Some info and guidelines with how the EMS system works and how to play with it as a victim.
With how things work it’s super confusing. For a person who doesn’t know and especially for people starting out RP we could use some helpful guides for roleplaying injury scenarios and how to get help.
The fact that EMS and PD don’t get location data from 911s and people simply don’t know that they’ve been asking for help with minimal info for nothing.
Also over 3 weeks of EMS I don’t remember getting /me descriptions from unconscious patients. And most of the time using wound examination just shows unknown reasons. For example, we had 5 gunshot victims and only one of them showed they were shot and the rest were unknown. Thankfully it was a big scene and we knew what happened but when you get an unresponsive person in the middle of nowhere and no feedback on what to treat, it really breaks immersion for the injury play. Getting the examination system fixed would help a lot to see what kind of damage they’ve sustained previously.
So here’s a little guide on the downed and emergency system and roleplaying with them.
I’ve fallen, and I cant get up!
So you’ve been downed. Whether by simply fainting due to anxiety, low blood sugar or dehydration. Being gunned down in the streets while trying to buy some chili dogs or beaten up by meth addicts just because you’re in their view. You now have a choice, activate the distress signal OR wait and respawn. If you feel this is the end of the character, you might even Perma Death and delete the character.
The Respawn option is mostly there in case the EMS cannot get you. A good rule of thumb would be waiting after 3 distress signals, if no one has arrived by then it is highly likely there is no EMS available at the moment. The respawn will send you to Pillbox after wiping your items. If you need to take that option, you’ve most likely taken quite a bit of damage from exposure not to mention your injuries.
Now if you have a friend with you, and you’ve taken minor injuries they might take you to the hospital to get you help but this is frowned upon, especially so with heavy injuries.
To call the EMS to pick you up, activate the Distress Signal, this will tell your current location to the EMS dispatch system for EMS that are clocked in at the time. Though if you have been downed in a clandestine location with no witnesses and no one around that might have heard or seen something, wait for the roleplay to end and the other characters leave before sending a signal to the EMS. Even if you are “injured” or actually going to have your character be dead on scene to ‘perma’ them, both are good sources of RP so wait for EMS with the distress signal.
Once you’ve received help, please try not to activate the distress signal again as it leaves extra alerts for the EMS to think there are more people needing help.
- At the moment EMS do not receive any locational data from 911 messages and there is no active dispatcher for the calls. Simply sending “EMS help” on 911 isn’t going to do anything. If your friend is hurt or you see something that needs an emergency or police response, treat it like an actual 911 call where you describe what has happened, where you are exactly and you might actually get a proper response.
If you were attacked by players in a sense that is against the city rules, don’t go yelling out terms that are out of character. After you’ve been treated and the injury scenario is over, you can tell the police what has happened in character and they might have already caught the person. Make a ticket for the rule breaking on the DIscord but do not use those terms while in the city.
Now that help is on scene, how should you be acting? Are you still conscious, easily awoken or completely unresponsive? Simply fainting from feeling a bit unwell, the sound of sirens might be enough to awaken you to try to explain what happened by talking to the EMS while they check you over.
Have you been beaten lightly or maybe fallen down the stairs? At least talking is going to be difficult.
Fallen from a great height or taken a bullet to the head? That’s going to make it unlikely you’re able to talk and you might have blacked out completely of what happened to you previously. Using the /me command to write out what the scene looks like and what the people helping you will see make their roleplay much more easier and immersive.
Now you might actually lie verbally about what happened but at least emote out the truth. Such as telling them you fought off a pack of feral dogs, when in truth you emote out having a nasty bite on your butt from a dog the size of a pug and chihuahua might be interesting and something your character might never say the truth on. Patients lie all the time to doctors on how they got injured but they still have actual physical evidence and wounds to treat to get you healthy.
Once you’ve been loaded into a vehicle please set the seatbelt as the other players cannot do it for you.
After you’ve been treated and ‘revived’ take your time, take a breath, have some water and call your friends to say you miss them instead of running out like you weren’t injured as severely. And you can always come back later for aftercare RP, stitches might need removing or even mental counseling for mental trauma.