Combat Posts

Because of the confusion in the first combat encounter with the wolves, I want to talk about how I envision combat posts going and then talk about what you all want to see from combat posts.

Here's what I envision:

Player Post:Durnic the Brave smashes the skeleton in the face, "not today you undead filth!"

GM Post:

Durnic's aim is true, the glowing eyes of the skeleton winking out as the bones clatter to the floor.

[Then I would go into detail about what the other monsters do here.]

My questions for you guys are:

1. Do you want to RP your attacks in your posts or do you just want to say "I go hear, and I attack this thing?" I realize some of you might prefer one and some of you might prefer the other so that's why I'm asking.
2. Do you want to see your results and then go back and edit your post based on your rolls? For instance, if Durnic the Brave up there had failed to hit instead of rolled a critical hit, I could have gone back to edit the post to say something like, "but in typical form, he throws himself off balance and his sword sails wide!"

Thoughts? Opinions? Feedback? Beliefs? Threats? Onions?

I prefer quick posts in combat, for myself, so if it’s ok, mine will often go along lines of, Kethra stabs at the canine, or Kethra attempts to be awesome, etc., then I’ll offer the rolls and it goes where it goes. I feel like that’s how most posts tend to fall around here, esp as games go deeper.

If the majority or DM want more exposition, I’m happy to go along-with. Am flexible. Glad you asked the question.

Personally, I'd like to do 2 posts. The first is an ooc post with intended actions and any die rolls. Following thst post, a textual post describing my actions and their results. Any die rolls that we don't have the info for (attempted hide check, an Arcana check foe information, etc) would just be stated as the attempt was made, and the next GM post describes the success or failure of each of those efforts.

Though, I'm up for whatever the group wants.

I have no opinion one way or the other, I want you guys to play the game you want to play! If you want to do fast combat posts with just "I move to X grid square and attack Y monster" then your rolls, that's fine with me.
This is totally fine with me. I have typically gone back and edited my post once I see the results of the rolls, or add new rolls as necessary (like additional damage dice for crits) but two posts is fine with me if that's what you're comfortable with.

I can do this as well, if the groups prefers.

I usually post to see what my roll results are, and then quickly edit my post to reflect that. I tend to go for a bit of descriptive text even in combat, but that's just what I'm used to. If others prefer combat posts to be more speedy and to-the-point, I'm equally happy with that.

I am really good either way also. I tend to be more quick and simple.

I tend to do short posts on combat unless there is something specific I am trying to accomplish
As a DM I often post target AC once someone hits and/or hits close to the AC. It lets players who want to role play it out have the option. I also like it when a DM shares approximate enemy status when it is apparentr, ex un wounded, lightly wounded, moderately, severely, critical. But I am fine with whatever.

Any chance of switching to Side based Initiative? (Party . . . NPC . . repeat)
Or we can still use individual rolls and do team initiative where party rolls just create slots and any payer can post to any open slot. (PC,PC,NPC,PC,NPC . . .)
Or do we set a max delay before player is skipped or DM has them dodge

Maaaan, I just woke up and you want me to think?!

I'm up for trying anything y'all want, but I am hesitant about side based initiative as it can end up with wild alpha strikes where either the players demolish a fight in no time when they all go or a couple of players end up downed when the enemies go.

I'm interested in the PC/NPC "slots", I haven't done anything like that before.

With side based I have seen s couple variant that blend into team initiative

1. Players always go first
2. Roll initiative and players that beat NPC init go, then NPC, then party. Now side based.
3. Roll initiative, any player can use any slot but only one a round, NPC fill their respective slots (team). It is important to have round/turn tracking for players to know when they can go again

As the PC are the main character heroes if the story I always have then go first on a tie.
Side out total domination can be avoided by not revealing all NPC at once. Ex: PC see one goblin that's all they can deal with in the first round. However if someone uses an action to look around they might spot 3 more...

The advantage of side or team initiative is it allows more flexibility of player schedules. Some are on all day others only at night or in the morning.....

I'm going to adjust the intitative of this combat to try the Any PC / Any NPC style, as you said in #3 above.

Leta already posted her action so you may as well take her and Kish as the first 2 PC

Could I get ya'll to give me the grid you're moving to? It would help me out a lot.

Can Kish shift to G6? I missed that Leta moved inside already. Still holding attack

You got it!

Man, a whole bunch of stuff happened overnight!

Just a quick strategy question before I post in the game thread: Nelie has Healing Word and is (I think?) the only one with healing magic besides Leta. So that's probably our best bet so that Leta doesn't spend the whole battle unconscious.
Since Kethra and Nelie are acting basically at the same time, could Kethra be allowed to retcon her turn in that case, so we don't both waste our actions doing the same thing? If we were at a table I would have mentioned that I had Healing Word immediately, but I was sound asleep at the time :P

This is fine with me if everyone else involved is okay with it, which really is just @WhiteDwarf.

Also, I am going to give @Sardis about 16 hours or so (until next afternoon, my time; I'm on PST) until their turn is to Dodge.

This is the first PbP I've run on this site, so what is a usual wait time for people before group agrees that they're just going to Dodge?

wait for idle player depends on game posting rate and DM.
Ex : daily posting rate
DM may wait 1 day from that players last post. This is rare
DM may wait 1 day after the players turn starting. In team initiative this could be from the first or last open slot
DM may wait 2 days

Most often I have seen this to be a one time thing where IRL caused game lag. Repeat offenders are rare but they do exist. In situations where the post is delayed compared to player previous response time I tend to assume this and move the story along quicker rather than slower but may also use simple PC actions that do not use resources (weapon or cantrip).

I’ll edit my combat post for Kethra. :)