hit was my cheek, or an argument similar to that effect - and because I was not mechanically downed, I had no obligation to stop mid-flight and type out something (an action that would most certainly make future assault via firearm unrealistically easy for the aggressor.)

 

My personal litmus test has been whether or not I'm rendered "down" by the script, barring a few exceptions (high-speed car crashes being one of them.)

 

The rules really have nothing to say on the matter, and rooting through report after report to establish precedent isn't something players should have to do - with that in mind, what are your standards with regards to roleplaying injuries?

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Personally, common courtesy is the main thing I usually run with. Let's say a guy shoots my character in whatever body part by RP-ing so, I don't mind RP-ing it to the fullest. If they went through the details to RP it, I don't mind providing further detailed RP for them, as it's only fair.

 

On the other hand, if a person hops out on me and opens fire without specifying where he hit me and he does hit me wherever, I'll simply RP the area of the bullet striking me and go on from there. If it's a heavier caliber though, like a 5.56 or a 7.62, I'll most likely halt and RP, as being hit by multiple high caliber rounds usually puts someone down.

 

To put it blunt, if a person puts in time to do detailed RP of shooting me in a specific part, I'll gladly RP it to the fullest in the area of where my character's been shot. If the person doesn't specify while shooting me and I get away by any chance, I'll RP the /damages. If it's a headshot, I'll RP it as a graze unless I was put into BW.

 

Car crash wise, I RP everything to the fullest. My character revolves around cars so any car slight crash, I usually RP through unless it's a desync issue. You can usually tell the two apart, so it's not a major issue.

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That's a fair assessment - but again, the caliber doesn't matter quite so much if the bullet only grazes you. A close friend of mine is a homicide detective and has described the .22 round far more deadly than larger rounds, depending on where it hits you - so it's very much open to interpretation. Matching the effort given by the aggressor isn't a bad solution on a personal level.

 

However, when determining whether or not someone has roleplayed an injury properly in the context of making an administrative decision, the underlying supposition is that the rules are a set of black and white principles that are understood by everyone - which, in my experience, isn't exactly the case.

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What a bullet does and doesn't do is pretty hard to RP. I don't have much input on this in a broader sense, but I just wanted to mention that different bullets can react in completely different ways. As said previously, .22 bullets can be much deadlier, as they have much less structural integrity and tend to fragment inside of the body, increasing the chance that something important (like an artery) is hit. If a .22 bullet penetrates the skull, it has a tendency to bounce around and turn the brain to mush, whereas a 9mm could be lodged in the brain and actually be survivable (with brain damage) if it hit certain areas. High caliber bullets can go right on through the body, which is potentially actually better for you if it didn't hit anything vital on its way through, etc.

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I go by what is reasonable and what enhances the RP.

 

When my character gets injured, I think, 'given what I know about my character...'

  • how will the injuring act (stabbed, shot, punched, car accident) affect my character physically? How much damage would it do?
  • how will my character mentally and emotionally react to it? 
  • What will enhance the RP?

 

A couple of things: 

 

A combat medic I was acquainted with said he personally saw insurgents in Iraq keep running away after being shot multiple times at fairly close range with M-16 rifles.  They died probably around 10 minutes later (he examined the bodies), but at the time they were shot, they just kept running.  He suspected it was a combination of adrenalin and hashish that they used before going into battle.

 

Another acquaintance saw a wannabe thug get shot through the face at point blank range after struggling for a pistol at a party.  The bullet went up through the underside of his jaw and blew away his cheekbone.  The thug said, 'Mutha... muthafuckah...', staggered out of the house, and was staggering across the yard when he was arrested by the cops who arrived shortly thereafter.

 

My point with these two anecdotes is people can react to injury in infinitely diverse ways.  It's up to us as players to decide what could reasonably happen, decide how our characters would react (a tough guy who's been in countless fights will react to injury different both physically and mentally than an average guy), but most importantly...

 

What is fair AND fun RP, for both us and the other players RPing in the situation?

 

If my character gets hit by a car while riding a motorcycle and only 30 people are on the server, I don't want to wait for an hour to do the medical RP.  Neither I or the player hitting my character planned or wanted that RP to happen.    So, I'll RP my character having some pretty bad scrapes and pains that will be ok in a couple of days.

 

If my character has an argument with another character, and that character deliberately runs into my character with his car while my character is riding his motorcycle, then I'll roleplay it differently.  My character would lay there for a long time, have an arm in a cast, or I might even take a break from the game for a few days to simulate my character being in the hospital.

 

In any case, I usually give it a week for serious injuries to heal to the point where my character can do normal things.  I have to have fun RP too.

 

 

Edited by jcat
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So far I've had three injuries on my char that I've rp'd. The first was a gang who robbed my character and friend, using bats to down us via script. They weren't specific about RPing where they hit us and by the time I thought to ask they had un-masked so I couldn't find them. Since they didn't care enough to be specific, I take it as my right to decide. I gave Eddie a couple of broken ribs for that one.

 

The second incident was a stabbing during a robbery. During the RP I asked where my char was stabbed since it was important to the scene. He said shoulder so that's what I RP'd.

 

The most recent one was a gunshot wound. They shot from some distance (I couldn't see their names) and my char was a moving target inside a vehicle. I could see from the window that the bullet entered via the passenger window which meant, because of the logistics of the scene, it hit me as my char was turning away from the end of the alley. Because of that, and the fact my health bar had barely been depleted, I RP'd the bullet as hitting my char's arm.

 

In each case I've RP'd the injuries for a while afterwards. In general I think it's mostly common courtesy. If they express where the hit you, rp that. If they don't it's kinda up to you to some degree to deduce what the injury would be.

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