Chat, Voice, and the Combat Log
Chat
Every campaign has a chat log, shared by all members. It is available in the
sidebar during play and as a full page at /chat/‹campaignId›.
- T or Enter focuses the chat input and scrolls to the latest message.
- Dice rolls, action results, and system messages all land here.
- A web address (http or https) in a message is a link; it opens a new tab.
Since v0.99.0 the chat is more than one log: it has channels. The one above — the whole campaign's — is the Campaign channel, and it is where you start.
Channels
A row above the log names the channel you are in. Tap it and you get the conversation list: every channel you can read, grouped, each with its newest message and an unread count. Tap a row to go there.
| Channel | Who is in it | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign | everyone in the campaign | the campaign; today's chat |
| Map | everyone who can see the map | one per map, listed while you are on it |
| Direct messages | the people in them | /w username, or New conversation |
| Bert | you and the assistant | first under Direct messages, always there — see Asking Bert |
| Personal | you alone | a scratchpad, one per person |
| Secret | the campaign's owner alone | see The Secret channel |
| Custom | whoever the creator invites | New channel |
Wherever you are — the sidebar, the phone's Chat tab, the full page — what you send goes into the channel you are looking at. So do dice rolls, actions and their combat-log entries: an action run from a private message stays in it. Someone answering a roll you asked for answers into the channel you asked in, wherever they happen to be.
On the full page (/chat/‹campaignId›), the list sits beside the log, and
the address names the channel — /chat/‹campaignId›/‹channelId› — so a
channel is a link. A link to a map can open one too:
/play/…?channel=‹channelId›.
The rail lists Chat under a campaign's pages.
Direct messages
Type /w username and the message after it:
/w alice hello there— sends "hello there" to alice./w alice— opens the conversation with alice and sends nothing./w @alice @bob helloor/w alice,bob hello— to alice and bob together. A second name must be marked with@or joined with a comma; a plain second word is part of the message.
Usernames, never emails. A direct message between the same people is one conversation whatever campaign you opened it from, and it is listed under Direct messages in every campaign you share. New conversation in the list does the same with a picker.
You are told about a message in a direct message or a custom channel the way you are told about an invitation: a notification with Open — unless you are looking at that channel already, or have muted it (Mute in the row's menu). The Campaign channel never notifies; its unread badge is on the Chat tab and in the list.
Custom channels
New channel makes one in the campaign: a name, and the people to start it with. You are its owner; Members… in its row's menu opens the same permissions editor every shared thing uses, to add and remove people. Only the people in a custom channel see it — the GM is not in it unless invited. The owner can delete it, messages and all.
The Secret channel
The campaign's owner has a channel nobody else can see, not even the campaign's editors: Secret, listed under the campaign's channels. Notes, rolls the players should not see, a plan — everything there is the owner's alone, and dice rolled there are rolled in private.
Every message in it carries Reveal. Reveal copies the message into the Campaign channel, where it appears marked revealed from the Secret channel; the original stays in Secret, marked revealed. A dice roll revealed is the roll, intact. A reveal cannot be undone — the copy is an ordinary message, and deleting it is an ordinary delete.
Chat identity
Your chat appearance is yours, set in Settings:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Chat alias | The name shown on your messages |
| Chat colour | The colour of your name |
| Avatar | The picture beside your messages |
When you speak as a token you are impersonating, the token's identity is used instead.
Voice input
If you enable voice input, speech is transcribed in your browser and sent as a chat message. Audio is never uploaded to Purple Cat.
Choose your microphone in Settings. Your browser will ask for microphone permission the first time.
Transcribed messages are marked as transcriptions so they can be filtered separately from typed chat.
The Combat Log
The combat log is a filtered view of chat that shows only mechanical events: damage dealt, healing, property changes, conditions applied. It is the answer to "wait, how much damage did that do?" without scrolling through table talk.
Entries are generated automatically by actions, heal/harm mode, and direct property edits.
Views
Chat has several views — all messages, dice rolls only, transcriptions, and the combat log — so you can find what you need mid-fight. The views are per channel: the Map channel's combat log is that map's fight, a direct message's transcript is what was said there.
Retention
Chat messages are stored with the campaign and are visible to every member of the channel they are in — the campaign's for the Campaign channel, the two of you for a direct message. They are deleted when the campaign is deleted; a custom channel's go when its owner deletes it.