[Medial Hospital] Apex Regional Medical Center

[Jason Morningstar]

I had the good fortune to playtest Medical Hospital at Collective Con yesterday.  Collective Con was like a house-con in a game store, very small and collegial, and I had a great time.  The playtest also went very well.

There were four players and myself - I created a nurse and thus didn't have any patient scenes, but observed and otherwise participated.  My nurse - Rachel Perriera - ended up being important to the emerging story anyway.  I learned a ton about how this game will play and ended up with many notes to improve it.

My fellow players were Rafael Chandler, Andy Kitkowski, Shane Jackson, and Jeph Schecter.  If you know these guys, you know that they are a wonderful and thoughtful group for this sort of thing.  Here's what we found out: 

You need to explicitly set the tone, using a media property as a reference.  The game's designed so that you can change elements to reach a consensus in play, but it takes too long.  We started out with some people in wackytown and some people in grittytown.  Didn't mesh well.

There was a lot of post-game discussion about surgical tools and techniques.  I'm going to need to try some thing - sutures were the most criticized element.  Clear tape without a dispenser was suggested.

We agreed that times for trauma procedures should be averaged secretly between the estimates of two players, who secretly arrive at a number of seconds it will take based on the extent of the injury.  I really want to try some very minor trauma - all our cases were horrible and extensive and took like 70 seconds to complete.

The players all expressed a desire for mid surgery complications - some a condition that, when triggered, allows others to complicate an operation. You must use your off hand!  You must use large scissors!  Your assistant disappears!  I'll figure out how to include this because it is pure fun.  it may have to do with the stress action you choose.

Speaking of stress actions, I learned that these need to be refined, and when they are chosen is important.  Right now it's the top of the scene, but that may not always be optimal.

There was some confusion about framing relationship scenes, and this was due to my desire to make them as open as possible.  That's out the window.  Relationship smust be about your character and what he or she wants.

You need to be able to compel a confessional from another player.  These didn't get much use, even with more generous bonuses (halving stress).

You need to be able to force others to have a trauma scene.  Trauma and cardiac arrest scenes need to be the result of stress actions or something. Cardiac arrests will be fun but there is no place for them int he game currently.  They may end up being add-on penalties for botched procedures.

Roleplaying during surgery must earn a bonus, a stress reduction probably.  Rafael was brilliant as the arrogant surgeon complaining about his golf scores as he sewed up a perforated colon.

We discussed adding a competitive element, maybe an AGON-like leader board – offer a bonus to the doctor who has performed:

Most total procedures of all kinds
Most trauma cases
Fastest operation
Most perfect operations (no review board stress penalties)
etc.

Bonus can be narrative (elected department chair) or mechanical (stress reduction or something), and I'm not sure, but it would encourage sub-optimal play, which is awesome.  Perhaps if your character is not on the board at session's end, you are out of the story or your character's want changes automatically.

A very productive and successful playtest.  Thanks guys!

[Emily Care]

Jason, this sounds intriguing. ER the role playing game? It sounds very action and mechanic oriented from your description. How much time was spent acting or playing out scenes?

best,
Emily

[Jason Morningstar]

Hi Emily,

The surgery scenes lend themselves to some roleplaying, and it's mechanically encouraged.  They are very, very fun.  The "personal scenes" break down into three categories:

1.  Confessionals, yanked right out of InSpectres, that allow you to reveal new information and halve your current stress (the game's negative currency).  The point of attack for these is up in the air, maybe work-day voicovers.  Halving your stress is a generous reward.
2.  Bedside scenes, which must preface elective surgery, where doctor and patient meet, so the procedure has a face and a name and a personality attached to it.  These can be perfunctory or involved.
3.  Relationship scenes, where you advance "plot" and may increase or reduce stress.  There's a functional reason for these as well, because you can't modify the game's situation or achieve your character's individual goal without them. 

So I think there's quite a bit of roleplaying potential, and every group will set the dial where they want.  I hope.  It needs more testing, are you ready for a thoracotomy?