Different Contexts?

[Cirra]

DMs, don't you hate it when your player group decides to go in different directions? At this point, you have to place other players on hold and do one at a time, and all the other players can see what is going on when they really shouldn't be seeing it.

It would be really nice if we could open up different chat windows that only include the involved players...

[Tenian]

There isn't a heck of a lot you can do with the chat window from within the code :(

[Valarian]

Hmm ... I tend to resort to whispers, which is clunky

[Griogre]

I tend to tell them not to split up unless it is *really* necesary. :p But you can use whispers, like Valarian said so others can't see and you can share maps with only specific people. You can't hide the die rolls unless you roll them all yourself, but it usually doesn't matter on the die rolls - one way or another.

I don't see how whispers are any more clunky than typed chat, in general, anyway.

[zabulus]

You can share maps with specific people, but my group tends to split up when they are all already on the same map. Nothing to do then :(
And I understand the "clunky" with the whispers. It just feels different, you story looks "different". I don't like it :)

[Griogre]

Well to be brutal, the simplest way to avoid having them split up is to kill them when they do... or at least scare the hell out of them. Parties are suppose to stay togeather in dangerous places - because it is safer.

If you got five guys close togeather all triggering encounters at once they will learn very fast not to do that.

[zabulus]

Well... for one thing, they like to send someone up ahead to scout, which seems like a sensible thing to me. Of course "scouting" implies that the information gained will be conveyed to the party anyway, but sometimes I'd like the info to remain secret until they actually saw it for themselves. What if something unforeseen happened to the scout?
Luckily, the party I play with at the moment (all close friends) can distinguish between character info and player info very well :)

[Valarian]

I don't see how whispers are any more clunky than typed chat, in general, anyway.
You have to remember to type /w and the character name before everything, and you can't whisper to more than one player at a time so you have to resend everything.