Is there a method to view posts as a player would see them when you're a GM?  I sometimes accidentally use a private line where I wanted to use a language, or a secret line where I wanted to use a private line.  It'd be nice to be able to preview our posts to make sure they're formatted correctly as the players see it, and not just as the GM sees it.

In reply to Mortuis (msg # 1):

I was just thinking this yesterday. It would be super helpful especially in games where you are using secret lines a lot. Maybe just a preview as player button before you post.

this has come up before because it would be super helpful.

I like mouse's suggestion of 'preview as player'

if remember right one of the issues was that different players see things differently so the question becomes 'which player do you want to see it as'  But a button that says 'preview as...' with a drop down for the various characters....

+1 from me, this is a good one that has plagued me in the past

Especially when you're trying to lace private and secret lines into a paragraph.  Understanding how the spacing works is important, otherwise players can infer that a secret line may have been injected if two words are spaced apart strangely.

In reply to Mortuis (msg # 5):

Well, I do agree with other reasoning behind "Pre/view as player" I don't really buy spacing as an issue. I guess it has more to do with the fact that such details are none of my business.

In reply to steelsmiter (msg # 6):

Maybe this will illustrate that point, one of my players posted a screencap to show me that the lizardman's speech wasn't showing up (because I accidentally used private lined to the language group instead of language lines) and it was kinda difficult as a non-speaker of the language to parse out what was happening.

http://screencast.com/t/iagMmXgR

I clumsily added in a secret line to this player, indicating that he could tell the lizardman was only acting surprised by adding the word "feigning" in the secret line.  I thought the spacing was right, but clearly misunderstood how the leading spaces worked.  Would be nice to be able to see how these things work with a preview.

+1 from me. I use that function in MapTool all the time and it's invaluable there. I can only imagine how nice it would be to have it as a DM. I know I was thinking of it recently as well. My only minor quibble would be to say don't make it a drop down of the preview button. Just put another button next to it. There's plenty of room there and my 2 extra seconds of time cannot possible be wasted :P

I could have sworn this question/idea came up years ago with a concern regarding ensuring that GMs knew the full content scale of their game.  Hopefully this concern has been addressed, because this is a good idea.

Running a game like paranoia where secrets can make or break the game this sort of preview would be extremely useful. Sometimes even something as simple as giving two players a different description because they are standing in two different places without actually letting them know there are two different perspectives can completely make or break a scene.

+1

+1 from me as well. I think this is a great and handy tool for the GMs.

In reply to GamerHandle (msg # 9):

It definitely seems like deja vu.  :-)

There are some previous discussions in the RPoL Development forum:

• March 2010: link to a message in "RPoL Dev"  -
  
  
• December 2010: link to a message in "RPoL Dev" <- Posts from jase in this one.
  
  
• February 2013: link to a message in "RPoL Dev"
  
  
• September 2013: link to a message in "RPoL Dev" 

Well that explains why I couldn't find an existing topic.  I wasn't searching RPoL Dev.  I'm embarrassed to say that I actually commented in the March 2010 thread.  It seems like jase was dismissing the idea in the December 2010 thread because he wasn't convinced there was a real purpose for it.  I'll go migrate my arguments for the feature to that thread, then.

Thanks cruinne