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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 4694690" data-attributes="member: 82106">Maybe another possibility would be to retain the rules in essence as they are now, but with a bit more flexibility allowed in terms of what the PCs actually end up doing. So everyone could describe their actions at the start of the round and then the DM would just have to do a bit of interpreting. The main issues would be cases where the tactical situation changes significantly before someone gets to do whatever they described (like the target of their attack moves or dies or something). In a lot of cases the DM can extrapolate from what the player intended to accomplish. Maybe the monster he was going to swing at died and he can just use that attack against another monster of the same/similar type that is next to it or moves up to take its place. OAs don't seem to me to be too much of an issue since the DM can simply do those himself. It is rare that a PC would want to NOT take an OA and there is no choice of what to do, it is a melee basic attack.In our m20 PBP game we all just describe what we're going to do for the round, roll a to-hit die if we're atacking and appropriate damage dice in case we hit. The same could be done in 4e.Interrupts are the most likely thing to cause extra back and forth, but again usually you can anticipate the likely need for them, so if a wizard has shield he can always tell you "I'll use shield if the big monster hits me" or something like that. It will cover MOST cases.Lengthy combats then are the one remaining potential issue. There are a few answers for that. Proper encounter design can help a lot. Soldiers, elites, and solos are the most likely monsters to last a long time in combat, especially if they are plus level encounters. Avoiding those will help a lot. Or some of those monsters can be cut down in hit points. DM actions with the monsters can also make a big difference. There is generally that point where any monster will pretty much know it is beaten. Either having such monsters flee or surrender makes sense at that point. Some 4e DMs also have found that it makes sense to just declare that last soldier monster dead by fiat once the outcome is a forgone conclusion.I'm not sure just doing those things will be enough, but it would be an interesting experiment. As far as maps go you might try attaching a map to emails. You could use maptool to set up a map and then do a capture of the map window view after each round and attach it to your email. Anyway, those are all things I'd be tempted to try as a first cut.</blockquote>

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