[General Abe]

Then you would use this stock, like so:

pawn Code:

stock localMessage(playerid,  colour, string[], Float: Distance)
{
    new Float:PosFloats[3];
    GetPlayerPos(playerid, PosFloats[0], PosFloats[1], PosFloats[2]);
    foreach(Player, i)
    {
        if(IsPlayerInRangeOfPoint(i, Distance, PosFloats[0], PosFloats[1], PosFloats[2])
        {
            SendClientMessage(i, colour, string);
        }
    }
    return 1;
}

pawn Code:

public OnPlayerText(playerid, text[])
{
    new 
        string[128], // 56 cells isn't going to get you very far when the text I/O is 128.
        PlayerName[MAX_PLAYER_NAME];

    GetPlayerName(playerid, PlayerName, MAX_PLAYER_NAME);
    format(string, sizeof(string), "%s says: %s",PlayerName,text);
    localMessage(playerid, 0xFF0000AA, string, 15.0); // Distance you want to send it to
    
    return 1;
}

Excuse me if I missed something, it's 3.19 AM here. Yawn.