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Medical Roleplay

Medical Roleplay; commonly called MedRP; is an important part of roleplay on Equinox. Injuries should create consequences, interaction, recovery, and additional story, rather than becoming a short delay before your character immediately returns to normal. When EMS, nurses, doctors, or other medical personnel become involved, players are expected to make a reasonable effort to participate in the medical roleplay being created.
Poor or intentionally low-effort Medical RP may result in disciplinary action, including up to a 24-hour suspension for Poor Roleplay.
You do not need real-world medical knowledge to participate. Tell medical personnel what happened to your character, describe what they can observe, and give them something meaningful to respond to.

San Andreas Medical Services

Learn more about SAMS, medical roles, and department responsibilities.

Roleplay Rules

Review the general roleplay standards that also apply during medical scenes.

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The Most Important Medical RP Rule

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You Decide the Injuries — Medical Personnel Treat Them

Your character’s injuries are ultimately your responsibility to describe. EMS should not be forced to guess what happened to your character. Use:
  • Voice
  • /me
  • Appropriate animations
  • The server’s medical systems
to explain what medical personnel can reasonably observe. Examples:
Keep the injuries reasonably consistent with what actually happened.
Being shot once does not need to become a catastrophic surgical emergency. Being shot twenty times probably should not result in your character immediately walking out of the hospital.

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Who Does What?

Paramedics and EMS personnel primarily respond to emergency scenes.They may:
  • Assess patients
  • Stabilize injuries
  • Provide emergency treatment
  • Resuscitate patients when appropriate
  • Transport patients to the hospital
EMS will generally enter hostile scenes only after law enforcement or other appropriate personnel have determined that the scene is safe.
EMS personnel are not surgeons. Advanced treatment belongs at the hospital.
EMTs provide emergency and basic medical treatment.Depending on staffing, EMTs or EMT Supervisors may occasionally perform duties normally handled by other medical personnel.
Nurses assist with treatment inside medical facilities.They may assist with:
  • Patient assessment
  • Treatment
  • Procedures
  • Surgery
  • Recovery
Qualified Nurse Practitioners may also prescribe medication where permitted.
Doctors provide advanced medical treatment.They may:
  • Diagnose injuries
  • Perform surgery
  • Prescribe medication
  • Manage serious medical conditions
  • Establish treatment and recovery plans

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A Medical Scene, Step by Step

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Step 1 — Decide Whether You Are Conscious

Before EMS reaches you, decide whether your character is:
  • Conscious
  • Unconscious
Base the decision on:
  • The injuries your character sustained
  • The severity of the situation
  • The story you want to create
If your injuries are severe, unconsciousness may make sense. If your character is conscious, you may communicate normally while still portraying the effects of your injuries.

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Step 2 — Respond When EMS Arrives

EMS will usually begin by attempting to communicate with you. For example:
SAMS: “Hey, can you hear me?”

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If You Are Conscious

You might respond:
You: “Yeah, I can hear you.”
EMS will then begin asking what happened and where you are injured. Explain your condition using voice and /me.

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If You Are Unconscious

Respond through /me. Example:
EMS may then check:
  • Pulse
  • Breathing
  • Injuries
  • Responsiveness
Give them information as they perform those checks.

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Step 3 — Provide Pulse & Breathing Information

If your character is unconscious, EMS will likely need information about vital signs. Keep it as simple as you want. Example:
You do not need exact numbers unless you want to use them.

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Pulse

Your character’s pulse might be:
  • Strong
  • Weak
  • Rapid
  • Slow
  • Absent
Optional reference:
A character with no pulse is in an extremely serious condition. If you choose to portray your character as pulseless, consider where you want that storyline to go.

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Respirations

Your character’s breathing might be:
  • Normal
  • Shallow
  • Rapid
  • Slow
  • Irregular
  • Absent
Optional reference: If your character is no longer breathing, their condition should continue to deteriorate unless successfully treated.

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Pulse Check System

Equinox includes a pulse-check system. When an LEO or EMS member checks your pulse, you may be given options allowing you to communicate your character’s condition directly to the first responder. Choose the option that best matches the medical story you are portraying.

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Step 4 — Describe Your Injuries

Once EMS begins examining you, describe the injuries that caused your character to become incapacitated. Medical personnel should respond to the injuries you provide rather than inventing them for you.

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Example — Unconscious Gunshot Patient

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Example — Conscious Gunshot Patient

You might say:
“I got shot. I think there’s one in my stomach, one in my chest, and another in my leg. I don’t think any of them came through. I’m not feeling too good.”
Both approaches work. The important part is that EMS now has something to respond to.

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Step 5 — Allow EMS to Stabilize You

EMS may attempt to stabilize your character using:
  • Bleeding control
  • Airway management
  • Resuscitation
  • Medication
  • Other emergency treatment
Mechanically, EMS may revive your character as part of stabilization.
A mechanical revive does not mean your injuries disappeared. Treat the revive as successful stabilization that allows the roleplay to continue.

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ALS / Hospital Respawn

If your character is not successfully resuscitated, the server may eventually send you to the nearest hospital. Within Equinox, this is commonly referred to as: ALS An ALS respawn represents your character receiving off-screen medical treatment. Applicable memory-loss rules regarding the events leading to your medical situation may apply.
Do not use ALS simply as a convenient way to escape an active roleplay scene.

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Do I Have to Go to the Hospital?

Not every medical scene needs to end at the hospital If your character is conscious and medically stable, you may decide not to be transported. You should still continue roleplaying your injuries afterward. If your character is unconscious or their condition reasonably requires additional treatment, hospital transportation may become part of the scene. EMS may strongly recommend transport based on the injuries you described.

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Transportation

If your character is transported, EMS may move you into an ambulance and take you to the hospital. Because of game limitations, you may occasionally need to:
  • Walk to the ambulance
  • Enter the ambulance manually
  • Exit the ambulance yourself
  • Walk into the hospital manually
When this happens, roleplay the movement as though EMS is transporting you using a:
  • Stretcher
  • Wheelchair
  • Assisted carry
Do not suddenly treat your character as fully healthy simply because a game mechanic requires you to walk.

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Arriving at the Hospital

Once you arrive, EMS may transfer your care to:
  • A doctor
  • A nurse
  • Other SAMS medical personnel
  • Local Doctors
EMS may provide a handoff describing:
  • What happened
  • Your injuries
  • Treatment performed
  • Your current condition
The level of medical detail may vary depending on the players involved.

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Local Doctors

If no player doctors or nurses are available, your character may be treated by Local Doctors. Local Doctors represent NPC medical personnel working within the hospital. When using Local Doctors, you control the treatment through text roleplay. Examples:
You may then determine whether your character:
  • Is discharged
  • Enters recovery
  • Is admitted
  • Goes to ICU
Use Local Doctors to continue the story, not simply erase your injuries.

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Surgery & Advanced Treatment

Serious injuries may require surgery. Doctors may communicate with you throughout the procedure and ask for information about what they discover. Example:
Doctor: “Let’s get some imaging and see where those rounds are and whether there is internal damage.”
You might respond:
The doctor can then continue treatment based on the information you provide.

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You Control the Medical Story

You may keep treatment straightforward. Example:
Or you may introduce reasonable complications. Example:
This gives medical personnel additional roleplay to react to.
Complications should still make sense based on the original injury. You do not need to turn every surgery into a medical disaster.

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Regaining Consciousness

If your character remained unconscious during treatment, you generally decide when they begin regaining consciousness unless sedation or another roleplay circumstance prevents it. Medical staff may provide a cue. For example:
Doctor: “We’ll give the sedative a little time to wear off.”
That may be your opportunity to begin waking up and transition back to voice roleplay.

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Recovery Matters

Treatment does not need to mean your character instantly returns to perfect health. Consider carrying the consequences of serious injuries into later roleplay. Examples include:
  • Limping
  • Bandages
  • Pain
  • Limited movement
  • Scarring
  • Follow-up appointments
  • Medication
  • Physical therapy
  • Temporary inability to perform certain activities
You do not need to spend a real-world month recovering from every injury. The goal is simply to give serious events some weight.

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Permanent Death / Perma

Permanent character death is ultimately controlled by the player who owns the character. Medical personnel cannot force another player to permanently kill their character. If you decide your character’s injuries will result in permanent death, clearly communicate that decision to the medical personnel involved.
Once you confirm a permanent death, the decision is final. That character’s story has ended.

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Tips for Better Medical RP

Do not make first responders repeatedly guess what injuries your character has.Use /me, voice, and the available medical systems to describe what they can observe.
Your injuries should generally reflect what happened.Avoid turning every medical scene into an impossible list of catastrophic wounds.
Being mechanically revived does not mean your character is suddenly healthy.Continue portraying the injuries you established.
Medical personnel are putting effort into creating roleplay with you.Short /me responses are completely fine.Silence with no information gives them almost nothing to work with.
Avoid casually using your phone during serious treatment unless there is an appropriate roleplay reason.Being on an operating table while scrolling through messages quickly destroys the scene.
Hospital interiors can become crowded.When appropriate, lower your voice proximity to whisper to prevent overlapping conversations from overwhelming the room.
EMS primarily handles emergency stabilization and transportation.Do not expect paramedics to perform full surgical procedures in the street.Advanced treatment belongs at the hospital.

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Medical RP Quick Reference

You do not need to know medical terminology. You do not need perfect vital signs. You do not need to write paragraphs every time EMS checks you. Give medical personnel the basics:

Consciousness

Are you conscious or unconscious?

Breathing

Are you breathing normally, poorly, or not at all?

Pulse

Is your pulse strong, weak, rapid, slow, or absent?

Injuries

Where are you injured, and how serious are those injuries?
Then respond to the treatment happening around you.
A simple injury handled well will create much better roleplay than an overly complicated medical scenario nobody can follow.
Give medical personnel something to treat, accept the consequences, and let the scene develop.