A trip to the Hospital

[Ikmachek]

It's the middle of the day, and I had one of those caffeine-addled thoughts on my way back from a mutual aid call in the car so piling one bad thought upon another I pondered: Why not share this here?

So! The Hospital/Mediporter system. We're all familiar with it and it's a deeply ingrained lore reason for the game's respawn mechanics. When I was younger back on live I thought it was goddamn brilliant. It makes roleplaying getting your ass kicked actually something you can roll with and not just be a quiet ((Uh, retcon that)) to the party/mission. Now that I'm older... I find myself thinking it's really not helpful to roleplaying content at all.

I've grown far more attached roleplaying logical verisimilitude in the game that the setting lends itself to. Be that with legal processes, basic US law enforcement conduct and restrictions, etc and I just can't help but now find using the hospital function as... Well, a lame handwave. It's a system that's meant to teleport a hero basically coding/flatlining to the ER where staff are waiting to crashcart some poor level 5 shmuck to surgery after he told a Warwolf 'Yo 1v1 me'. That's cool but it doesn't lend itself well to jumping out the doors and flying back to the mission door saying 'I got better'

 

It's something that destroys all immersion and consequence for me in the setting and roleplaying. So I want community thoughts, do you think the same? Why? Do you disagree? Any headcanons or ideas that mitigate this hurdle that you personally use?

[Magairlín]

I'm of two minds about how it could be handled and you could really go either way (or both ways) depending on the time of the character/scene.

 

A, you mostly ignore it. Your character got slapped around a little bit. They pick themself up, dust themself off, and gets back in the fight.

 

It's good for true-blue hero types; that's usually how I roll on mine.

 

B, you assume the mediporter is just a really fast ambulance and your character can still get the stuffing kicked out of them. There's still room for not dying when you're defeated, but some fights call for tactics other than moar dakka. I guess it's easier going this way in prose, but you could always narrate the leadup and aftermath of some AV fight or TF.

[Sovera]

It's also funny that it kind of implies that there are no lethal injuries. Bullet through the brain? Np bro. Head chopped off? We can staple it.

 

But we also play a game where people fly and can toss tanks around while shooting lasers from their eyes. In those we have people with terrific healing abilities. What we lack is in-depth lore of the limits of what they can achieve. When we have power descriptions how it turns back time to heal wounds then yeah, a bullet through the brain ought to be fixable since they are not healing the person but deleting the injury.

 

If you're RPing you have all the power in your hands. Maybe all the meta medics are busy handling a big disaster and none were available to heal you. Maybe its the reverse and you were tagged as on the line of duty and a meta healer patched you up so you could get back to it.

 

I am not a super fan of RPing with randoms during missions since they tend to just make a bit of mockery about it. Get downed? "Ow, that stung" while laying 'dead' on the floor is the most common thing. No hurties, no debilitation, no worries.

 

My own rules with friends (not pugs of course) is that when 'dead' we can only be brought back when combat ends, and if we wipe then we failed, no rspawn at hospital and resume fighting.

 

And failure is good! It's RP! It's actually, in my opinion, MORE RP than victory since we deal with the aftermath of failure, of wanting to become better, or trying to find a way to salvage whatever failed to happen.

[twozerofoxtrot]

I feel like the best approach is to see what the game offers as tool to use or not to the best benefit of your roleplay.  I think and others habe alluded to the same.

 

Your critique of the system as a "handwave" resonates with me, but I'm willing to cut it some slack when we consider the context of it's initial implementation. Again, as you mentioned, at first it seems brilliant. Certainly as a gameplay system it was part of a larger trend at that time to punish players less for failure and allow more risk taking in play. 

 

Perhaps later on the novelty wore off, and the logic faded. Especially when we consider the system makes far less lore sense in the CoV context. But then, the devs probably had very little reason to change the system by that point. 

 

Back to my first thought, and to answer you question, I think it's fine. I usually see a trip to the hospital as an embarrassment for me simply in the metacontext of not being better prepared for an engagement. It's rare that I don't have at least 1 super wake in my mailbox.

 

During PUG RP, I'll often do as Sovera mentioned and try to quip something while on the floor to convert the negative momentum into something entertaining.  In organized group RP (which I haven't done for a very long time now) I simply went with what made sense for the group. Often times it was allowing my character to be "rescued" by a team mate and having to shrug off the damage, ala MCU.

 

To each their own, and one of the nice things about our setup here is we have so many tools to continue a character's story (or not!) after a down.  If you want to avoid a trip to the hospital, it's well within your control so as to not break immersion. Just need to plan ahead a bit.

Edited October 28, 2022 by twozerofoxtrot

[American Valor]

So to answer the question their are 2 story arcs ((Lvl 20-30 content)) that deal with the medi porters. Everything I read here for rp purposes works just fine.  In RP writing I have used PPD, PCFD and others come to aid even if I shrugged it off due to power sets ((ex; Willpower)) but it is interesting that others besides me have given this thought. Kudos

[MistressOhm]

In my mind, "XP Debt" is basically recovery from your injury.  You're off your game, maybe sore, maybe even a little afraid.  Elements of PTSD, perhaps.  But you have to somehow get back into the fight, and work past the issue in order to get back to your formerly awesome self.  

 

No Debt until L10... well... let's be honest, most of the low-level goons, minions, and ne'er-do-wells aren't supervillains themselves (except for the occasional Damned or Bone Daddy I suppose), and even they aren't that powerful in relation to the rest of the city.  So the chances of facing Death head on in such scraps... enh.  I've seen worse when motorcycle riding, daredevils that are convinced (even after a crash!) that they're the next Valentino Rossi and it was just Bad Luck that they binned it.  But as you get older, perhaps have a few more scrapes, close calls, or even a few weeks in hospital, you get disabused of those notions of Invincibility. 

 

I've rolled characters that were EMT-based.  As in, "What would an EMT for superheroes be like?"  It turned out to be a power-armor prototype from Crey, on loan to the PCFD.  All of the "empath" powers were explained as battle triage devices, drugs, and the like.  And it being a Crey production, there were... side effects.  LOL.  

 

The worst missions are those that, no matter how hard I try, I get my butt kicked.  Veles is the first one, but there are many.  EB's that (in my mind) are incredibly OP, do not adhere to the 'rules' that most NPC's have to cope with, and the like.  What's the roleplay for having to phone in a completion? "Uh, yeah, this is Hero Y, I'm laid up in the hospital.  That mission I was assigned? Well... there's more to it than what the briefing let on, so you'll need to send a team in.  Here's what I know...."  And then Longbow sends in a squad to take down whoever it was that laid me out.  (not sure that would work for Lt. Tendaji... since they are Longbow... hmm.)

[Ikmachek]

For the record I'm not talking about Wakies. Those I never had any immersion breaks with. My only real issue comes with the idea of a hero coming in basically critical condition and just flying out in ten seconds. Arcane/metahuman healers? Sure. Though that never sat well with me because suddenly all the teeth of the setting is gone.

[American Valor]

You could think of it as Star Trek tech. How many times did TNG use the teleporters to fix a crew member from some crazy thing the bio filters missed. Just a thought since we are ported from combat field to Hospital or to your base, It make perfect sense they have a dna copy stored in the buffers and the injured becomes insta healed, which is one reason its not available to regular people.

Edited November 6, 2022 by American Valor
spelling

[Paragon Vanguard]

On 10/29/2022 at 12:36 PM, Ikmachek said:

For the record I'm not talking about Wakies. Those I never had any immersion breaks with. My only real issue comes with the idea of a hero coming in basically critical condition and just flying out in ten seconds. Arcane/metahuman healers? Sure. Though that never sat well with me because suddenly all the teeth of the setting is gone.

 

....but you do not come out unscathed. You actually are....scathed, and you suffer learning and hinder the ability to advance.....via debt! That is actually what the debt is for. Realistically it doesn't cause as much grief now as it did waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....aaaaaaaaaaaaay back when there was no patrol xp and you could not P2W 2X-XP. Going to the hospital was something you seriously avoided, especially in the lvl 30 range, but it sucked anytime after 10. 

As far as how you play it, well, that is always up to you. If you really want to add in the "sometimes run instead of sitting there and just dying and coming back" effect, you can set your own goals, and if you die, you log that toon off for a specific time in the hospital. 

 

I don't know, I never really worried about it. I am with you, with the arcane/metahuman thing. Kind of makes the need for anything else useless. 

[American Valor]

7 hours ago, Paragon Vanguard said:

 

....but you do not come out unscathed. You actually are....scathed, and you suffer learning and hinder the ability to advance.....via debt! That is actually what the debt is for. Realistically it doesn't cause as much grief now as it did waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....aaaaaaaaaaaaay back when there was no patrol xp and you could not P2W 2X-XP. Going to the hospital was something you seriously avoided, especially in the lvl 30 range, but it sucked anytime after 10. 

As far as how you play it, well, that is always up to you. If you really want to add in the "sometimes run instead of sitting there and just dying and coming back" effect, you can set your own goals, and if you die, you log that toon off for a specific time in the hospital. 

 

I don't know, I never really worried about it. I am with you, with the arcane/metahuman thing. Kind of makes the need for anything else useless. 

Oh man I remember that sting and when you still didnt have travel powers that was the worst walk of shame ever

[Ikmachek]

On 10/30/2022 at 5:03 AM, American Valor said:

You ould think of it as Star Trek tech. How many times did TNG use the teleporters to fix a crew member from some crazy thing the bio filters missed. Just a thought since we are ported from combat field to Hospital or to your base, It make perfect sense they have a dna copy stored in the buffers and the injured becomes insta healed, which is one reason its not available to regular people.

Okay you got my interest because I was never into 'trek. Explain.

[American Valor]

Well the fast and dirty workings of the Star Trek Teleporters. It is a giant matter transferance system.  quoted info follows:

 

Transporters, Replicators and Phasing FAQ

Quote

"How does the transporter work?"

We have some evidence of the inner workings of transporters, but not much. They employ Heisenberg compensators, pattern buffers, phase transition coils, Biofilters, matter streams, confinement beams, and matter-energy converters, and phased matter. As for what they do, we know that you are conscious during transport (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, "Realm of Fear" [TNG]), but can also be held in stasis ("Day of the Dove" [TOS], "Relics" [TNG]). Further, while in transport, you appear whole to yourself.

I hypothesize that the Annular Confinement Beam first locks onto, then disassembles the subject into phased matter, via the phase transition coils, causing it to take on a very energy-like state somewhat akin to plasma, called phased matter. The matter stream is then fed into the pattern buffer, piped through wave-guide conduits to one of the beam emitters on the hull of the starship, and then relayed to a point on the ground where the ACB reconstructs the subject.

"So what is this pattern thing?"

The pattern buffer is a cyclotron-like tank (TNG:TM) which holds the whirling matrix of phased matter in the ACB while the subject is beamed out and beamed in. In order to keep track of where every part of the subject is, the computer constructs a pattern to keep track of what bits of the stream end up where.

An analogy would be the [left->right->left&down]->top pattern a television electron gun follows to paint a picture on the phosphors of the screen. The television (we're assuming an old analog no-frills model) doesn't know and can't possibly store the information needed to construct a one-hour program, but it has a pattern, and uses a modulated matter (electron) stream to do it.

In "Lonely Among Us" [TNG], Picard is recovered from being beamed away as pure energy. The computer is able to reconstruct Picard by using the pattern it had stored, working with the phased matter stream that Picard's energy state itself supplied. Since the pattern was pre-transport, the reformed Picard had no memories of the excursion.

Similar to this is the transporter ID trace, which is kept for verification purposes for a long time after transport. This is probably a highly compressed sample of the pattern, plus the name of the transportee, logs of the transport cycle, etc. (TNG "Data's Day".)

"How does that Biofilter gadget work?"

The Biofilter is a good clue as to how the transport patterns work. The filter looks for elements of the pattern which aren't found in normal beings/equipment, or those of known viruses and bacteria. It can simply erase those parts of the pattern, and those parts of the matter stream won't beam back in.

In "Unnatural Selection" [TNG], Pulaski is restored from an aged state by the use of the Biofilter. If Pulaski's altered DNA could be tagged as unwanted, the pattern could be tweaked to restore the DNA (its pretty much all the same molecules anyway, just shuffle some base-pairs around). As for her recovering instantly... well, it's a TV show.

 

I know this is more than you bargained for but it  will allow me to expand on the Medi-port system employed in Paragon for use by Superbeings in recovering from battle wounds.

The teleporter system is actually Modified Rikiti tech. This equipment was converted further to allow it to be used to transport heroes (villains) from battles who were gravely wounded to the Hospital. This would allow the wounded heroes to return back to the good fight as soon as possible. The Rikiti War had nearly wiped out all heroes so we had to create a way to keep them alive thus the Medi-port system was born. 

There is a growing number of citizens who believe all should have access to the medi-port system. ((20-30 Talos Mission))

 

OOC: At the time of launch there were no intial super groups and no bases. First we got the ability to create SG's and later with the intro of COV we were given bases.  I hope this information helps.  Remember at the end of the day the role play you chose to use is the best for you so enjoy. Maybe we'll run into ech other in the city 🙂

[MistressOhm]

10 minutes ago, American Valor said:

Well the fast and dirty workings of the Star Trek Teleporters. It is a giant matter transferance system.  quoted info follows:

 

Transporters, Replicators and Phasing FAQ

I know this is more than you bargained for but it  will allow me to expand on the Medi-port system employed in Paragon for use by Superbeings in recovering from battle wounds.

The teleporter system is actually Modified Rikiti tech. This equipment was converted further to allow it to be used to transport heroes (villains) from battles who were gravely wounded to the Hospital. This would allow the wounded heroes to return back to the good fight as soon as possible. The Rikiti War had nearly wiped out all heroes so we had to create a way to keep them alive thus the Medi-port system was born. 

There is a growing number of citizens who believe all should have access to the medi-port system. ((20-30 Talos Mission))

 

OOC: At the time of launch there were no intial super groups and no bases. First we got the ability to create SG's and later with the intro of COV we were given bases.  I hope this information helps.  Remember at the end of the day the role play you chose to use is the best for you so enjoy. Maybe we'll run into ech other in the city 🙂

 

The same system was also retrofitted to 'transport' defeated villains originally to the Zig, but now they're routed to the closest police station.   There's usually 3-5 pads in the back of each station, behind the duty desk, close to the elevator to the jail cells.

[kito]

I have been told I play "hardcore" because of this But If I fall in a map and cant Rez I just delete the toon. I'm ok if I fall in the street or something or a friend comes and saves me from a map, but if solo and there was no way for me to get to the hospital I just kill them off. (Delete them and move on.)

If you want something more "real" you can go with that.

[Tiger Shadow]

19 hours ago, MistressOhm said:

 

The same system was also retrofitted to 'transport' defeated villains originally to the Zig, but now they're routed to the closest police station.   There's usually 3-5 pads in the back of each station, behind the duty desk, close to the elevator to the jail cells.

 

The image of Lusca's tentacles showing up in the police station one by one amuses me.

[MistressOhm]

2 hours ago, Tiger Shadow said:

 

The image of Lusca's tentacles showing up in the police station one by one amuses me.

 

Pretty sure the GM's actually do get killed or driven off, rather than imprisoned.

 

Else there's a REALLY BIG section of Zig to house all of them... 

[WumpusRat]

On 11/7/2022 at 7:37 AM, Tiger Shadow said:

 

The image of Lusca's tentacles showing up in the police station one by one amuses me.

Lusca sitting curled up in a giant jail cell, wearing an orange prison jumper, a little sharpie-drawn "scar tattoo" under one eye, glaring balefully at the terrified little level-3 Hellion gangmember that was assigned as her cellmate.

[MistressOhm]

... pretty sure she's real cuddly if you'd just give her a chance.  Maybe she's going to start making little Lusca plushies in the prison seamstress shop, they can be sold from kiosks all up and down the Port... 🙂 

[WumpusRat]

And afterwards the monster alerts for her showing up is her popping up out of the water wearing an apron, a little paper hat, and towing a barge with her merch kiosks on them, waving passing heroes down to hawk items at them.

[American Valor]

Or their are alot of prisoners in the Zig, Can you say Sushi Rolls at meal time, just a thought 😉

 

 

[WumpusRat]

Just as an amusement for myself, one of the things I've started to do lately is when any of my characters are defeated (and don't get up via wakie, rez, or anything else) is give them a little random roll of the dice to see if they were "injured" by being knocked around so much. If they are, they might end up with scars or other little "reminders" that they're playing a dangerous game. Especially if they're not the sort to have access to any sort of "miraculous healing". Which can be kind of fun in a way, if people notice. 

 

"Hey, how come you're wearing an eye patch? You pretending to be a pirate?"

"Uh. No. I got in over my head fighting a bunch of Freakshow, and one of those freak tanks with the giant claw arms actually hit me in the face with it. Destroyed one of my eyes."

"...oh."

"Yeah. Saving up to get surgery to fix it. In the meantime, I'm talking to a buddy of mine who builds power armor suits, to see if she can build me a freaking HELMET."

 

One of my characters a long while back got so scared of being hurt when she was out adventuring that she stopped going out herself. She was a robotics mastermind and wore a suit of power armor that she built to run around commanding her robots. After getting badly beaten a few times, she gave up on going out with them, and just designed a large robot to run the force fields and cannons, and she runs the whole thing from her lab at home. No personal risk.

Edited December 24, 2022 by WumpusRat