Hello there all you amazing RPers!

So I was wondering if it was or could be possible for multiple groups to be able to post to a thread created by the GMs.

I am making a space ship game. I would like different characters to have differing degrees of access to the ship based on their group. Each part of the ship could then have a different thread dedicated to it. Multiple group access would allow me to provide the following arrangement:

A Security officer group can post to the Security Office thread, Bridge thread, Visiting Room thread, and the Brig thread.
A Bridge Crew group can post to the Bridge thread, and the Visiting Room thread.

As you can see, having only one access to each thread makes this difficult. I could just give each room of the ship its own access group, but I have more rooms in my ship than there are groups available. At some point the functionality of this would break down.

The least complicated solution is to have multiple group access as an option for threads.

Thank you for any replies.

~Leora
This message was last edited by the user at 23:59, Thu 12 Jan 2023.

I'm almost afraid to ask how large/complex you are wanting to make this game...  You already have the ability to make 30 private groups (1-9/A-U)...  So, for example...

Group 1 = Bridge
Group 2 = Security
Group A = Brig
Etc...

Lt John Smith of security would then be a member of each of those groups and can post in and read all threads in each of the them... Captain Jane Doe on the other hand, would be a member of Group 1 only...  She can see and reply to the Bridge threads but not to threads under the Security or Brig groups
This message was last edited by the user at 00:15, Fri 13 Jan 2023.

The problem, I think, is that you are trying to amke groups with access to groups. Individuals have access to groups. You can give everyone in Security access to which ever threads you want simply by making each thread a different group.

And there is an advantage to individual access to threads: Not all Security officers may have the same clearance, for instance. So you can give senior personnel within a department more access then junior personnel.

And the character with hacking skills can get access to everything, regardless of department. Potentially, anyhow.

I am experiencing a similar (inconvenience), I have been solving it with copius amounts of secret text to language groups (private groups).

I run fantasy games and there are many languages between all the races.

one character can speak a lot of languages, but is illiterate and can not read or write what they can speak.

another has a magic effect that allows them to understand any language they see/hear, but can not write/speak what they can understand magically.

another character can understand and speak any racial or regional language spoken, but cant read or write them, and does not have any level of comprehention of languages that are not regional or racial.

I have gotten quite good with the (secret to... and (secret to not... but I wish there was an easier way.
This message was last edited by the user at 01:17, Fri 13 Jan 2023.

Well, you could set up two groups for each language: Written and spoken. Then just trust the players not to post if they only understand and don't speak or write.

That should fix most of it. Assuming you can trust folks not to post if they can't speak/write.

Another consideration is that you've only got 25 threads visible per page, so if you have more than the 30 ships locations that you can make with existing groups (1-9, A-U), that's at least 5 that are going to overflow to the next page, and more if you have any pinned Notices, an OOC thread etc.

Just thinking of the nightmare of the sheer number of rooms you could end up with on say a galaxy class starship - according to my Star Trek - the Next Generation Technical Manual p152, the Enterprise can accommodate as many as 6500 individuals - assumedly the only people who can access someone's personal quarters (a generous 110 sq m, I note) are themselves, anybody else they may have given permission to, security etc personnel using authorized overrides, sentient energy beings, rogue AI, Q, ...

Now the Enterprise rendezvous with the rest of the fleet (let's limit it to just the Galaxy class ones for now) and they all decide to show each other around their ships (that's only polite) ... so multiple the number of rooms (not just personal quarters, but the whole lot of 'em) by the number of ships present (depending on what's currently been recently destroyed and is awaiting rebuild) ...

At which point all the anti-matter universe versions of the ships warp in and start teleporting the crews over to their own vessels ...

Massively, massively over the top, of course (extremely unlikely though not absolutely impossible scenarios), but just goes to show it wouldn't take much to get completely out of hand.

The fantasy world equivalent would be having a different thread for every shop in a large town/small city ... or cities ... kingdoms ... to get us similarly over the top (access would thankfully not be much of a consideration if at all - there hopefully wouldn't be that many establishments with 'Dwarves\Elves not allowed', 'Wizards only' signs up).

Languages ... not seeing the same problem as tmagann with their clever suggestion to use 2 groups per language - but I might well be missing something.  :>

EG: Elvish ... we'll have two Private Groups Elvish_RW and Elvish_S (for read/write and spoken respectively).

Char A can speak and read and write Elvish, so they have both Elvish_RW and Elvish_S
Char B can speak only so they have Elvish_S
Char C can read/write only so they have Elvish_RW

If the three characters come across some Elvish text (formatted as a private line to the language group Elvish_RW) - Char A and Char C can read it, but Char B can't (they'll see only garbled text) ... Char A can say the words aloud  in Elvish because they have Elvish_S, but Char C can only provide the translation into Common.  If Char A and Char C want to copy it (ie write it into their personal journals) they can do that too.  Char B can hold the torch.

Similarly if they meet an Elf who addresses them in his own tongue (formatted as a private line to the language group Elvish_S) - Char A and Char B can understand the Elf, but Char C can't (again, the only see garbled text).  Char A and Char B can even reply in kind cos they have Elvish_S, though Char B can't write down what he hears in the original Elvish as he doesn't have Elvish_RW - he would have to make his notes in Common (and it just shows they were a good choice to hold the torch if they don't need their hands free).  If either Char A or Char B helpfully provide a translation into Common for Char C, Char C can then quickly scribble a note (using Elvish_RW) and give it to the Elf to read.

In neither case do we have to trust the players not to use an ability their characters don't have, as Char B doesn't have access to Elvish_RW, so can only write in Common, and Char C doesn't have access to Elvish_S, so can only speak in Common.   (Obviously, translating into the native tongue is allowed.)

(And ignoring the complication that players with multiple characters CAN see all private lines to a language group that any of their characters have - there's no way around that ... and it's exactly the same if one of those characters learned a secret that the other didn't know - always going to be up to the player to compartmentalize such knowledge.)