Traveling Physician

Traveling physician-role playing out of your own sim
interacting appropriately with and using the resources of Green Caste of Gor and Physicians Caste of Gor. Role playing in a strange sim, OOC issues of traveling, physician safety while traveling


by Zenith Sorbet

Today's class is about Traveling physician-role playing out of your own sim. Not as is sometimes assumed a physician traveling about with no homestone. Such is not BTB to the best of my knowledge. Now almost all physicians in Gor belong to one of the two larger Green Caste groups, often both. These are the Green Caste of Gor and Physicians Caste of Gor. Both groups offer resources, support, and classes as well as a wide assortment of prim objects for physician role play. They also offer supports for apprentices. Both of those groups have an active IM chat role. This can be in the form of physicians who are on line and uncertain out to proceed so they ask questions. Another common use is if there is a need for a physician, a call will go out on the IM chat. Physicians from other cities will then volunteer to go in and cover an emergency. Usually it's battle rp and they have injured warriors or sudden illnesses and the regular physician is not on line. These can be great experiences, really good rp and fun. So I always recommend people take advantage of these chances. Apprentices can often get to tag along and observe some of the best physicians in Gor. I have twice been able to go as an apprentice with Lady Kailla herself, probably the most famous Gorean physician of them all and a superb role player. The role of physician is unique in all Gor because we get to rp into other people's lives in a way others don't.

This is fun and interesting but it also has pitfalls. To do the traveling physician well there are a couple of things you need to know about. This way you can avoid accidentally making trouble or getting yourself force collared in a strange sim by people you don't know.

First of all, contrary to what some people think or would like to see, each sim and each city operates independantly of all the rest. This applies to physicians as well. So a physician recognized in Vonda may or may not be one recognized in say Thentis. Weapons used in Cos may not be the same as weapons used in a panther camp. What is acceptable in a merchant camp may not be acceptable in Lara. The best example I can think of is women with weapons. In some sims women carry weapons and fight. In Vonda unless it is concealed like a dagger, you can be force collared. In some sims any weapons at all, even a whip of slave goad can get you into trouble. So before you go in. you must stop and read the rules of the sim. You must know the laws of the sim you are going to and what you can and cannot do. So it is very important NOT to accept a tp directly into an infirmary. I did that once and found myself in the middle of a battle and was killed by a panther. So if someone calls you and you say you want to go, and someone offers you a tarn, for your own safety insist on getting a lm to the sim entry point and stop and read the rules. Obviously if you have been there before, you can skip this step. If there is someone you know and trust you can also skip it. But it is dangerous in the extreme to just pop in.

Always keep in mind it isn't a "real" emergency. No one is really going to die if you take five extra minutes to land at the docks and read the rules. Also standards for medicine vary from sim to sim. We don't use kanda here for pain relief because we are a by the book sim and it isn't used for that in the books. But if you arrive at someone else's infirmary and they are using kanda, well you have to go by their rules. Their practice. You are a guest in their sim and so you follow their rules and practice. You must also look out for your own safety.

Here is our policy on weapons and physicians.
I always make a point of knowing the policy for the sim.
Some chief physicians will not allow any kind of weapon at all.
Before you enter a sim make sure you understand what the policy is for the physicians.
Nothing can cause more hurt feelings and offense than entering a sim with a policy of no weapons and arriving wearing a goad or dagger.
I recommend a female physician ALWAYS have a male escort going into a strange place.
You can arrange this two ways.
1) ask one of your own city warriors or a male relative to go with you.
2) Ask you host to have a guard waiting for you at the docks/gates/whatever to guard you and escort you in. If they agree to have a guard to escort you in and then you get attacked and the guard does not protect you, that's grounds to contact a moderator and have your death/capture/attack declared invalid. Plus it saves you wandering all over the sim trying to find the infirmary.

Now OOC issues. Every sim has different OOC rules. In some it is acceptable to tp a person in. In Vonda it is a violation of the rules and grounds for declaring an rp invalid. It does the people you are trying to help no good at all if you tp in to help and get their whole rp declared invalid. It is also not good rp to have a physician appear in a puff of smoke right in the infirmary. However if that's the way they do it, go with the flow. So I have at times asked to a lm to the docks, found myself right in the infirmary instead and so i just rp it best I can.

Example: "The strange physician brushes straw from her clothing and hair from her ride in the tarn basket, smooths her skirts and checks her veil before looking around to orient herself as the tarn wings sounds beat off into the distance." And when leaving - "Sounds of a tarn landing outside alert the physician to the arrival of her warrior tarnsman returning to carry her home." I prefer going in and out to the sim entry point but we are guests when we travel and we need to act like guests and be polite and follow their rules.

Another thing that often happens is you arrive in an infirmary start working and meantime the physician comes on line and barges in. In that case ALWAYS, immediately become deferential polite and friendly. Introduce yourself. I am so glad you have arrived Chief Physician. I am Lady Zenith Sorbet of the Green Caste called here in an emergency. Do you wish me to remain and continue?" Always give them the option. Usually if you are called in you can continue. But when the person's infirmary you are in, walks in, you defer to them.

Always keep a log of everything you did and after it is over, contact the physician and drop them a notecard with the log. Taking the usual step of ensuring everyone present agrees to allow this of course so you don't violate ToS, of course. That way they know what's happened while they were gone. One little trick is to give a copy to a slave and tell the slave to make sure the physician gets a copy if no one can tell you who the physician is. And that happens. What's the green's name? I don't know Terry something, she's blond. Oh duh... Or hand it to the Free Woman who is wringing her hands in the corner and tell her to give it to the physician.

Even though we tp from place to place in reality you should rp your travel to and from each sim. So if you arrive back in Olni by TP and you've just been in Turia, you can say something if someone asks you how you are....like Oh I need to visit the baths. I was in Turia and the desert heat has left me sweaty and awful. I should also note many physicians feel that the whole idea of traveling to other sims is not BTB. Some think we should not be doing this at all, that it took weeks to travel from Tampico to Turia in Gor. You can get around it by arriving and rping you were traveling to visit a relative, you have been on road for a number of weeks and it's good to be back in a civilized place and isn't it great that you happened to be going by when they needed you? It's a matter of trying to blend nicely where you are in rp. Also some people decide they are just not going to do this. I myself have found I am limiting my travel to places in Saleria. That's fine too.

A couple of more tips: when you travel....always set your group name to something neutral. Neutral name tags include Green Caste of Gor and Physicians Gaste of Gor. You just don't want to wear the tag of a city they are at war with. I know we aren't supposed ot read tags but people do. There isn't really a right or wrong way to do good rp but if it is fun and interesting and all enjoy it, it's right.
 

To pass this class you need to go on a healing mission outside of Vonda.

There is one stipulation on that, one restriction. Just because I think you are compentant to go, doesn't mean you can heal in a place where apprentices are not permitted to heal. I simply need to see that you can fit in in a strange place and act like a physician and rp going in and out. If you simply observe as a physician's apprentice, that is good enough as long as your rp is right. I also recommend you wear green and have a green armband. That armband I gave you is mod so you can change it to whatever you like.