In a game I'm playing there's characters speaking in a language my character doesn't understand, and so I see gobbledygook. I see that when I post a reply I can only reply as the languages my character can speak. Makes sense.

My question is : As I also run a game here, how do I set up these settings for the characters in my game, as I think this is an awesome feature ???

Thanks for any help provided.

Help > Forums > RUBB Code > Private Lines to Groups

/help/content.cgi?t=faqs&page=rubbcode

In the GM menu in your game click "Edit Private Groups."
In the top section, add the private groups using the language name, e.g. "Orcish"
In the bottom section, click for each character who can speak that language.

Now, when adding a post, GM and players alike will see in the "Insert a Private Line:" drop down, three new sections
 * Private to group ...
 * The Language group ...

with each of the private groups of which they are members.

GM's will also see
 * Secret to group ...

Just like private and secret messages to individuals, the Private to Group will show it as private.  The Secret to group looks to the reader like it is regular text, but only some people see it.  (The GM sees it in a different color.)  The Language group has the behavior you're looking for.

The feature is even cooler than you think!  First, it has the awesome "Preview As" feature so, as a GM, you can see the post shown the way one of your players will see it.  (Click Preview/Delay Post.)  Second, the language obscuring is clever enough to leave normal any names.  Imagine you could overhear someone talking in a language you don't know, but then they say your name or the name of someone you know -- you're still going to catch that bit.  This is reproduced here.

Edit:  Now I know why I didn't see this info when following Jon Canuck's link.  I'm on the responsive site, and the help for the responsive site does not include it.
This message was last edited by the user at 20:56, Thu 30 July 2020.

I am having some issues trying to use these language groups, I am hoping someone can set me straight?

Is it possible to send a message to just a language group without having to make part of the post a 'public' message?

After I have created a language group and try to send a message to that group the system asks me to select who I am sending the message to.  I thought after creating the group and assigning players to that group then the message would automatically go to those players.  It seems to defeat the purpose of creating the group if i have to assign recipients each time I send a message.  What am I missing?

I just tried this and when I try to preview as somebody else I get:

{character} is not a member of $poster_group = / $FORM{togroup} =

The short answer is no.

If the only text in a post has been enclosed by language group tags, an error will pop up that instructs you to place some public text in the post.

Using the language group tags will scramble anything within it for the folks that do not speak the language, but you can always — and probably should — place the narrative outside of those tags.  That way, even if folks do not speak the tongue ... they will have some semblance of an idea what is going on.

Example if the language is understood: The ancient wyrm looked our resolute hero in the eyes and it spoke to him in the old tongue.  (Language Auld Wymish: "Slave or food, Prince Typhon, which will you be?")

Example if the language is not understood: The ancient wyrm looked our resolute hero in the eyes and it spoke to him in the old tongue.   (Language Unknown: "Est gogita, Prince Typhon, homfur yugrag em?")

^^ If you enclose the name of a named character within the language tags, those letters are not scrambled even if the recipients do not speak the language.
This message was last edited by the user at 10:47, Tue 26 Jan 2021.

I can work around that first step but what really frustrates me is having to select who the recipient is after having already created the group.  It seems pointless creating the group in the first place if the system does not allocate members of the group as the recipients.

I think there might be some confusion between "standard" groups and private groups.

Standard groups are for addressing threads to, though it has some minor flow-on effects that's the main focus and effect.  It separates characters, what they can see and who they can communicate with.  These are the groups 0-9 and A-U.

Private groups are for sub-communication between characters and are completely separate to standard groups.  Private groups can actually have members spread across multiple standard groups, but this isn't really evident as the standard groups keeps the characters (and the threads they can see) separated.

Private groups are a way of addressing a section of text to a group of people, the named is derived from private lines which preceded them.  The language tag is just a specialised way of handling a message addressed to a private group.

What Ski-Bird is a good example of how you'd work it.

If that doesn't help, think of it another way.  Standard groups are a way of splitting characters into groups, often because they're in different physical locations (e.g. Alpha strike team is assigned group A).  Private groups are a way of assigning common attributes to characters, e.g. who can speak French or Elvish?  Who can telepathically communicate with each other?

Not sure what you mean about having to select who the recipient is.  It's normally just the group dropdown when starting a new thread.

Will check that debug info that came out for you Starchaser.

I give up, I have tried every combination of options and can't seem to get it to work.  I am obviously missing something but I have no idea what it is.  I am using the old non-responsive site (I have never used the new one) so I can only assume that is the problem.  Thanks for trying to help but this is doing my head in to the point I don't even want to try any more :(

CaptainHellrazor, are you trying to send an entirely private message specifically just to the members of a language group? So that only they can read it? (That's how I'm reading this so far, just skimming, but it's pre coffee so I might be wrong.)

If you're the GM, you can do that as a PM if you want, but yes - as you figured out, you'll have to manually select the members of the group. As a player, you can't do that at all because (and this is the important bit) the code is specifically set up so that players can never tell who has access to what languages.

If, as GM, you wanted to create a group - not a Language Group, but an actual Thread Group - for everyone who spoke Elvish (for instance) so that you can make non-PM posts to them, you can do that. Put all the players that speak Elvish into Group E, and then you can make a thread with posts to that group (by selecting 'E' for where the post goes to) that only they can see. Downside is, they will be able to see who else is in that group, so if it's important to you that players not know who understands the same languages they do, that's a bad option.

Alternatively, you can always make a public post, include a header of something like 'Elvish' (to cover the public part of the post), and then fill in with whatever it is that you only want the Elvish Language Group members to see, either publicly scrambled (by using the 'the Language Group Elvish' option) or completely hidden (by using the 'Private to Group Elvish' option). This is the only way to do it that keeps other people that speak Elvish from knowing who else can speak Elvish, if that's important.

It's worth noting that you cannot use Language Group lines inside of PMs. They won't work, at all. The options aren't even there on the drop-down.

Thanks, you have just confirmed that I cannot do what I have been attempting to do. I can stop banging my head against a brick wall now :)

That almost, almost feels like an oversight.  I can see where you might want to speak privately in a group PM with only people who speak the lingo and also have the speach accessible to people in the group PM who might also speak the lingo but of which you are unaware.


It's not something I have run into yet as I don't use the Language groups (and they've never been a significant part in the games I've played in)... but I'm starting to come around to the idea and this could very well come up.

If it helps ... a language group is actually a private group as well and can be used a couple of ways - Private to group <language> inserts a private line that can only be seen by the members of that language group, while Language <language> shows the actual text to the members of that language group and garbled text to everyone else.   Usual note that you need to include at least some public text in the post.

For example, assuming a language group called "Draconic" has been set up:

<some public text required>

[Private to group Draconic: the muffled sounds emanating from down the tunnel, while almost wholly indistinct, seem to your keen ears to be dragon-speak.]

[Language Draconic: "My what big teeth ye have oh mighty and ancient Wyrm !"]

You're not banging your head against a brick wall.  What you're doing is trying to screw in a screw using a hammer.  Even though a screw looks a little bit like the thing the hammer was meant to operate on, it isn't going to work.  It wasn't meant for that.