Death and how to RP it.

[Shaderz]

Preamble: There will be no TL:DR version of this. If you're interested in this topic, please read it in its entirety.

 

As someone who actively roleplays in the medical field, there's been something that has been bugging me for quite a while now and I feel like it's about time to address it. Plenty of people insistently roleplay death in situations where medical personnel are on scene attempting their best efforts to keep them alive, and in a lot of cases they would realistically be able to save them, whereas they fail to in the vast majority of them because the decision of killing the character ultimately lies on the patient himself, which is acceptable. But at the same time, this poses a lot of issues for medical roleplay, often resulting in unrealistic scenarios where a character ends up dying not because their death is inevitable, but because the player is adamant on killing them.

 

Now, let me quickly go through the criteria that all patients must legally meet before being officially declared dead:

 

1. Irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions (no pulse and no breathing)
2. Irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem (also known as brain death)

 

What does this mean? It means that having no pulse or no breathing alone isn't enough for someone to be dead, which is a common misconception that most players have and something we come across more often than not. Someone's heart may not be beating, and their chest may not be rising and falling with every breath, but that doesn't mean they are dead, not from a clinical/medical standpoint. Technology has drastically advanced and we are lucky to be alive in an era where medical professionals are able to keep a patient's heart and lungs going by attempting resuscitation efforts, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), defibrillation, epinephrine injections, and many other treatments. 

 

Now, I know not everyone has the medical knowledge to understand this, and I don't expect them to. My opinion is that players who roleplay as medical professionals should have the responsibility to educate patients on an out-of-character level to ensure that medical roleplay proceeds accordingly, but this requires the patient to be interested in the roleplay itself in the first place. If you do not know what a paramedic, a nurse or a doctor is doing to you, please ask them out-of-character, don't just lay there motionless and make the roleplay one-sided. This is super frustrating for us, because the best part about medical roleplay isn't the treatment, but the interaction with the patient. 

 

With that being said, please stop forcing death on your character without giving medical professionals a fair chance to attempt resuscitation efforts. This feels powergame-ish. Yes, your character can't always be saved, and they won't. But before pushing death on your character, don't be afraid to confirm with whoever is trying to save you to see if it would realistically make the most sense in that scenario. Doing that is infinitely better than leaving them in the dark the whole time. This doesn't make you a bad roleplayer. Quite the contrary, it makes you a much better one. We wouldn't dictate what would happen to your character, but merely guide so you could make a more responsible and informed decision about your character.

 

Additionally, do not do "/me is long dead" throughout the entire treatment course, unless it is a pretty obvious one (i.e. your character was burned to a level beyond recognition). This is inciting metagaming. Medical professionals are legally required to attempt resuscitation efforts if they see there's the smallest of chances that the patient may be saved. By openly announcing that you're dead while your character doesn't have injuries to warrant obvious and irreversible death, you may be inciting metagaming without even being aware of it. This makes it incredibly frustrating for medical professionals because they already know that their resuscitation efforts won't go anywhere, which as a result might make them unwilling to go through those efforts when they would under normal circumstances, and honestly they can't be blamed for it. At least accept death and CK first, don't let everyone around you try to roleplay and then ruin it for them.

 

There's not much to discuss here, as this was mostly me appealing to common courtesy from players when roleplaying with the Los Santos Fire Department or Pillbox Hill Medical Center, but obviously if you have an opinion about this, go ahead and post it, and if you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to ask away as well. Thank you for reading.

[KinnyWynny]

Cardiac arrest: A condition where the heart stops beating, aka death.

 

Causes: Lack of blood, electrical activity in the heart going haywire, massive trauma.

 

Chances of survival: 40% chance of survival if witnessed by medical professionals. 3% chance of survival if un-witnessed. 0.3% chance of survival if caused by a lack of blood/trauma.

 

If you have no pulse that doesn't mean you're dead-dead per say. Know the difference.

 

IN general the faster you get CPR or compressions on your chest, chances of survival go up.

 

/me has no pulse. Means nothing. We still gotta do CPR and work the patient until there's obvious signs of death or five slightly less obvious signs of death.

 

Basically no pupil activity, no pulse, no blood pressure, no active heart rhythm aka asytole, no skin temperature, and rigid muscles.

 

Here's the obvious signs: https://www.verywellhealth.com/signs-of-death-1298439

Edited March 6, 2021 by KinnyWynny

[orca112]

Medical roleplay has always been an nieche area. From my personal experience, most people do not wish to engage in this category of roleplay, but rather "be done with it" as soon as possible and continue whatever they have been doing. It has been extremely obvious on LSRP, however, even though it is better, it is still seen ever now and then on GTA:W as well. From your /acceptdeath upon arrival, AFK throughout the whole scene down to mediocre emotes showing little motivation such as flat /me is long dead, I have seen it all.

 

It is sad, but at the end of the day, you cannot really force someone into engaging in medical roleplay, even though more interactions opposed to a one-sided roleplay scenario would make the entire scene more enjoyable for everyone involved. Best as someone doing medical roleplay is to cut it short and move on. Those that appreciate the efforts will usually engage in your roleplay and provide more in-depth details, making the scenes you are involved in more enjoyable.

Edited March 6, 2021 by orca112

[Coburn]

36 minutes ago, orca112 said:

Medical roleplay has always been an nieche area. From my personal experience, most people do not wish to engage in this category of roleplay, but rather "be done with it" as soon as possible and continue whatever they have been doing. It has been extremely obvious on LSRP, however, even though it is better, it is still seen ever now and then on GTA:W as well. From your /acceptdeath upon arrival, AFK throughout the whole scene down to mediocre emotes showing little motivation such as flat /me is long dead, I have seen it all.

 

It is sad, but at the end of the day, you cannot really force someone into engaging in medical roleplay, even though more interactions opposed to a one-sided roleplay scenario would make the entire scene more enjoyable for everyone involved. Best as someone doing medical roleplay is to cut it short and move on. Those that appreciate the efforts will usually engage in your roleplay and provide more in-depth details, making the scenes you are involved in more enjoyable.

 

It's totally understandable that some people may not wish to do such, but then a quick /b stating that they do not wish to engage in MedRP and just want to be dead, is all that's required. Doing /me is long dead doesn't really cut it.

[Shaderz]

1 hour ago, Coburn said:

 

It's totally understandable that some people may not wish to do such, but then a quick /b stating that they do not wish to engage in MedRP and just want to be dead, is all that's required. Doing /me is long dead doesn't really cut it.

Exactly. If you're not interested in RPing with us, simply let us know and CK your character on the spot rather than pointlessly dragging things on. If you don't, then it should be common courtesy that you give us a chance to do our thing, which was outlined in the OP.

Edited March 6, 2021 by Shaderz

[TheSenate]

1 minute ago, Shaderz said:

Exactly. If you're not interested in RPing with us, simply let us know and CK your character on the spot rather than pointlessly dragging things on. If you don't, then it should be common courtesy that you give us a chance to do our thing, which was outlined in the OP.

Or honestly just ask in /b to skip over it. It saves us the time and effort, both of which can be placed into players who are interested in roleplaying with medical workers.

[Shaderz]

2 minutes ago, TheSenate said:

Or honestly just ask in /b to skip over it. It saves us the time and effort, both of which can be placed into players who are interested in roleplaying with medical workers.

Yes, or this. 

[ThatDutchPerson]

Its a good thing you made this thread, I'll keep this in mind next time Im RPing.

Fun thing is, these things are actually quite common knowledge.

 

A uh.. dramatic and horrible-to-expirience exemple is drowning.

You hold your breath long enough in an attempt to survive, but once the burning sensation in your lungs is too much, you gasp for air which is ofcourse no-where near you. Water floods the lungs, which start convulsing to pump it out.

 

Eventually you pass out due to the lack of oxygen, but you did not die yet at this point.

Your heart remains pumping ever so slightly, untill full cardiac arrest commences. And even after that, total brain dead only makes an appearance after a few minutes. And even after that, the person can still be saved up to a few minutes, albe-it in a vegetive state.

 

The body is a miracle in itself with surviving the most horrible siautions, too bad most people think it is not.

[Ketamine Kowboy]

people need to stop making their deaths so dramatic

[Shaderz]

13 hours ago, Свето said:

people need to stop making their deaths so dramatic

Can you elaborate on this?