We realize that this has not been documented yet, but you can use :
(we will update http://plantuml.sourceforge.net/skinparam.html )
@startuml
skinparam sequenceGroupBorderColor blue
skinparam sequenceGroupBackgroundColor red
alt
Bob -> Alice : hello
end group
@enduml
For Thickness, this is hardcoded, but easy to fix.We will add:
skinparam sequenceGroupBorderThickness 1
Hope this helps,