Introduction
Glossary
Pernese
Herbs and Medicines
Basic Healing
RP Skills
Healer Hall
Commands and *ON* duty?
Apprentice
Cots & Coding Projects
That Pesky
Spammy Healer Knot
That Big
+info Thingy
Healing
the Big things (Dragons)
What to
do about search?!
The Poor
Life of an Apprentice
Greetings, and welcome to Healer Hall! As a new Junior Apprentice Healer, you're probably wondering what you can and what you should do. This manual will help explain your responsibilities and hopefully get you started on the things you need to learn. This manual presents everything in a very out of character fashion, discussing things that wouldn't exist in the virtual world, such as code, the Pern books, and how to handle emergency tinyplots. There are three things you need to do and learn as a Junior Apprentice before you will be promoted to Senior Apprentice, at which time you are allowed to practice some medicine unsupervised. The first is to learn all the basic Pernese herbs and medicines, how we use them, and what they do. (No need to memorize all this information, of course! Just get familiar enough with it to find what you want to know quickly, and well be happy.) The second is to learn the basic healing skills that you will be employing later in tinyplots. The third is to put the first two together and be involved in a tinyplot as a Healer, even if it's just helping out or watching.
The reason for the Junior Apprentice rank is so that completely inexperienced people are not placed in a position that they are not yet ready to handle. This sometimes means that apprentices who are ready to handle those situations are not allowed to, simply for the sake of rules. While those of you in this position may dislike it, it is certainly better than the alternative. There are several people that you should get to know as soon as possible. The first is the Craftmaster. He/She is your contact point should you have any problems with the craft as a whole. Next is Craftsecond. S/he should be contacted if you feel there is something you can not approach the Craftmaster about, or if the Craftmaster is unavailable. The Apprentice Master's job is to act like a mentor to all apprentices. They are responsible for testing and notifying the Craftmaster of Apprentice Healers who are fit for promotions. They can usually answer any question you might have, or direct you to someone who can answer.
If you can't find the Apprentice Master, then ask one of the other
Journeymen or Masters. They should be able to answer most questions
as well. Finally, you may be approached by a Journeyman or Master who
offers to be your mentor. This is not an in-character position, but
can be invaluable. Its also permissible to ask someone to become your
mentor and give you advice and answers when you have questions. There
are three
things you should begin learning or doing immediately. The first is
to go to the male or female dorms on the second floor of the Healer
Hall and type '@link me=here'. This will mean every time you teleport
'home' you will be transported back to that room. You may like to code
yourself a cot, there's information on this in one of the
following paragraphs. The second is how to use your knot.
The third is how to use +info.
| OOC: |
Out Of Character - This is what you, the player do or think, as opposed to what your character does or thinks. When you page a patient asking what is wrong with him or her, that's OOC. Your character is not actually contacting someone. |
| IC | In Character - This is what your character does or thinks, as opposed to what you do or think. |
| RL | Real Life - We all know what this is, I hope. ;) |
| VR | Virtual Reality - When one refers to one's character's life, in the game, or the world of Pern. These things are VR. |
| TP | TinyPlot - Any plot that people like to roleplay. Most TP's are spontaneous things. |
| ETP |
Emergency TinyPlot - This is what we, as Healers, are usually called in to handle. |
| DLG | DragonLover's Guide to Pern - Contains lots of useful information about Pern which can help you roleplay any character more authentically. |
| Spam | 'Getting spammed' refers to the condition of not being able to keep up with what's going on, because everything is scrolling by too quickly. Spam, therefore, is the stuff that's scrolling by too quickly to keep up with. |
| DH | Dragon Healing - This is the skill of healing Dragons and Dragonkin. Healers have no skill at all in dragonhealing. |
| PC | Player Character - A character (like yours) who is played by a RL person. |
| NPC | Non-Player Character - A character, mentioned either by name or by title, who does not have a player on the MUSH. For example, Master Snider is an NPC. |
There are no synthetic medicines on Pern. Everything we
use comes from a plant of some sort. Most of you are already familiar
with the most common ones: numbweed, redwort, and fellis. There are
many others, all of which you must become at least somewhat familiar
with OOC, and very familiar with IC. The only things you need to know
OOCly is what they are used for, and to be able to pose using them.
This manual will not discuss all the different herbs used on Pern. If
you own a Dragon Lover's Guide (DLG), there is some information in the
section on the Healer Craft. The '+info healer herbs' command will list
most of the common herbs on Pern, and you can get information on specific
herbs by typing '+info healer <herbname>'. The Healer Crafthall
has an Herb Garden which has some good information on most of the herbs,
as well as their appearances. Of special note among the herbs is fellis.
In the books it is used quite commonly, but on the MUSH fellis is regarded
as a very dangerous drug, something akin to opium. There are other drugs
which are never used by apprentices, and those are
marked with an asterisk on the list of +info healer herbs.
*** AN APPRENTICE SHOULD NEVER ADMINISTER FELLIS ***
Teaching you basic healing is the responsibility of the Healers at the Hall. A healer will, at least IC, take you with them on their rounds, have you watch them and respond, and in some cases, you will even help out. IC, this happens several times a week, although again, this might not actually happen OOC. A junior apprentice is not normally supposed to treat a patient unless he/she is under the supervision of a higher-ranking Healer. Only in an emergency should one practice medicine unsupervised (an emergency means that there are no available masters or journeymen and the person *needs* help). The apprentice should do everything in her/his power to first contact a higher-ranking Healer. Now, assuming you have done everything humanly possible and there's still no one else available, then you can try and handle the situation yourself. By available, we mean that there is someone who can attend IC or OOCly. If the injury is anything less than life threatening, then you should not try to heal them, but wait for a senior Healer to become available. But, saying that, there are a few things to keep in mind.
First, do *not* try to handle things that your character
should not be able to do. Minor cuts and headaches are fine. Intrusive
surgery is not. :) Even if you are a RL medical doctor, your character
isn't! Second, when walking into a TP where you do not know what has
happened (90% of them will be like this - emergency TP's), always page
the patient OOC and ask them what happened and what they want to be
wrong with their character. If someone doesn't want a broken leg, it's
not nice to diagnose one. Third,
once you have found out via page what is going on and what you should
be diagnosing, RP the situation accordingly. You might think the person
has something completely different IC than what you were told OOC the
person has. Fourthly, if you think the injury is not within the bounds
of either your skill or the generally skill of Healers on Pern, please
tell them so politely over page. Try and offer alternatives, or contact
a Master or Journeyman for assistance.
IMPORTANT: Don't ever force anyone to RP something they don't want to; have fun, but be nice.
Note
This is very important! Any time an Apprentice (Junior or Senior) treats someone, that Apprentice must make a report describing what happened and how the situation was handled to the Craftmaster, Craftsecond, the Apprentice Master. This can be in person or in the form of +mail (preferred). This is just so that we know what you've been doing when it comes time to discuss promotions.
In addition, if you are working in an area where another Healer is already posted, you should *always* +mail that Healer (or make an in-person report) to let them know what happened and what you did. It's not nice to wake up and find out from a lower-caverns person that a rider in one's Weyr was wounded last night and one hadn't even been told about it. :)
Finally, consider +mailing the person you treated, reminding them of what happened and recovery times.
The Healer Hall has many useful functions. The Hall has a very useful help function that shows you each command. To access the help for the hall, type 'healer help'. It will bring up a list of all the commands that function from the Crafthall rooms. To check how a specific command works, type 'healer help <command>'. It's all user-friendly and really doesn't require any more explanation.
Being on duty
Junior apprentices are normally not allowed on duty, except when they are working under another practicing Healer. Therefore, most of the time your duty will be set 'off' (you can set your duty status with the Hall Commands). You may set yourself on duty when working on a project, or when working with another Healer.
Apprentice Cots and Coding Projects
All apprentices live at Healer Hall, where they spend most of their days attending classes, studying, and learning to heal people (IC, anyway). You are NOT free to leave the Hall whenever you wish, you must have permission from a Journeyman or Master healer. If there isn't a Journeyman or Master on to ask, then please use an IC excuse to be where you are going. Do not disgrace the Hall - we will hear of it! :)
Therefore, the first thing you may wish to code is build yourself a cot or bed. This is by no means necessary, but it can give you a good insight into what makes the mush tick. This will in all likelihood be your first coding experience on PernMUSH. Don't let it scare you! :)
A fully coded cot has been set visual in the female apprentice dorms. It was coded specifically for new coders to use as a model for their own cots. It is mostly self-explanatory, and you can look at its code by going into the dorms (yes, maleapprentices can enter the female apprentice dorm) and typing 'examine apprentice cot'. Copy as much of the code as you like, or customize it for your own cot. If you have any questions about what the flags or attributes mean, just ask another Healer, or look them up in the help files. This manual will not explain coding, that's what the online help files are for. :) Please note that all cots should be set dark, and should not be set puppet or be triggered to respond when people enter or leave the room. All descriptions should be IC in content.
Coding projects are not a requirement for promotion in Healer Hall. They usually result in seldom-used objects that sit around and take up database space, and therefore are frowned upon.
Your knot allows you access to the Healer knot chat
system, which allows you to send public messages to all online Healers.
This is very useful if you get caught in an unexpected TP, or just need
some help. To use the knot, type '=hlr <statement>' or '=hlr :<pose>'.
If the knot spam gets to be too much for you, just type '+quiet/hlr
on'. You won't get anything >from the knotline again until you type
'+quiet/hlr off'. Also, you can
list all the healers online using the command '+rwho hlr', and all the
healers in the craft using the '+rwho/all hlr' command. For a list of
posted Healers, 'healer postings'. Other commands, such as '+roster/hlr
jrapps', +roster/hlr srapps', '+roster/hlr journey' and '+roster/hlr
masters' will list the specific ranking healers.
**NOTE: Do not set a knot message in your aconnect.
They are spammy, useless,
unnecessary and rude. They are also annoying if your connection is not
particularly stable.**
The infobot is an way of storing large amounts of information so that it can be accessed easily while MUSHing. The healer section of the +infobot can be accessed using the '+info healer' command, and contains detailed descriptions of common ailments and healing procedures on Pern. It also contains information on the herbs, the ranking systems, promotions and an overview of the craft.
Healing the big things (dragons)
Please note that normal healers do *not* have dragon healing skills, nor for that matter can they heal animals. If you want to heal animals, consider apprenticing to the Beastcraft instead. A number of people can be dragonhealers: Weyrhealers, riders, and Weyr residents. There are several levels of dragonhealers and each program may differ slightly from Weyr to Weyr. Healers of journeyrank or above who are interested in dragonhealing may approach the craftmaster for a posting to a Weyr, where they may discuss with the senior dragonhealer of that Weyr the possibility of training to become a dragonhealer.
**NOTE** Being a Healer does not automatically guarantee
that you'll
become a dragonhealer or that you'll be accepted to the program.
If you wish to have your character apply for search there are a number of things of which you should be aware. Firstly, you have to ask for permission from your area leaders, in this case the craftmaster and the apprentice master. Most Weyrs will not search until this has been confirmed. Please ask nicely, since if you don't it'll usually get back to the Weyr asking! :)
Secondly, please be aware that if you ask to apply for search, we'll not consider testing you until you have *really* decided what to do with your character. Yes, that does mean you won't be promoted. However, if you feel like you'd like to apply for search in the future (not the next one in cycle), and want to settle into your character more, we'll consider testing you.
**NOTE** No Master will be permitted to apply for search
and permission
for Journeymen will be taken on an individual basis.
The poor life of an Apprentice
This section was deliberately near the end: it sums up what you've already read in the other sections of the manual, and clarifies some things that might have seemed unclear or misleading at first. All Apprentices must live at the Hall. There was a time when Senior apprentices may have been posted, but this has been phased out to center RP around the hall.
Male and female Apprentices may visit each other in the dorms, but it is unacceptable for one to stay in the others' dorms overnight. Juniors spend most of their days attending classes, working in the infirmary, and doing other menial chores. Seniors spend part of the day doing these things and part of the day observing Journeymen and Masters in the business of healing, much like an intern or resident medical student in real life. Apprentice life at the Healer Hall is basically like that in a very strict boarding school.
Junior Apprentices are not supposed to work unsupervised. We can't stress this enough. If you are caught doing it when there was someone else who could have taken the case, you will be reprimanded ICly and OOCly. However, this doesn't mean that you can't *help* in the treatment of a patient, or do things if asked by a more senior Healer.
This also does *not* mean that once you are promoted
to Senior you can take every case that shows up. Any Senior Apprentices
(or Journeyman or even Masters) caught performing brain surgery or other
similarly outrageous acts will be flayed. Just because one is a Healer
of a certain rank does not mean one can automatically handle any cases
that pop up. This is because not all healing we take for granted today
would be
technologically possible on Pern.
Please remember to keep an eye on the Healer Bulletin Board. You can get information on how to read the Bulletin Boards using '+help bb'. Our board name is 'hlr'. We also suggest you watch the general and global Bulletin Boards. It's a good idea to add '+bbscan/hlr new' to your @aconnect string, along with '+bbscan/general new' and '+bbscan/global new'. Do not add knot connect messages!
Contact Us
Last updated April 2001
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