I'm currently trying to set up a gaming session with my usual group, but we're all over the country. (Summer break from college) I recall hearing about a chat program that let's you make dice rolls that everyone in the room can see. I did a search, but I couldn't find what I was looking for. Anyone know what program that is?

Well, I know AIM's chatrooms have diceservs built into them...But I'm afraid that's all I know. Sorry.

And there is of course the venerable IRC. There are many bots for bringing into a channel to do dice rolls, or you can use an mIRC script or something of that nature.

I've always been a fan of IRC, but there is a bit of a learning curve, so it might not be the easiest to get up and going in 10 minutes, the first time at least.

There are a fiew pieces of software that can help, too. I think one's called OpenRPG, though I've never successfully used one.

[edit] This thread has some discussion of the topic. [/edit]

OpenRPG is pretty nice, I played around with it for about half an hour tonight. I can't figure out how to set up the module for Shadowrun rules and stats, although I got my "Abilities" page to read B/Q/S/C/I/W, and fixed my initiative. Anyone have a Shadowrun setup, or instructions for making one?

RPOL has support for most SR rolls (as well as some other game systems). I don't know how hard it is to set up a game, but the rolls are all handled by the site, and posts can have specific permissions. You can include text visible to any subset of the players, or use the private message system when there is nothing to tell those not involved, or both.

there's also shadowland.

Where in AIM chatrooms is the dice function? I'm having trouble finding it...

It's //roll-diceX-sidesY (where X and Y are the desired numbers, obviously; eg 4 6 sided dice would be //roll-dice4-sides6). Why you would like to use it is, however, beyond me. There's absolutely no need to do it in the chatroom when the GM can do all the rolling himself either with physical dice or with something like Omnihedron. Rolling in AIM both provides everyone with information they quite often should not have and and drastically slows the game to a crawl (especially when you have to keep rerolling for 6s). Really, you can run a standard game through AIM easily enough. Just leave the mechanics to the GM.

AIM works well enough. I run games on it.

Typing //roll uses the default numbers, two six-sided. Just using //roll-diceX will also default to six sides but still roll X dice (up to 15, annoying when you have high-reaction surprise tests or power-adepts). I find it works best to copy-paste "//roll-dice" for whenever you need it and just stick a number in. Finally, rolling most dice in the chat can make the players paranoid (always fun) when you don't tell them why you're doing it, but if you don't want to bring real dice to your computer desk, AIM will let you have two chats open at once, and you can do hidden rolls in there.

Running online also helps with the decker problem. You can run the decking half of the game in an IM or Private Message. Same goes for players who separate from the main group.

Edit: And if you can read German or find a translator, he's an RPG chat program with a mapping ability built in: Pen & Paper

I think that guy named oddfellow keeps going on about a place called elf ham or something like that. I wish I could find the post. Some online shadowrun deal.

elf ham. hey, it's only cannibalism if you're a daisy-eater!