IceFractal
First Post
It does seem that 4E combat is much less suited for PbP than 3E combat was. Let's look at three big differences:
1) Number of rounds per combat is much larger (although each round is faster).
2) Less decisions to make / dice to roll during a round, to speed things up.
3) All classes have access to immediate-type abilties, not just a few.
Now in PbP, #2 is not really an advantage. The amount of time to roll 4-6 iterative attacks or look through a long spell-list is miniscule compared to the amount of time spent waiting for everybody to post. At the same time, #3 is a distinct disadvantage - the more out-of-turn actions possible, the less can be posted in advance. And point #1 is the killer - a combat that takes 4x as many rounds is going to take 4x as long to resolve in PbP, even if it would be faster in person.
But basically, it's a conflict between what's good for in-person and what's good for PbP. With an in-person combat, you want people to be involved all the time, having input as frequently as possible. With a PbP combat, you want it to be possible for people to post large chunks of their actions at once, without having to go back-and-forth with other people, so that a combat doesn't take a week to resolve. They're basically opposite, and 4E leans more to the in-person side.
1) Number of rounds per combat is much larger (although each round is faster).
2) Less decisions to make / dice to roll during a round, to speed things up.
3) All classes have access to immediate-type abilties, not just a few.
Now in PbP, #2 is not really an advantage. The amount of time to roll 4-6 iterative attacks or look through a long spell-list is miniscule compared to the amount of time spent waiting for everybody to post. At the same time, #3 is a distinct disadvantage - the more out-of-turn actions possible, the less can be posted in advance. And point #1 is the killer - a combat that takes 4x as many rounds is going to take 4x as long to resolve in PbP, even if it would be faster in person.
But basically, it's a conflict between what's good for in-person and what's good for PbP. With an in-person combat, you want people to be involved all the time, having input as frequently as possible. With a PbP combat, you want it to be possible for people to post large chunks of their actions at once, without having to go back-and-forth with other people, so that a combat doesn't take a week to resolve. They're basically opposite, and 4E leans more to the in-person side.
Our group has players from USA, UK, and Singapore, so the extremes are something like 16 hours apart.
