For your reference -

THIS is the typical combat cycle sequence:
1. When combat begins, all combatants roll initiative.
2. The single person who initiates a surprise round, may take a full round action. All other persons who are aware of their opponents but did not initiate the conflict can act but are reduced to partial actions only - per the surprise round rules. If all the characters are aware of their opponents, proceed with normal rounds.
3. Normal round combatants act in initiative order (highest to lowest).
4. When everyone has had a turn, the next round begins with the combatant with the highest initiative, and steps 3 and 4 repeat until combat ends.

TACTICAL COMBAT BY POST
In the interests of making play by post combat move smoother with greater speed I am changing the normal combat cycle rules (see above). My intention is to reduce the combat dialogue from a complex dialogue, between each player and the GM, where a single round could take a week or more, to a single post-response, where a single round can be resolved in a day - or dare I hope, less.
Declaration of Intent:
    Each round will consist of a series of player posts followed by my post for NPCs and opponents. Within the player posts, characters may elect to act in any order they deem appropriate. I encourage players to 'Table-talk' in an OoC thread, built for the purpose, to determine the best strategy or round to round tactics in a given combat.

Initiative, Surprise, and Normal consecutive rounds:
   Initiative will be determined once per scene. However, instead of individual rolls, combat priority will be determined by an aggregate roll - individually raised by the PC's modifiers. I will provide an Opponent Initiative [OI] roll, if the majority of PCs total initiative scores are equal to or better than their opponents' score, the players will go 'first'.

    If the players go first, characters who beat the OI will get a full action, while characters who did not beat the OI will receive a standard action before the opposition may respond. Those characters who did not beat the OI will receive the remainder of their action at the bottom of the round. Whether that means simply movement or the rest of their secondary attacks (for those who attempt to take full round action).

    If the opponents go first, characters who surpassed the OI will not be considered flat-footed, and will receive a +4 'initiative bonus' to AC, and a +2 initiative bonus on all saves until their action starts.

    Although familiars, companions, and summoned creatures may have their own modified initiative, based on the rolled initiative of their associated PC. They do not add to the determination of which party goes first - although any initiative beating the OI will still receive which type of offense or defense bonus is received.

    After the initial round, the flat-footed condition is removed as is any initiative bonus.

Rationale: I feel that initiative is too integral to the game however its is the largest time suck in combat resolution. Individual who have initiative bonuses will receive a bonus for it. Balanced by the players who lost OI roll who may still be involved in the narrative although at a lesser level.

RESOLVING ATTACKS AND OPPOSED ACTIONS
    Typical opponents (minions) will have their ACs, CMDs, and HPs posted. As a consequence, players can roll their attacks, determine the outcomes, and describe it in any way they like without waiting for me.
    A little bit of god-modding is OK if your attack succeeds against a creature with its stats listed. Saying they "stagger back" or "cry out in pain" is fine if it's generally in keeping with the type and nature of the opponent. If your attack is killing the opponent, that's especially true.

    If an opponent's HP aren't listed, that means that I'll be describing the ultimate outcome of attacks against that character. The player should still describe what happens when they attack (hit/miss/spell result/etc.) but shouldn't go into describing ultimate effect of that attack.
    For opponents with no listed HP value, try not to god-mod. The fact that I didn't list stats for them probably means that they're significant and/or surprising, and I'll need to describe their reactions to keep consistency and flavor.
    Typically I'll list an opponents saves and resistances as well. (I won't expect perfection here, but try and roleplay as if your character didn't know this information in advance. If you would typically use a fire spell, consider using it against a fire-resistant creature anyway.)

    If a player does something that has an unexpected or deliberately surprising consequence, I'll obviously have to go back and add it in. I'll do this by editing the player's post as soon as I notice, but I will mark my edits as having come from me, so that it's clear that any mistakes or whatnot came from me and not the player. If the flavor of the character's reaction is wrong at that point, it's OK for the player to rewrite in their own style if they'd like.

Rationale: This just seems necessary. For one thing, it'll keep things moving. But perhaps more importantly, it gives players agency in describing their actions in a way that would not be true if they have to wait for me to describe every outcome. "Leaps off of the railing Jonas chops down, driving a fatal wound into the goblin's shoulder. Howling its last the Goblin falls under Jonas' onslaught." is better than "Jonas leaps forward and chops down, hurting the creature."

MOVEMENT AND ATTACKS OF OPPORTUNITY
    In their story thread post, players should specify the square they end up in when they move. (e.g. "Jonas moves to E8")
    If players want their character to move in a weird or specific way to avoid a hazard or perceived hazard, they can specify each square of movement. (e.g. "Jonas moves through A2,A3,B4,C5,D6 to end up in C7.")
    Player should resolve all attacks of opportunity against themselves. Every opponent will have their current AoO stats posted.
    If a player misses an AoO, I'll obviously have to go back and add it in. I'll do this in a similar fashion to what I do above for actions with surprising outcomes.
    When I write the opponent post and do their movement, I will resolve any AoO attacks from the players in a similar fashion. This means its important to keep the Current Combat Info about AoOs at the top of your character sheet up to date.
Rationale: Having players do this is a bit challenging, but is in keeping with the open information plan above, and I just don't see an alternative that keeps player actions to one post. In my experience, players forget about AoOs at my Real Life gaming table enough that I suspect it will happen here as well. I'll try to be as vigilant as I can.

NEW - Deviation from RAW
Attacks of Opportunity and Combat Attack Resolution
    As one of the limitations of online gaming I will not be available to rule combat at this time it will be resolved.  Thus I am ruling that all Attacks of opportunity are to be considered an 'retaliatory' attacks happening immediately after the attack (or movement) which provoked the Opportunity. This is only considered an interruption in so far as the retaliatory AoO interrupts any following attacks of the person provoking such attacks.

Example... If my first attack, of three possible attacks, provokes an AoO my opponent may attempt to strike me between my first and second attacks. My first attack is resolved BEFORE my opponent's AoO is resolved then my second and third strikes follow.

READIED AND DELAYED ACTIONS
    Characters who want to prepare a readied or delayed action should specify the trigger (for a readied action) or possible triggers (for a delayed action) in their OOC block, and say what action they intend to take including supporting die rolls made in advance.
    If opponents ready actions, I may edit in the results of the readied action in a way similar to missed AoOs or unexpected consequences (above.)
    Readied actions are always a single standard action, and interrupt the triggering event, and can possibly disrupt or prevent it. Delayed actions are full round actions, but come after or as a result of the triggering event.
    Unlike the official tabletop rules, neither readied nor delayed actions change anything about a character's initiative.
Rationale: A few tweaks here, but this is just mostly for consistency with the other rules above, rather than any fundamental change to readied actions.

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