Asmor
First Post
There is one element which is the scourge of every play-by-post game: Combat. No matter how streamlined the system, combat simply takes forever.
There are several reasons for this:
1: Sequential posting: All combat systems I'm aware of are turn-based, requiring people to post more or less sequentially (though often people will post their actions ahead of their turn in the interests of expediency).
2: Multiple rounds: Combat invariably goes for more than 1 round. This means not only do you have to worry about sequential posting, you need to worry about several sequences!
3: Mapping: Not a problem with every game, but D&D is heavily map-based, and this is a D&D board, so it bears mentioning. There are solutions, but they're at best acceptable hacks, and most of them are quite clunky and difficult to use.
4: Action resolution: There are a lot of good dice servers out there allowing people to roll dice for Play by Posts and for the others in the game to verify them. Thus, rolling dice isn't a huge problem. However, there is a problem in that you sometimes can't proceed with your turn until you, say, find out how an enemy reacts to whatever you just did.
On the other hand, there is one major advantage with message boards which one can take into account. Namely, each person has practically infinite time to respond (I say practically infinite because they usually have at least several hours, if not a day or two, which should be plenty of time to do whatever they wish to do).
Thus, the ideal Play by Post combat system would be resolved in a single round, the order people post in would have no affect on the outcome of the battle or on other peoples' choices, it would not involve maps, and no one would need to know what anyone else is doing in order to play their turns.
Unfortunately, I think the ideal Play by Post combat system is out of my league. It may be possible, but it would be very difficult to satisfy all those conditions while also offering a fun system which has a rich selection of meaningful choices.
I'm going to use the advantage of a message board as the crux in the system I develop. Specifically, as people can take their time, I'm going to front-load the system with complexity. On their turn, people can be given several actions and choices, and then everything else should "flow" from the actions they took and choices they made without any further intervention from that particular player.
System
Everyone has five key stats and one "strategy" stat dictated by that character's focus.
Initiative: Determines turn order. Lowest initiatives declare their actions first, which is a disadvantage.
Speed: Speed is used when trying to run away or chase someone.
Attack: How much damage you do.
Defense: How much damage you can take.
Swing: A "wild" die which may be added to any stat.
Strategy: At character creation, you choose two of initiative, speed, attack or defense; you can assign the points rolled by your strategy die to either of the two, in any combination. For example, a warrior might choose attack and defense. If the warrior rolls a 7 for his strategy die, he could put all 7 in attack, all 7 in defense, or could split it up as, say, 2 points to attack and 5 points to defense, or 4 points to attack and 3 points to defense.
The lowest a stat can be is 4. When rolling your stat, you must choose to roll one or two dice, the sum of whose sides is equal to or less than your score total, and you may not roll a die smaller than a d4 (this means that you can't roll two dice unless you have an 8). You may roll "weird" dice, such as 1d11 and 1d4 for a score of 15, if you desire.
Combat
Combat begins with the GM rolling everyone's initiative (as a single die with as many sides as their score). The GM then posts the initiative order, including the number rolled for each person. Actions are taken in reverse order, with the lowest score going first.
On your turn, you have two options:
1: Take your action: Take your action as normal.
2: Raise your initiative: You may roll your swing die to raise your initiative. Keep in mind your swing die can only be used one per combat, so you can only raise your initiative once, and if you do you can't use your swing die to improve your other actions. If you take this option, add your swing die's result to your initiative, and post the newly-modified initiative order (of everyone, not just yourself). If you've raised it sufficiently so that you're no longer the lowest initiative which hasn't taken their turn yet, then it is the next person's turn.
If you chose initiative as one of the stats for your strategy die, you may roll that as well as the swing die or instead of the swing die. You may also roll one, see the result, and then choose whether or not to roll the other. Regardless, you may only raise your initiative once! Even if you still have your swing die, you may not take another Raise your initiative action. Any leftover points from your strategy die are applied to your other stat, as normal.
On your turn
On your turn, roll all of your stats. Only roll the swing and strategy dice if you did not roll them to raise your initiative. You must make the following choices:
Allocate strategy points: If you haven't already, allocate your strategy points between the two stats you chose.
Allocate swing die: If you've still got your swing die, choose which stat to add it to.
Choose target or flee: Choose who you're attacking, or run. If you run, no one can attack you unless they have rolled higher on speed than you. Similarly, you can only attack someone who is fleeing if you've rolled higher on speed than them.
Cleanup
After everyone's posted their actions, the GM performs cleanup. Each person deals damage equal to their attack roll to their target, and to each other person who attacked them. The defense roll applies to every attack against you, but for each person beyond the first who is damaging you your defense roll is reduced by one. For example, if you have a 4 for defense and are being attacked by two people plus the person you attacked, your defense is treated as a 2 against all those attacks.
Anyone who takes damage in excess of their defense is knocked out. If only a single side has anyone left conscious who didn't flee, that side wins and the conscious person(s) choose whether the defeated parties are killed, taken as prisoners or just left behind. If both sides have people who are conscious and did not flee, the GM should impartially decide on a victor, and the conscious members of the losing party are knocked out and may be killed, taken as prisoners, or left behind.
Further considerations
I've designed this combat system as just that: a combat system. There are no rules for character creation (except choosing the strategy die), stat generation, or advancement.
There are also some archetypes which cannot be made under this system as is. A cleric for example would be very difficult, and to make one I'd probably make the strategy die be spread amongst his own and any of his allies' defense scores.
There's also the fact that this system doesn't have robust support for ranged weapons. For ranged attacks, I'd make it so that you do not get attacked back by your target, but you also cannot attack back if you are attacked. Additionally, you can attack anyone who's fleeing with a ranged weapon, regardless of your speed.
For example, to make a mage, I'd give the character high attack, average initiative and speed, low defense, and the strategy die be assigned to attack or speed. I'd also make the character's attacks treated as ranged attacks.
There are several reasons for this:
1: Sequential posting: All combat systems I'm aware of are turn-based, requiring people to post more or less sequentially (though often people will post their actions ahead of their turn in the interests of expediency).
2: Multiple rounds: Combat invariably goes for more than 1 round. This means not only do you have to worry about sequential posting, you need to worry about several sequences!
3: Mapping: Not a problem with every game, but D&D is heavily map-based, and this is a D&D board, so it bears mentioning. There are solutions, but they're at best acceptable hacks, and most of them are quite clunky and difficult to use.
4: Action resolution: There are a lot of good dice servers out there allowing people to roll dice for Play by Posts and for the others in the game to verify them. Thus, rolling dice isn't a huge problem. However, there is a problem in that you sometimes can't proceed with your turn until you, say, find out how an enemy reacts to whatever you just did.
On the other hand, there is one major advantage with message boards which one can take into account. Namely, each person has practically infinite time to respond (I say practically infinite because they usually have at least several hours, if not a day or two, which should be plenty of time to do whatever they wish to do).
Thus, the ideal Play by Post combat system would be resolved in a single round, the order people post in would have no affect on the outcome of the battle or on other peoples' choices, it would not involve maps, and no one would need to know what anyone else is doing in order to play their turns.
Unfortunately, I think the ideal Play by Post combat system is out of my league. It may be possible, but it would be very difficult to satisfy all those conditions while also offering a fun system which has a rich selection of meaningful choices.
I'm going to use the advantage of a message board as the crux in the system I develop. Specifically, as people can take their time, I'm going to front-load the system with complexity. On their turn, people can be given several actions and choices, and then everything else should "flow" from the actions they took and choices they made without any further intervention from that particular player.
System
Everyone has five key stats and one "strategy" stat dictated by that character's focus.
Initiative: Determines turn order. Lowest initiatives declare their actions first, which is a disadvantage.
Speed: Speed is used when trying to run away or chase someone.
Attack: How much damage you do.
Defense: How much damage you can take.
Swing: A "wild" die which may be added to any stat.
Strategy: At character creation, you choose two of initiative, speed, attack or defense; you can assign the points rolled by your strategy die to either of the two, in any combination. For example, a warrior might choose attack and defense. If the warrior rolls a 7 for his strategy die, he could put all 7 in attack, all 7 in defense, or could split it up as, say, 2 points to attack and 5 points to defense, or 4 points to attack and 3 points to defense.
The lowest a stat can be is 4. When rolling your stat, you must choose to roll one or two dice, the sum of whose sides is equal to or less than your score total, and you may not roll a die smaller than a d4 (this means that you can't roll two dice unless you have an 8). You may roll "weird" dice, such as 1d11 and 1d4 for a score of 15, if you desire.
Combat
Combat begins with the GM rolling everyone's initiative (as a single die with as many sides as their score). The GM then posts the initiative order, including the number rolled for each person. Actions are taken in reverse order, with the lowest score going first.
On your turn, you have two options:
1: Take your action: Take your action as normal.
2: Raise your initiative: You may roll your swing die to raise your initiative. Keep in mind your swing die can only be used one per combat, so you can only raise your initiative once, and if you do you can't use your swing die to improve your other actions. If you take this option, add your swing die's result to your initiative, and post the newly-modified initiative order (of everyone, not just yourself). If you've raised it sufficiently so that you're no longer the lowest initiative which hasn't taken their turn yet, then it is the next person's turn.
If you chose initiative as one of the stats for your strategy die, you may roll that as well as the swing die or instead of the swing die. You may also roll one, see the result, and then choose whether or not to roll the other. Regardless, you may only raise your initiative once! Even if you still have your swing die, you may not take another Raise your initiative action. Any leftover points from your strategy die are applied to your other stat, as normal.
On your turn
On your turn, roll all of your stats. Only roll the swing and strategy dice if you did not roll them to raise your initiative. You must make the following choices:
Allocate strategy points: If you haven't already, allocate your strategy points between the two stats you chose.
Allocate swing die: If you've still got your swing die, choose which stat to add it to.
Choose target or flee: Choose who you're attacking, or run. If you run, no one can attack you unless they have rolled higher on speed than you. Similarly, you can only attack someone who is fleeing if you've rolled higher on speed than them.
Cleanup
After everyone's posted their actions, the GM performs cleanup. Each person deals damage equal to their attack roll to their target, and to each other person who attacked them. The defense roll applies to every attack against you, but for each person beyond the first who is damaging you your defense roll is reduced by one. For example, if you have a 4 for defense and are being attacked by two people plus the person you attacked, your defense is treated as a 2 against all those attacks.
Anyone who takes damage in excess of their defense is knocked out. If only a single side has anyone left conscious who didn't flee, that side wins and the conscious person(s) choose whether the defeated parties are killed, taken as prisoners or just left behind. If both sides have people who are conscious and did not flee, the GM should impartially decide on a victor, and the conscious members of the losing party are knocked out and may be killed, taken as prisoners, or left behind.
Further considerations
I've designed this combat system as just that: a combat system. There are no rules for character creation (except choosing the strategy die), stat generation, or advancement.
There are also some archetypes which cannot be made under this system as is. A cleric for example would be very difficult, and to make one I'd probably make the strategy die be spread amongst his own and any of his allies' defense scores.
There's also the fact that this system doesn't have robust support for ranged weapons. For ranged attacks, I'd make it so that you do not get attacked back by your target, but you also cannot attack back if you are attacked. Additionally, you can attack anyone who's fleeing with a ranged weapon, regardless of your speed.
For example, to make a mage, I'd give the character high attack, average initiative and speed, low defense, and the strategy die be assigned to attack or speed. I'd also make the character's attacks treated as ranged attacks.
