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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pinotage" data-source="post: 1769644" data-attributes="member: 15194">PBEM CombatI've been running PBEM games for 3 years now, and these are the suggestions that I could offer:1) Allow a 24 hour time cap on posting. 48 hours is far too long. In my experience, most PBEM players get disinterested if posting rate is not quick enough. With 48 hours a 7 round combat system would last 2 weeks. Rather one week than two weeks. Very, very, few players are going to stick to a game for more than a year. Either keep your games short or up your posting rate. Otherwise be prepared to keep searching for more players. If a player doesn't post, I decide their action for them, keeping it simple.2) Always use a map. It's very difficult to run good combats with interesting actions and options without a map.3) All talking is 'free for all' in the round, i.e. it can be done out of turn. Everything else follows initiative order. If a player's action affects the combat (e.g. a monster dies), send all the players a note to that affect and have them amend their actions. With talking free, a character last in initiatice can still make tactical suggestions. It works well to also post a If/Then type OOC comment at the bottom of your post, and let the DM handle dice rolls for this if necessary. Players should roll their own dice. If a combat degenerates to a slog fest, allow two rounds worth of actions for a 24 hour period.4) Initiative works best if it is modified to some degree that players and monsters can take turns. There's nothing more painful than a Character/Monster/Character/Monster/Character/Monster initiative. I'll modify monster initiative so that it fits a more acceptable pattern such as Some Characters/Monsters/Remaining Characters. I will always let the 'Remaining Characters' know monster actions so they can decide their actions accordingly. Sometimes it works well to split long initiative rounds into shorter ones, so the above example could work (Round 1) Some Characters/Monsters (Round 2) Remaining Characters, Some Characters, Monsters (Round 3) Repeat. Same initiative order, but easier to handle. A simple round shuffle of the initiative often makes it easier to handle with monster and character acting in turn.5) I personally think games with less than 4 players are very difficult. 6 players is my optimum. The more players you have, the more posts there'll be, and the more likely you can keep player interest. Players disappear quickly if posting rate is too slow.6) I run all my games on PBW. Nice thread system and built in Dice Roller. The notes system allows quick and easy sending of private messages.Hope that helps.Pinotage</blockquote>

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