Looking for combat advice

Hey everybody,

Hoping for advice from the experienced PbP players, once again

So I’m involved in a game with a custom system. Combat operates by rounds, in which each player can typically perform a set number of actions (usually 4-8). The players normally go turn by turn, each performing an action and reacting until all actions have been used. That marks the end of the round.

For play by post, however, going action by action seems much too slow. Instead, my intention is to have each player post his actions for the entire combat round. For instance, a character with five actions per round would simply go ahead and list all five of his actions, including all the necessary rolls in his post.

However, my problem with posting in round increments, rather than one action at a time, is that it removes the ability to interrupt another person’s actions. A Sorcerer performing a spell that takes multiple actions to cast, no longer needs to worry about someone interrupting his spell with an attack.

So does anyone have any ideas on how I could resolve this? I’d like to figure out a way for players to still interrupt certain activities while in combat. Or perhaps people here have a more elegant suggestion for how I should run combat, overall. I’m open to any and all advice.

I think the easiest way would be to have them state their actions, but with certain circumstances that could alter it.

Example: "I'll use my actions to move up and attack. Unless Steve casts a blinding spell, then I'll do...."

Do they perform all their action at the same initiative count or are they performed at some interval? If all actions are not performed at the same time, you could probably simply go down (or up as the case may be) the initiative order. It might sounds long for a round, but since everyone can perform 4-8 actions per round, I doubt anyone will see much of a difference...

This is handled in some systems by everyone declaring their actions in reverse order of initiative, and then performing them in actual order. So with three combatants (1 with the highest, then 2 and then 3):

3 declares and rolls
2 declares, including any interupt on 3, and rolls
1 declares, including any interrupts on 2 and 3, and rolls.

The GM parses it all.

I think it is easiest to simply have everyone post when they can and take the actions in that order. If someone says they would have performed some reaction or interruption, then simply retcon and update the story. I find it best to strike out the edited text so everyone is clear some reverse engineering occurred.

Having to wait for any one particular person before continuing is a huge time sink. Avoid that as much as possible.