Player chat commands

Hi! hopefully this is an easy question for someone to answer, but I've just started using Roll20 as a player and it seems to be creating problems in our game. I've read the basic chat commands for use by players. /em = emote /ooc = out of character /me = character action description (although it seems to be identical to /em) /talktomyself = post a personal note that nobody else can see. /w [name] = whisper to another player or GM However, where things seem to get messy is when you want to combine words and actions. e.g.  Erica Bohen glares at the dwarf menacingly 'Don't push me stunty.' she growls. There does not seem to be a way to combine the action with the text, or at least nothing I've been able to discover, and my fellow players seem to be having similar issues.  Many simply put the entire thing in a /me output, which results in their characters words becoming buried in a mass of orange text.  Others are doing the opposite and recording their actions and emotions in their chat output. Is there any way of combining the two seamlessly?

how would you envision that example being displayed?

I'm afraid here probably won't be something completely satisfactory short of an API script that give you very custom formatting. You can try some of the  Basic Formatting and see if you like it: /em glares at the dwarf menacingly ***'Don't push me stunty.'*** she growls.

A two line macro: /em "?{action?|whatever}" ** ?{speech?|blah-blah}**

Aaron beat me, but I took time to do a graphic...

(hehehe, though I was suggesting on the same line with basic formatting, but that might not work...)

Just tried it out, sadly the formatting options you might embed merely add the formatting that a message in /em would already have.

The Aaron said: I'm afraid here probably won't be something completely satisfactory short of an API script that give you very custom formatting. You can try some of the  Basic Formatting and see if you like it: /em glares at the dwarf menacingly ***'Don't push me stunty.'*** she growls. Hi Aaron,  I tried the sample text above, but it didn't seem to work. simply producing an /em text box with bold text output.

al e. said: A two line macro: /em "?{action?|whatever}" ** ?{speech?|blah-blah}** That was closer to the sort of thing i was thinking of, but the same thing can be achieved simply by doing an /em post followed by a standard chat output.  The only advantage I can see of the macro is that it is less likely to be interupted by a post from another player.

The Aaron said: Just tried it out, sadly the formatting options you might embed merely add the formatting that a message in /em would already have. Yeah! Thats the sort of thing I was hoping for, but I've tried several different versions and it merely interprets the whole line as a single /em posting with the same formating.  I guess the simplest answer is to do two separate outputs, and just hope nobody else posts inbetween the first and second submission. 

You might find this useful as a hack: Setup a macro with this text (note the blank line): /em ?{doing} and name it something like em.  You can then type this: #em Don't push me stunty. And you'll be prompted for the emote.  Might be faster typing part of it than all of it.   Options and stuff...

(and those would both go as one). Also, you can type shift-enter in the chat to write both your /em and your message in one send.

Here's an oddball of a formatting method for /em: broken Command Buttons. /em glares at the dwarf menacingly. ["Don't push me, stunty,"](!:) she growls.

Wow Silvyre, you never cease to amaze me with your wizardry!

Actually I think I discovered something by accident that isn't mentioned in the formatting guide. If you type your input in two distinct lines of text. e.g. /em glares at the dwarf Don't you push me. The submission creates two separate entries in the chat window anyway.  Perhaps because it interprets a carriage return as a new entry.  in fact, it appears that you can create as many entries at once as you like. e.g. /em glares at the dwarf Don't you push me. /em growls  It produces an emote, followed by a statement, followed by an emote.  So, that pretty much does what I need except that it repeats the player name on every entry (but that's probably necessary anyway to avoid confusion.)

Silvyre said: Here's an oddball of a formatting method for /em: broken Command Buttons. /em glares at the dwarf menacingly. ["Don't push me, stunty,"](!:) she growls. That... is beautiful.

Silvyre said: Here's an oddball of a formatting method for /em: broken Command Buttons. /em glares at the dwarf menacingly. ["Don't push me, stunty,"](!:) she growls. Thats absolutely brilliant.  Now all I've got to do is remember how to do it.

Didz said: Actually I think I discovered something by accident that isn't mentioned in the formatting guide. It's right here: &nbsp; <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Text_Chat#Multiline_Chat_C" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Text_Chat#Multiline_Chat_C</a>... It was there the whole time... I totally didn't just edit the page to add that section... &nbsp;&nbsp; Ok.. I did. &nbsp;Thanks for the notice that it was missing! &nbsp;Funny how little things like that you use all the time after years on the site can go so long without making it to the documentation. &nbsp;=D

Another option for you is the Code formatting: /em test ``something`` thing /emas &nbsp;Erica Bohen glares at the dwarf menacingly ``'Don't push me stunty.'`` she growls.

The Aaron said: Another option for you is the Code formatting: /em test ``something`` thing /emas &nbsp;Erica Bohen glares at the dwarf menacingly ``'Don't push me stunty.'`` she growls. Thanks Aaron, The double quotation marks also produce a good result and might be easier to remember for some. &nbsp;(Although I've actually copied Silvyre's syntax into my players notes already for tonights session.) Just out of interest is there an easy way to cause the /em posting to be left justified rather than centred text. &nbsp;I just think it would look neater if it was. &nbsp;

There's no way to align /em text, unfortunately. [Label](") [Label](#) [Label](?) [Label](//) All of the above 'work' like [Label](!:) but might be easier to remember.

Just to let everyone know that we completed our second seven hour session ten minutes ago, and I tried out Silvyre's syntax for combining /em and speech in one text box. It was an instant success, with all the other players demanding how I was doing it, and within a few minutes every player was using the same technique. &nbsp;So, thank you all very much it was a great improvement. Extract from tonights game:

That's fantastic! &nbsp;

Very cool!!

Didz said: Actually I think I discovered something by accident that isn't mentioned in the formatting guide. If you type your input in two distinct lines of text. e.g. /em glares at the dwarf Don't you push me. The submission creates two separate entries in the chat window anyway. &nbsp;Perhaps because it interprets a carriage return as a new entry. &nbsp;in fact, it appears that you can create as many entries at once as you like. e.g. /em glares at the dwarf Don't you push me. /em growls &nbsp;It produces an emote, followed by a statement, followed by an emote. &nbsp;So, that pretty much does what I need except that it repeats the player name on every entry (but that's probably necessary anyway to avoid confusion.) Yes, I do this all the time. Note for others: Creating a second line in the chat message box requires hitting Shift+Enter, since simply hitting Enter will send your message. =)

Shift+Enter Another nice trick.

Didz said: Just to let everyone know that we completed our second seven hour session ten minutes ago, and I tried out Silvyre's syntax for combining /em and speech in one text box. It was an instant success, with all the other players demanding how I was doing it, and within a few minutes every player was using the same technique. &nbsp;So, thank you all very much it was a great improvement. Extract from tonights game: How did you get your quoted text to not come out as black?&nbsp; I know how to do red but I have not seen the blue/darker blue-green.

Dorgrim said: Didz said: Just to let everyone know that we completed our second seven hour session ten minutes ago, and I tried out Silvyre's syntax for combining /em and speech in one text box. It was an instant success, with all the other players demanding how I was doing it, and within a few minutes every player was using the same technique. &nbsp;So, thank you all very much it was a great improvement. Extract from tonights game: How did you get your quoted text to not come out as black?&nbsp; I know how to do red but I have not seen the blue/darker blue-green. I don't think we did. &nbsp;I certainly don't remember it being blue in the chat box during the game, so I can only assume that it has become blue since. &nbsp;Possibly as a consequence of using the 'View all chat entries for this game' at the top of the chat log. &nbsp; Having said that I'm also curious how Tristan's player Steven managed to get his text to underline. &nbsp;So, there may be some formatting options available that I'm not aware of. The key things as far as I was concerned was a) the syntax was very quickly adopted by the other players. &nbsp;Once they saw me post my first example everyone was demanding to know how to do it. &nbsp;and b) It made the chat log so much neater, easier to read, and therefore understandable. So, thank you to everyone for help us out.

Didz said: I certainly don't remember it being blue in the chat box during the game, so I can only assume that it has become blue since. Possibly as a consequence of using the 'View all chat entries for this game' at the top of the chat log. That's probably it. Didz said: Having said that I'm also curious how Tristan's player Steven managed to get his text to underline. Whoever took the screenshot was hovering over the blue text (&lt;a&gt; element) when the screenshot was taken. Roll20 styles some &lt;a&gt; elements to be underlined when hovered over.

Silvyre said: Didz said: I certainly don't remember it being blue in the chat box during the game, so I can only assume that it has become blue since. Possibly as a consequence of using the 'View all chat entries for this game' at the top of the chat log. That's probably it. Didz said: Having said that I'm also curious how Tristan's player Steven managed to get his text to underline. Whoever took the screenshot was hovering over the blue text (&lt;a&gt; element) when the screenshot was taken. Roll20 styles some &lt;a&gt; elements to be underlined when hovered over. Ok, thanks.&nbsp; You are both right after checking my own chat history where I tested.&nbsp; My games are voice chat so I didn't even think to check the history.