Task list for text games

Often when running a text-only game, I am overwhelmed with the incoming requests from 5-6 players. If there was the ability to create a queue of tasks that would appear with a different color background both in the chat and in a separate task list, with a little empty checkbox by them that only a gm can check (to clear the task, removing it from the list but keeping it in the chat) - that would be super helpful to me. Then I could easily burn down the tasks requested by my players, and gloss over some of the social chatter and flavor text when things get heavy. Allowing the GM to uncheck the box (from the chat) would re-add it to the list (until re-checked). Is this something others find useful - and/or do others have suggestions on how they approach tackling this problem?

Usually when I ran a game, I used a post in the game's forum for the requests from my players and as I worked them into the game, I would strikethrough them. This allowed the players to keep their post updated through edits and as the game's creator, I could edit the posts so I could do the strikethroughs. I've also done a thread where I kept a summary of the tasks as the first post and as the players added to the thread (this gave post notifications), I could add or edit the summary. This was in a game where I was not the creator but just a co-GM.

You did that for real time games on the VTT?

I use a dual monitor computer setup and treated it just like a notepad but it is easier to just use a piece of paper and make notes during live game session then afterward, use the forum for task listing summary. Most of my games were text not voice so it was not hard to keep up with stuff.

That's clever. I'd almost have an easier time with voice I think, but yeah in text, for me, its so easy to get lost in the sea of it as people are posting on top of one another. So if someone's like "I'll investigate the door" and someone else is RPing and references the door, or says "investigate" but doesn't mean they want to roll for it - etc, about 20% of the time I miss the person asking to do an investigation.  I could maybe have them use the emote color or such to help highlight actions,  though during intense exchanges it still might scroll off without me noticing (hence the task list). There's plenty of times I am working on making something happen for just one player, and the rest are going back and forth, some taking actions, and I need to go hunt those actions down and act on them. I think from what you're describing, you're solving a different problem from me, but maybe not? I like the idea of keeping things in a companion-thread, especially for after-hours sorts of tasks. But I am not sure it will help much with the problem I am experiencing. Pen and paper is a thought but it doesn't alleviate my issue of noticing things from other players in the first place while I am occupied with a different player.

It would definitely be cool if GMs could modify the the chat display to help manage conversations in text-only games. I haven't seen many API specifically designed to enhance text-game experiences. I wonder if you could set something up in the TurnTracker to manage your to-do list, using one of the API to operate it? One tool I've used to help me GM text-only games is an API script Aaron wrote called ColorEmote. Here's the ColorEmote Forum Thread . I found that, in a text game, it's easier to read through the chat log if outputs are color-coded based on the player character, rather than the type of chat output (e.g. attack/emote/ooc, etc). It allows you to scan the chat to locate things said by specific players. Using API for chat has drawbacks, unfortunately. I do wish GMs could configure certain settings of the Chat display, in the same way we can tune how Tokens appear on the tabletop. I'd love to see what some of our great API scripters would come up with to help GMs run text-only games.

I am fairly new here and have not even begun to dig into the API - I honestly forgot it is a thing. I am a software engineer by trade and could probably help out there, though I am guessing it's javascript which is not a language I've messed much with. (It would feel a bit like I am doing roll20's job, but it's better to expose the API than not for sure!) The color coding would be super I think - that would easily let me see who is talking. IC/OOC doesn't matter at all to me because I have to mentally process it all anyway, so I like that. I will definitely have to look into what is possible with scripting. Also, even this feature was implemented as having the ability for the gm to go back and say... edit text messages and have a tiny checkbox next to each regardless of what kind of message it is - that would be helpful. If you check the box, the message changes color or gets an outline or a bar in front of it or something. Just to manage things, to tweak things, etc. (Editing could also be handy for removing undesired language, accidental spoilers, etc)

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