Play-By-Post Mode

Synopsis One of the most beloved things about Roll20 is it's ability to simulate the tabletop RPG gaming experience as much as possible, and I think that most of us would agree that it does that really well.&nbsp; But there's another niche of online RPG gaming that I feel is a huge opportunity for Roll20 to expand into:&nbsp; Play by post!&nbsp; Some Play-by-Post games already use Roll20 for managing handouts, character sheets, maps, and such, but then have to use an external chat or forum because the chat system in Roll20 is inadequate for the detail/features needed in Play-by-Post games.&nbsp; Proposal I'd like to propose the following features to be added to Roll20 to facilitate Play-by-Post style gaming in the following categories: Chat system improvements Game forums improvements Other improvements Chat system improvements The chat system needs some love.&nbsp; Right now it's okay as a dice-rolling backlog for a game, but it really lacks some critical features for it to be useful for Play-by-Post.&nbsp; Many of these suggestions would be excellent to implement separately from the Play-by-Post concept as well Add filters to chat with the following Filter text to include/exclude: In-Character Dialog &amp; /desc Out-of-Character (player) Chat Dice rolls Whispers Regex (stretch goal?) Persist filter settings per-game, per-user between sessions Add tabs to chat window Can be implemented as a way to have "saved filters" Defaults can be "All", "IC only", "OOC &amp; Dice", and "Whispers" Allow custom tabs with custom filters Allow moderation and editing of chats (1) Players should be able to edit and delete a chat message they wrote Allow GMs to see edit history to prevent abuse Add option to show/hide deleted messages as a filter GMs should be able to delete any chat message (1) This is partially covered in another suggestion:&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1619233/allow-the-gm-to-delete-a-line-in-the-chat-text" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1619233/allow-the-gm-to-delete-a-line-in-the-chat-text</a> Allow copying a link to a chat message through their messageid UI for this could live together with the moderation/editing capabilities in an on-hover hamburger button menu Also allow for copying the messageid itself for using in templates as defined further below Persist the width of the chat window per-game, per-user. Implement filter and tab system to the game chat archive view. "Tabs" here could be preset filters in a drop-down instead of UI tabs Could reuse the tab names from the chat UI Game forums improvements Right now the game "forums" consist of a single forum with basic functionality like topic replies and a basic WYSIWYG editor.&nbsp; This is sufficient for generalized game discussion, but insufficient for a robust Play-by-Post experience.&nbsp; Deep threads Allow replies to be nested to facilitate deeper discussions and storyline trees Nested replies could have a nesting limit for good UX Allow nested replies to be "forked" into a topic of their own (hotlinked both ways to the original post) Alternatively, allow reply commenting Provides mostly the same functionality, but in a different UX Lightweight UX would show the comments in a reddit-style fashion instead of a full forum UI panel Comments themselves could be nested Optional and configurable per forum Improvements to markup/WYSIWYG editor Add new style for Dialog Denotes in-character spoken dialog Header with character name, integrated from game character sheet list and hotlinked Possibly a template? Add font face, text size, and text color options This is easy, as summernote already has this built-in Inline checkbox lists Indentation of lists using the tab key (seriously this is killing me right now) Integration into launched Virtual Table Top Make the game forums a first-class citizen of the VTT UX is tricky, considerations: Allow user to toggle between Map view and Forum view or, place the Forum view docked to the left side of the Map view on a slider, like the chat window is or, as a slider overlay that rolls out "over" the map temporarily (or pinable) or, as a dialog box popup like the character sheet widget Should be configurable in the game settings whether or not the forum is available in the VTT Inline game content Allow linking of any content piece in the game inline into the forum Use ID associated to content, like data-messageid, data-itemid, data-characterid, to determine how it's rendered Messages could be linked to reference dice rolls Allows GM to verify dice roll using official quantum roll in VTT Linking can either show the full result OR just the final result with a link to the chat message for the full text Use templates in posts to facilitate inline representation of various types of objects Character post templates: Single-line template that shows Character Name and Player, with hotlink to sheet Multi-line template with basic information specific to game Full sheet? Any chat template should be usable in a post too Handouts and images from the game could be hotlinked or inlined This is superior than re-attaching the handout or image, as it allows the GM to: Control permissions to the handout Alter the handout / image without needing to alter posts as well Attach metadata or other information Multiple forums Allows posts to be separated by whatever means the GM and players decide on Archiving old forums allows entire story arcs to be frozen Post-order management Threads could each have a separate post-order "initiative" tracker Could be set to either informative or enforced by the GM Replies/Comments could be exempt Other improvements Add the ability to tag a game as PbP specifically so that it may be indexed and searchable specifically as such (thanks Paul S.) Justification Right now there are only a few competitors in the Play-by-Post space. I won't get into details about them, as I don't want to derail this proposal into a discussion about alternatives (or undermine the point of this post in trying to get Roll20 to be the definitive tool for online tabletop gaming) but the features I've detailed in this request are significantly lighter than what it would take for any competitor to implement all of the amazing features Roll20 already has that they lack.&nbsp; This would position Roll20 as a product into an adjacent market, giving it the opportunity to draw in new users.&nbsp; In addition, for users who dually use Roll20 and another tool for the Chat/Forums it would provide them an opportunity to finally unify their group into a single, integrated system. Finally, it would provide incentive for existing users to "go pro" as certain Play-by-Post features (like templates) could be made as pro-only features. Summary This is a big ask, and there are many parts to this that could be considered independently for feasibility.&nbsp; If desired, I can break the two major sections for chat and forum improvements into separate suggestions!&nbsp; I'd love to hear feedback and I'll add in ideas from others as they come up.&nbsp; I would ask the Roll20 product and development team to consider this not as a single feature or epic to be implemented as all-or-nothing, but a collective list of feature requests that could be implemented over time or in parts. Thank you for your consideration!

'Nuff said... Seriously though, a well thought out and laid out suggestion deserves my vote... and thus you shall have it sir!

As a text player, I thoroughly approve of this.

I definitely support this.&nbsp; Play By Post is my absolutely favorite way to play!

As a player and sometimes DM, I approve and would vote for this idea.

As a text gamer who prefers Roll20, I’m absolutely behind this and would love to see any of these suggestions implemented. Thank you!&nbsp;

I too agree with this sentiment.&nbsp; Yay Vote!

I have no intention of running a game or playing one in this style, but some of the suggested chat and forum changes would be handy for any game.&nbsp; I'll throw a vote on this as well.

Here! Here! I heartily endorse this message. :)

As someone who has done play-by-post RP way back in the early 90s in Compuserve's roleplaying forum, I vote for greater integration between Roll20's VTT and PBP roleplaying!

Excellent suggestion and details for implementation. As a player and DM/GM of Roll20 Play by Post games -- Big YES vote!

Roll20 has been an odd place to PbP, so these changes would be very welcome. Hopefully Roll20 can become the place to PbP.

This has my vote. I would also add that there is a need to have games searchable by adding pbp in the type of games. Yes I realize it's a subset of text, but is different enough to have its own category.

Firstly, thank you ALL for this wonderful feedback and support!!&nbsp; Paul S. said: This has my vote. I would also add that there is a need to have games searchable by adding pbp in the type of games. Yes I realize it's a subset of text, but is different enough to have its own category. I agree and will update my original post to include the suggestion.&nbsp; Thank you!

Was about to come and post this, but this post fulfills almost everything I was going to suggest. One addition I'd like to see that would wonderfully support PbP is this one: Add a way to move individual players to different pages when they are not online.

Well thought out suggestion.&nbsp; +1

Also agree with a specific mode for Play by Post/Text based. I'm hybriding a game now across Roll20 and Discord, and have little way to control the tokens in the Roll20 map we're using for visuals. (without an API/script etc) It would be excellent if you could simply use the Initiative Counter as to who has focus and ability to move based off initiative with the movement being capped at the listed 'speed' of the token. blank is free movement, and 0 is paralyzed :)

me three!

I will add my vote to this feature.

Don't have any votes to share currently, but I like the idea. :)

To widen the range of gameplay styles that Roll20 accommodates --- to help MORE people play MORE games --- I vote +1 for this.&nbsp;

Original post almost a year ago, with still no response.. come on Roll20-- give us turn based peeps some love :P Lack of this feature is why I cancelled my sub (too difficult to run PBP), and am still looking for alts..... still using Roll20 for now, but I think I may have a solution with discord only....Theater of the Mind...ho!

Apart from not having enough votes to gather a response - I think a potential concern here is the scope of the changes desired. We are asking for something very broad, so it makes makes a barrier to folks up-voting and ties up our low hanging fruit that could be high impact, with much more complex changes. We're likely asking for a significant amount of development that is disproportionate to the player base that would benefit from these features, so even when the time for response comes we may want to optimize for success. It might be beneficial if we could focus on the lowest hanging fruits and try and get measures like this on the Roll20 radar in phases that best enhance the PBP experience. This might allow us to focus our efforts and get more upvotes too as the community tends to upvote concise, high impact requests. I've recently opened suggestions for searching within game/campaign forums, and consolidating inbox notifications - both of these are pretty straight forward most likely and have immediate payoff. Similarly, from the list here, having the chat window size persist between sessions, allowing for multiple forums, and perhaps forum archiving, all seem fairly low risk, high impact changes that we might be able to galvanize the community around. Still - I say "the community" and there really isn't that many of us PBPers, or at least not that many of us who have votes or choose to vote on this - the better we can rally support, the bigger platform we will have to help drive changes in a productive way. And the easier those changes are to implement, the more we can see sooner rather than tied up in a large (but awesome) work package.

Loremir said: [...] I think the problem here is the scope of the changes desired. We're likely asking for a significant amount of development that is disproportionate to the player base that would benefit from these features. It might be beneficial if we could focus on the lowest hanging fruits and try and get measures like this on the Roll20 radar in phases. I agree. This is a great suggestion at it's core, but it's really an collection of several proposed changes, of which many could stand by themselves. And considering the wide spread of individual suggestions in the initial post, this specific suggestion post will unlikely to be closed as "implemented", even if each suggestion would be implemented one at a time. If we were to distill this suggestion down to the most important part, and push for it's implementation, we would likely have more success. This thread can serve well as an "parent"-suggestion, but would be secondary to trying to get each individual suggestion implemented. There is also a good chance some of them already exists as standalone suggestions, which could be linked back into this thread. Here is an attempt to narrow down and group the suggestions here to what I think are the main&amp; distinct ones. (Due to the Suggestion Forum rules I can't criticize anything nor why I think some won't likely to be implemented or why some are problematic, so this becomes a pretty short rundown.) Chat system improvements Add tabs/filters to chat/chat archive (IC/OOC/whispers), and settings that persists for each individual game Delete messages in chat ( existing suggestion ) /Edit messages Forums improvements Deep/nested forum threads Forum post WYSIWYG editor improvements Integration VTT features to be accessible in the forums Game Categories - add "play-by-post"(PbP) as game-tag for LFG On a quick search I didn't find any open suggestions for the suggestions, but at least the forum ones regarding dice rolling have been suggested more than once, likely also one about improving the WYSIWYG editor. So, divide and conquer.

I can certainly understand the focus on things that appeal to majorities. I do think there is a LOT of info requested in the orig post, so streamlining a request is a good suggestion: I'm really just looking for a way to control player movement without a script.&nbsp; I.E. - Locking movement until the turn is passed to the next creature/token, then allow move up to the amount listed in your 'speed' attribute.&nbsp;

Loremir said: Apart from not having enough votes to gather a response - I think a potential concern here is the scope of the changes desired. We are asking for something very broad, so it makes makes a barrier to folks up-voting and ties up our low hanging fruit that could be high impact, with much more complex changes. [...] At some point, the Orr Group dev team will glacially cycle through all the other suggestions with higher vote tallies and implement them in some fashion. So perhaps eventually they'll get around to this one, which I think is worthy and voted for it.

Mr. Farlops said: &nbsp;So perhaps eventually they'll get around to this one, which I think is worthy and voted for it. I agree it is worthy and voted as well :)&nbsp; Just trying to articulate a strategy to bring about meaningful change sooner by interesting more people and focusing on the impactful easier changes first.

Oh, this would be great! I have to go between Roll20, Worldanvil, Gamersplane and Discord to make my games work; I'd include Obsidian Portal in that as well if they weren't so awful. It'd be nice to go to one website instead of having to jump between multiple services...

+1 Bump