[Vlad]

Take a look on what I wrote and give me some feedback:

local trim = function(str)
  return str:trim(" \t\r\n")
end
 
local match = function(str)
  local ret = {}
  for msg, emote in str:gmatch("(.-)%*(.-)%*") do
    str = str:replace(msg, "")
    str = str:replace("*"..emote.."*", "")
    msg = trim(msg)
    emote = trim(emote)
    table.insert(ret, {
      msg:len() > 0 and msg or nil,
      emote:len() > 0 and emote or nil,
    })
  end
  str = trim(str)
  if str:len() > 0 then
    table.insert(ret, {str, nil})
  end
  return #ret > 0 and ret or nil
end

In short, match("message") will return either nil if nothing matched or a table containing {message, emote} that you can go trough each one, unpack each entry and send the message in the /say or /emote channels depending if it's a string or nil.

Far better than my first sketch, aye?