Group Chat in BRP

[jcdf]

The Basic Roleplaying ruleset has a unique new feature called Group Chat.

According to the manual:

The Group Chat facility is useful when the player characters split up, and some of them are in a different location to the others. Characters in a chat group are able to chat to each other in character without players in another group being able to see the conversation.

Sounds useful for creating unusual situations. Has anybody used it in a game or campaign yet? And if so what was their impression of the feature? Did it work well or not?

I am asking these questions because I am putting together a little campaign of my own and I am wondering if it would be worth my while using it.

[StuartW]

Before including it in the BRP ruleset, I tested it with my own group and a homebrew d20 game. The players found it so useful they tended to want to over-use it and I had to constrain them a bit (players can't start their own chat groups, only the GM can control them, but my players kept asking me to do this).

Just as with face-to-face, frequent splitting of the party can lead to some players hogging the action/in-game knowledge, and leaving other players feeling excluded.

In summary it was very useful for set pieces, or occasional party splits, but I wouldn't recommend over-using it.

Finally it is worth saying that this doesn't provide the full functionality of having (say) more than one chat box, and it is possible for a player to accidentally type something that everyone can still see.

Stuart

[Ikael]

hi jcdf, if you just want to have a group chat feature and the RPG system is not that important you can also try out the Unicore ruleset that was uploaded to the FGWiki. This ruleset is the one I use in my Unisystem games (AFMBE) and has the "comprehensive" group chat feature (called channel system). The ruleset is free but you have to declare a set of rules to use it, unless you want use it for meta-gaming.

[jcdf]

hi jcdf, if you just want to have a group chat feature and the RPG system is not that important you can also try out the Unicore ruleset that was uploaded to the FGWiki. This ruleset is the one I use in my Unisystem games (AFMBE) and has the "comprehensive" group chat feature (called channel system). The ruleset is free but you have to declare a set of rules to use it, unless you want use it for meta-gaming.

Yes I have seen this in use in one of your games. You had some problems with this system I think and you fixed them. Is the game still on next tuesday?

I downloaded the Unicore ruleset but when I tried using it nothing appeared but a grey screen with dice. How do you declare a set of rules to use it? Is this complicated, I am not looking to build a ruleset from scratch.

[jcdf]

Before including it in the BRP ruleset, I tested it with my own group and a homebrew d20 game. The players found it so useful they tended to want to over-use it and I had to constrain them a bit (players can't start their own chat groups, only the GM can control them, but my players kept asking me to do this).

Just as with face-to-face, frequent splitting of the party can lead to some players hogging the action/in-game knowledge, and leaving other players feeling excluded.

In summary it was very useful for set pieces, or occasional party splits, but I wouldn't recommend over-using it.

Finally it is worth saying that this doesn't provide the full functionality of having (say) more than one chat box, and it is possible for a player to accidentally type something that everyone can still see.

Stuart

I have tried it. If the party only consists of two players then it is a redundant feature. If the party consists of three then the third not in the chat group will feel excluded. It only works for groups of 4 or more.

[Ikael]

Yes I have seen this in use in one of your games. You had some problems with this system I think and you fixed them. Is the game still on next tuesday?

I downloaded the Unicore ruleset but when I tried using it nothing appeared but a grey screen with dice. How do you declare a set of rules to use it? Is this complicated, I am not looking to build a ruleset from scratch.

The game is still on next tuesday. The lack of players was just because everybody had their own doings that day ~ Replacement days never work

Anyway, if you want to use the Unicore ruleset you must select/enable at least one Theme extension or the ruleset won't have any graphics (that's why the gray background). Inside that downloaded arcieve file you can find one theme extension which would give you the graphics. And the answer to your last question is that you need only to setup names for the characteristics used in your game (like you want there is strength, agility, intelligence etc. and there is hits points etc.). I'll PM you more about that.