I have to agree that an AIM chat of several muns hanging out and plotting together is an awesome thing. It would be great if that is what chat was usually used for, but that's...idk...never been my experience with it. I've never had any success with talking about plot-related things in chat, back when I used to try. The best I could get was about thirty seconds of attention from a couple muns before the conversation was completely taken over by whatever chat's trend is at the time. It's always been a frustrating and largely fruitless experience, so I've lost any will to try anymore. (again, this goes for other game chats too! Not just para)

And I cant say that I wish that there was a separate chat for actual game-related things, because I think it would end up being neglected.

Maybe a designated time during a certain night or two of the week or something, where people are specially invited to come in and chat, with game-related topics being highly encouraged? idk...
Something to make chat not seem as much of a daunting and unproductive thing, at least some of the time, without ruining the 'fun' of chat for the rest of the week?
I've seen such designated game chat times used in non-lj-rp settings with at least some success, but no idea if something like it would take here.