Advice wanted on GMing

Hi all, newbie GM here. I'm interested in starting a Space Station 13 RP, but I'm not sure if a public forum is the best place to run it.

I really want to run the thread like a tabletop RPG, with myself as the GM narrating & moderating for all the players involved, and resolving any conflicts with a simple dice-roll system. I've run a similar game for a single friend before over an instant messaging program, and it was a lot of fun, but I'm not sure how well that experience will translate to the more sedate pace of a forum thread.

I'm also not sure how I'd handle the paranoid, secretive behaviour endemic to SS 13. So much of that game relies on the players acting on limited information, often pursuing hidden agendas at the expense of others. But if I ran it in a forum thread, everyone's actions would be out in the open, everyone would know what everyone else was up to, and metagaming would be rife.

Basically, do you think this idea could work in a forum thread, or would I be better off running it in a chatroom?

Hey there! It sounds to me like you'd need a chatroom for your RP to keep things moving swiftly and preserve some of the secrecy you're after.

There happens to be a web platform called Roll20 that (from what I know) would work very well with your idea. It offers a chat for in-character and out-of-character actions and has a whisper function that allows players to speak to each other privately. It's even got built-in dice rollers.

Hope that helps. Best of luck with your endeavors! :)