Selective microphone whispering for DM's

One of the most successful things about playing rpgs on roll20 is the ability to do so much more than you can do at a table. One thing that always ruined D and D for me was the fact that I would roll an awesome perception check and then the DM would proceed to tell the whole table what I just saw. This RUINS the immersion and kills most of the roleplaying. I rolled a great roll and I want to be able to feed back what I have seen and also make choices about how much I tell everyone else. For instance, I could be playing a character that is brave but know that everyone else is a coward in my group and maybe smudge the numbers a bit on how many enemies I see ahead. Now to the actual idea. I think there should be a small checkbox in the top right corner of each of the players tiles that mutes the DMs mic to that character, only for the DM to see obviously. This would mean after a perception check the DM could uncheck all the people who failed and then explain what they just saw. Then there could be a small unmute all button and possibly a keyboard shortcut to unmute the DM to all players. I see this as one of the most important things in roleplaying games on roll20. Thanks for reading. Thoughts?

The DM could already whisper it to you privately in the text chat. Use the whisper command. For example if I type /w ObsidianSaint in the chat, then the message that follows will only appear for-your-eyes-only. Mute has another meaning. What you described is not normally called Mute because Mute already means to stop that person from talking, not to stop them from hearing. I think that your suggestion would be better called as a "Voice whisper" or "Audio whisper" or "Audible side-chat" feature. Since whisper already means a private side-chat in Roll20 terminology, I think that a Voice/Audio whisper would be a Roll20-ish name for what you described. There are other external audio programs, if your GM and group agrees to switch --- Mumble and TeamSpeak are 2 voice chat options that let you break off into a side-room to side-chat between 2 people without the whole group hearing. Currently Roll20's voice implementation of TokBox does not offer that feature. Your suggestion is valid. In the meantime you might want to try the text whisper method, or try Mumble program for running the audio.

Ah yes, I should perhaps rename the thread but the point is it's very cumbersome to have to constantly type each players name and the message and there is currently no way to message a portion of the players at once. Teamspeak and mumble have seperate rooms but the point is that the DM should be able to address people without the knowledge of the rest of the players.

Yes, I think the suggestion would "pop" more with an edited thread title, but that is up to you. As for messaging a portion of the players at once ---- again I understand you want to do this verbally but I am answering about how to do it with the chat text as a workaround for now ---- it is possible to create a group who can receive your secret whisper side-chats. Here is the method. Create a new Character in the Journal called, for example, "All The Clerics". Assign permission of that 'Character' to all the Players who would be in the clerics group. Now when you want to whisper to them, just do /w All The Clerics in the chatroom this command will send the message to only that grouping of players.

If you would like the thread title renamed I can do that. Please let me know what you want it to be named.

Selective microphone whispering perhaps? What do you think would be a suitable name for this issue?

The naming is up to you, when you come up with one let me know what you want it to be.

"Selective microphone whispering for DM's"

Done

+1 This wasn't on my radar, but when I read title, I realized how handy this would. When you hover over Player, there is option to mute. Perhaps give GMs a way to select (click on people) to open a temporary second channel. Handy when running "evil" players who plan thing behind backs of others.

I noticed a post from Roll20 Dev Riley 2 years ago about this subject. Back then, he addressed this idea, and said it would be difficult because of the way TokBox works (explained in detail on that link). However things could clearly change over the years in technology, so perhaps this Suggestion will be more feasible to implement as the voice feature evolves. The good news is he said it is a great idea.

This has my vote.. We played a game the other day which was ruined when we all heard clearly that the thief in the party had just stolen 10 bars of gold from us.. (we know its character/out of character) but still it made us feel like oh i dont know the word.. but it made us want to punish himm, (although we didnt officiatlly know).. so yes this is a plus 1 from me

Yes Keith. That is exactly the kind of thing that could not only be avoided with this feature but also improved. With the selective whispering the Dr could improvise and somehow ask you to do some rolls to see if you notice the bars missing and even a check to see if you can tell if he's lying. It destroys the best part of the game when you announce everything to all players. They say it's character knowledge but that does not stop you from knowing in ur mind and wanting to punish that player.

I would prefer a /r command to reply to the last person who messaged me

Chris D. said: I would prefer a /r command to reply to the last person who messaged me Chris, /r is already a command in Roll20 (it rolls dice), but a different code like that could be proposed! Also note, this particular Suggestion thread is primarily about verbal, on-microphone, private talking from the GM to selected Players (preventing certain players from hearing).  It isn't really about messages in the text chat.

I think this would be extremely valuable, as during at the table games I pull people aside all the time and agree it helps them with the immersion as well as making certain types of characters (usually the non combat knowledge guys) feel more appreciated while giving them a chance to role-play more directly. I think it could work any number of ways and would be willing to go through a little more hassle to make it happen if it is a tech challenge. Have a private room the GM can pull one or more players into, which would limit the audio shared with just those in the room. Have the ability for the GM to turn off audio for players. Have ability to select one or more players and then push to talk in private or something like it. What I do in the interim is have all players turn down/off their volume while I chat with those in the know, I then chat for the group to volume up when I am done. The real problem to this is NONE of the non in the know players can talk or do anything while this is going on and it can become a bit of a drag and boring for them. To that point, the separate room idea solves for that issue allowing each group to still converse while not interuppting or overtaking one another... but regardless I could deal with some overtalking for the conveniance and advancement of the game that this feature would be.

An option to segregate audio by map (so players on one map can't hear players on another) could help with some issues, but it could get a little awkward for things like knowledge rolls or actual whispering.

I really like the idea. Like Team speak has the whisper function where you hold down an assigned button, in this case it could be a number assigned to each player in the game, or maybe even a short cut key you assign yourself. Right now people miss the chat version of the whisper command, specially if it's during combat and lots of dice rolling is going on, or they are tabbed out from chat or just looking away at the wrong time. It is difficult for other to role play when something is meant to be seen or heard by one person. Right now most of the time my players say things like, ok I will repeat that to the rest. Skipping over role play opportunities. 

I generally try to avoid resurrecting threads, but this feature would be very nice. Even though players may strive to not metagame, once you know something it is difficult to accurately pretend you don't know it. I think since this topic was created Roll20 upgraded to a new version of TokBox. Is there any chance that the current version might be able to support something like this?

+1 from me as well.  As DM I would love to selectively mute my comments for certain players.  /w chatting can just take so long.

+1. I can also see roleplaying needs for being able to temporarily isolate players so that they either can hear only things from the GM or nothing at all. In physical games GMs take players out of the room for private conversations, or remove players from the room when they're not supposed to know what's going on, and the voice/video chat should support all those options.

The new video chat I'm working on on Dev has the ability to "whisper" a player(s) through voice/video chat. You can click on their video and talk only to that person then click again and be talking to everyone else again.

That would be awesome.  Check whatever has to do with stability? Most people I play with find the voice chat in Roll20 can be wonky. My groups all use discord.

Phil B. said: The new video chat I'm working on on Dev has the ability to "whisper" a player(s) through voice/video chat. You can click on their video and talk only to that person then click again and be talking to everyone else again. +2!  Can't wait for this feature to be added!! 

Thank you for all the support on the thread and thank you Phil for the update! I am super excited to hear this is being implemented. I shall have to start preparing my game for the release of this feature.

+3 love the ability to seperately whisper!

David B. said: +3 love the ability to seperately whisper! It's already here.