Give Chaplains Funeral Rights

[Mr.Popper]

It's lame trying to do a funeral, one of the only actual duties the Chaplain has, and being stonewalled with "That's not in the postmortem (there's none written)" or "They're being investigated (sec put it in a box and forgot about it)". I looked at the standard operating procedure, wondering if this culture is even allowed, and realized there's actually no mention of Chaplains at all. So here's an abridged version of what I think should be added to the Postmortem Wishes section:

Quote

Unless the postmortem wishes specify against a funeral, the Chaplain is free to borrow any corpse not being actively investigated for the purpose of one. They should be informed of any relevant postmortem instructions and return the body after the service has concluded. They cannot irreversibly damage the body, ie. cremation, without request from the deceased; it must be returned to the morgue in one piece. This also applies to deceased without any postmortem wishes at all.

Harmless and gives the Chaplain more stuff to do. If it somehow bothers the deceased player, well, they can write postmortem instructions forbidding it.

[Owen]

I can't speak to the exact wording, since that is more in CCIA's wheelhouse, but I'd support something to this effect. Seems entirely harmless, since, yeah.... we just sorta dump 'em and forget 'em. 

[evandorf]

I think it's entirely reasonable to expect security to release a body once the autopsy is done, or decided it's not needed. We fast track sentencing so why not fast track post-mortem so long as the investigators get all they can from it?

I think it would also be neat to have a semi-permanent place for remains; something like a columbarium in the chapel. A place to keep remains (not bodies) until they can be sent home, if they are sent home. Though this may be more inline with the post scarcity of NBT2.

[Lordnesh]

To be completely fair. The major source of my resistance towards letting you have access to the body was entirely IC related, and the lack of post-mortem instructions was just the excuse Navik used to tell your character (I'm assuming you were the Shaman) to get lost. I even went so far as to shred the document you hung in the medical lobby, lol. 

I don't think I'd have an issue with funeral services being part of the prerogative of the Chaplain, unless there was specific mention against such services listed in a person's file. As was already mentioned.

[wowzewow]

I feel this is more of a mapping issue than anything else.

 

Right now there's two places where bodies mainly go : Medical's morgue, and the Investigator's morgue.

Consequently both are locked behind several layers of each department's access, which practically forces any chaplain to pull teeth just to get at a body.

[Fyni]

Investigations already gets their bodies yoinks occationally by medical, adding a chaplain to it would not be fun to me as an investigator main. And I know you're referring to a situation the other day with the ling husks left behind.

I'm all for chaplains given funeral rights, but I still personally believe Investiagtor should get first dibs. What should be added is the expecation to release the body in a timely manner unless absolutely critical not to.

[Mr.Popper]

8 hours ago, Lordnesh said:

To be completely fair. The major source of my resistance towards letting you have access to the body was entirely IC related, and the lack of post-mortem instructions was just the excuse Navik used to tell your character (I'm assuming you were the Shaman) to get lost. I even went so far as to shred the document you hung in the medical lobby, lol. 

I don't know who this Shaman is, but this suggestion definitely isn't a diss at you or any other medical/security player. You're just following the regulations that are there. I like when procedure is fought over for roleplay like in your example, the issue is the procedure is completely one-sided in medical/security's favor and there's nothing the Chaplain can do to exercise their own authority.

3 hours ago, Fyni said:

I'm all for chaplains given funeral rights, but I still personally believe Investiagtor should get first dibs. What should be added is the expecation to release the body in a timely manner unless absolutely critical not to.

I agree that Investigator should take precedence, and a time clause would alleviate my concern of them sitting on the body the whole round.

4 hours ago, wowzewow said:

I feel this is more of a mapping issue than anything else.

It definitely doesn't help that the Chaplain has no way of checking in on either department to verify a body's status. Maybe giving the job access leading up to the morgue and forensic labs? They definitely shouldn't be able to go directly into where bodies are stored, just far enough to get an in-person status report. I know security access is stingy, but it's a single slot job and Chaplains arguably have a place in the brig anyway seeing as IRL inmates are usually entitled to clergy visits. Besides, I'm pretty sure there's a door blocking decks 2 and 3 of security anyway.

[Lordnesh]

In that case, ignore what I said. Lol 

The only issue I see with this is one that psychiatrists and psychologists suffer from, player engagement. If the round is popping off, I'm not sure someone will be able to gather people interested in engaging in funeral roleplay. Also, you might struggle to get people involved unless the dear character is well known.

This is not necessarily an argument against the idea, and more sometime to keep in mind. 

 

[Fyni]

2 hours ago, Mr.Popper said:

I agree that Investigator should take precedence, and a time clause would alleviate my concern of them sitting on the body the whole round.

Then this I could agree with. Something along the lines of: "Investigations should not hold onto bodies unless the body itself is critical evidence for longer than is nessesary, and should aim to hand them over within 30 minutes of them been found. Red alert and command decisions can override this timer."