Hello. I have started a game and am still getting the hang of all of the GM stuff. I have a couple of questions that I can not seem to find the answers for.

What are the Groups used for and do I need to use them? Currently everything is posting in Group 0. I changed one of the characters to Group 1 and he said everything disappeared.

How do you disable the Character Sheet option and just have players used the Character Description part?

I believe those are the only questions at the moment. Thanks in advance for the help.

A player can be in more than one group, so you can still make everyone able to see the main thread while keeping other threads blocked.

You use groups specifically to have stuff hidden from some players.  Perhaps they have split up, or you have more than one party in the same game, you can specify that certain threads can only be seen by players belonging to that group.

I used this to great effect when I had my players decide to split up when assaulting the bad guys' house, some pretending to have car trouble out front and others entering stealthily from the rear.  They had a few opportunities to signal, such as waving from a window, so I transferred what they could see from one to the other.  It worked really well and added to the suspense.

I also typically make a thread which can't be seen by any of the players (that is, it can only be seen by a group which no player belongs to).  It's a place for me to make notes to myself, to save stats on enemies, etc.

There are also private groups, which can be used for language groups or things that only certain players can perceive (perhaps they have darkvision or whatever).  Again players can belong to more than one group, so one person might know Orcish and elvish, and another knows orcish and giantish.  When you use the language tab, the people who are in that language group will see what the tag shows, but the people not in that group will see gibberish.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:28, Mon 19 June 2023.

Okay. I think that makes sense. But I just discovered since one of my own characters is not listed in a group, I can't post. So I think I figured out that part. Thanks.

Characters can only post to groups they belong. Hidden Secret you can type in a character and they’ll appear to have posted.

Also, characters can only PM other character who are in their group(s).

Group 0 is default and visible to the public. If you run any adult content you must have it posted to any other group than 0.

Good luck on your GM adventures!

Not sure if anyone answered this part yet, so...

If you don't want players to be able to use their Character Sheets, just don't check the box below the sheet that you as a GM (when you view a Character's profile and Edit Character Sheet) see that says 'User Editable'. Players won't be able to post anything in the sheet box without that checked.

- BUT -

Depending on what kind of game you're running, having players put their sheets in the Character Description can be a very, very bad idea, since every player is able to view every PC's description.


I'm not 100% sure that's true, drew. I have PCs that aren't in any groups at all that are valid PM options for other PCs.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:05, Tue 20 June 2023.

OP may be referring to Private Lines. Those are group specific.

In reply to drew0500 (msg # 4):

"Group 0 is default and visible to the public. If you run any adult content you must have it posted to any other group than 0."

So, you are saying that even though players have to request access, if the threads are in group 0 anyone can see them even if they don't have access to the group? Just want to make sure I am understanding this.

Well, anyone not in the game can see them. There is an option to block access to characters in the game. I just used it in one I'm running to remove unnecessary threads from my players' lists.

In reply to BabsME (msg # 7):

If you reassign a player to a group, and that removes them from Group 0, they may no longer be able to access that material. I say 'may', because I've never tried it (I have a miniscule amount of experience as a GM on here and I can't say I've particularly enjoyed it...it demands a level of attention and focus that is a real struggle for my ADHD), but I have noticed when looking at characters as a co-GM that characters who were assigned to other groups were still in Group 0--and I've seen conversations about using a specific Group (I think it was Group Z?) as a kind of 'Time Out'/detention where players could be temporarily isolated from the rest of the game, which would seem to demand that they also were removed from Group 0 at the same time.

So, if you decide to use Groups, you need to be careful that while you are adding players to specific Groups, you are not removing them from the ones they still need to be able to access.

(If I'm wrong about this, please feel free to correct me...as I said, I don't have a lot of experience in this particular aspect of utilizing RPOL.)

Adding to a group and removing from a group are different actions. Same GM menu, but different choices.

It's basically a box for each group for each character. Tick the box, the character is in the group. Un-tick it (or leave it unticked, as the case may be), the character is out. Group 0 is ticked automatically on being added to the game.

Okay. Well, what I did was everyone is in Group 0 and 1. The notices are in Group 0 and the threads are in Group 1.  I have asked a current and new player what they see and asked the current player if they are able to access everything. Thank you for all of the information. I think I am finally getting the hang of it. If I have anymore questions I will reach out.

In reply to BabsME (msg # 11):

I can only speak from my own perspective. You're quick. It took me weeks (back in 2004) to even realize how RTJs worked. Alot of features have been added that I've not even noticed yet.

I'm glad you got it sorted out. :)

Worth noting that this is different on the new responsive site.

On responsive's Edit Groups page for GMs, each character has a blank space and you type in the groups you want them to be in, instead of having to keep up with boxes to tick. (it's *MUCH* nicer!) So you do need to be careful that you aren't deleting the groups that are already listed for the with an accidental back keystroke while adding the new one(s)

In reply to BabsME (msg # 7):

I've always (or at least as long as I can remember) run my games so that all in-character content is found in a different group than 0.  It's worth noting that unless you have a lot (A LOT) of players in your game, you can assign each to a different group number...should you decide that they need their own private space to enact carnage.

Or do stuff.  ^_^

Another question in regards to advertising in the Wanted-Players forum. How do you get your advert bumped from the bottom to the top of the forum?

Making a new post in the advert thread will bump it to the top (at least until another thread gets a post).  Note that the forum has "bump calming" in effect, which means that bumping a thread will only work if it has been at least seven days since the previous bump.

yep.. what BB said.  I try to  bump  mine   once  a week, there is a 'countdown  clock' at the   very top of you game's ad  page.

Hello again. I have another question.
So, I had a player that was a co-GM. They had been inactive for a few weeks and after several attempts to reach them with no response I switched him to player status and have since removed them. Another player adopted the character they had and it seems that the GM access is still there. Is this something that normally happens? Did changing the original player back to player status not remove the GM status? Thank you.

It shouldn't do that no.

Once you change a player's access from player to GM back to player in the GM Menu from the 'Edit Players' option, it shouldn't have retained the old access at all.

The only thing I can think of is that you didn't remove the player who owned the character originally until after you moved it to another player which would then retain the GM access, and the OG player was removed that way instead.

This is an easy fix though as you simply just change the new player who controls the said character to player access only.
This message was last edited by the user at 05:33, Mon 24 July 2023.

Yep, that is what I did. I moved the character from the original player to the new player and it deleted the original one. So it had nothing to do with making the character GM versus the player GM status?

Luckily the new player I have been working with and playing with on another game so he is willing and I am good with him taking on the GM status.

The only way your issue came about is that maybe perhaps you didn't change the OG player's access to player again to begin with before moving it to another player.

It a simple mistake really. Or, when you transferred the character to the new player, you changed the player access to GM access by accident. Either way, something happened during those two timeframes where it accidently went back to GM access unintentionally.

Seeing as you have stated this is your first time GMing on RpoL, it's super common to make mistakes during this learning of the GM Menu. First time GMing on here can have so many oopsies; I've had my fair share of all kinds of problems. I still have issues from time to time, so I wouldn't fret too much on it.

It's good to know that the new player who controls the said character was welcoming of wanting to help Co-GM which makes the process even more smoother. Heck, for all we know, it could have just been a bit of a bug. It does happen. If it happens again, I'd take this to the Mods of the site to see if there is something actively making this happen.
This message was last edited by the user at 05:58, Mon 24 July 2023.

Yes. Thank you. I will make sure I do it differently if I have to do it again. Hopefully not.

When you archive a thread, where does it go? Thanks.

In reply to BabsME (msg # 23):

Nowhere. It stays on the list. But, as (at least in theory), no one is posting to it it will work itself down to the bottom of the queue, which is generally ordered by descending order of last post time/date. With Notices forced to the top.

Good to know. Thanks.