The Glade 4.0

Everyone likes levelling, everyone likes getting shiny goodies.
RPGs are based on this idea.

Play-by-Post games have a problem, in that combat is both horrifically slow. PbP games run slowly to start with, but at least can progress at a reasonable pace, until combat starts. Then a six-second round can take two weeks. So the only real means by which people typically gain experience or shiny goodies takes a slowish game and has it grind to an intolerable halt.

There are several approaches one could take to fixing this (and they aren't exclusive). One is to try to find a way to speed up PbP combat. This could involve the DM screen coming down at times, and providing more transparent combat - if your players knew the armor class and hit points of their targets, for instance, they could simply attack without asking you questions. It could also involve a gentleman's agreement to keep complex maneuvering and taking advantage of map terrain out of one's actions. In response, the DM will be very permissive with regard to spell ranges and line of effect and obstructions while charging, and simply letting the dice fall where they may. This removes some of the creativity from combat, but perhaps it's worthwhile? How would you streamline PbP combat to speed things up?

Another approach (that could work with the first), is to make combat far more rare in your campaign. Doesn't this slow down advancement? It would, if you didn't compensate for it. You'd need new challenges that gave experience, new methods of acquiring shinies. Alternately (or additionally), combat could be more rewarding, and more risky. Instead of 4 challenges a day, perhaps it's 1 challenge a day, with far greater risk, 4 times the experience, and 4 times the loot. If necessary, perhaps some 1/day abilities now can only be refreshed on the new moon and full moon, to create a sense of economy in using one's abilities.

I'm just throwing out ideas, some are easier to implement than others, some would require substantially reworking the system. What are your thoughts?

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I've tried to keep combat down in the games that I've run. I generally put in less "Random" encounters in pbp games, for the reasons you discuss.

Simplicity is a good idea. Transparancy bothers me slightly just out of concern that it might lead to exploiting and doesn't allow DMs to -ahem- adjust difficulty on the fly. However that might just be something you'd have to trade off to keep the pacing going. You could adjust it that more trivial encounters are handled simply or even narratively. (there's a door guard ahead, but the rogue sneaks behind them and dispatches them quickly)

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Group initiative goes a long way, since then people don't have to wait for each other at least. Ideally you would get off at least 1 round per day this way, though it still requires that everyone posts on a given day. I've experienced this working on several occasions before.

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Egan Mac Aodhagáin
Human (redhead) Ranger (Witchguard, Skirmisher), Init +2, HP 9/17, Speed 20 ft
AC 18, Touch 12, Flat-footed 16, Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +2
Greatsword +5 (2d6+4, 19-20/x2)
Composite Longbow +4 +3 (1d8+3, x3)
Abilities Str 17, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10

Being mildly famous for leaving PbP games here, I figure I'll chime in, because this is exactly why. The pacing of PbP games is atrocious, and all it takes is one person to go on a weekend trip somewhere to completely destroy the flow of the game. However, I don't think that a message board is a bad place to run an RPG, just that the RPG styles that most people are familiar with aren't suitable for playing on a message board.

I don't inherently agree that the purpose of roleplaying is to accumulate shinies or XP, though most RPG's tend to reinforce that, especially the RPG's played on these boards. However, there are lots of ways to roleplay which don't devolve into a week of roleplay and two months of handling a single combat. You can run games like D&D, Deathwatch, Exalted, and other combat-heavy, progression oriented games in a style more befitting a message board, but people who expect your standard D&D hack and slash will be disappointed.

Finding a game with a streamlined, simplistic combat system can help a lot, something like In Nomine or the World of Darkness games (excepting Scion and Exalted, which aren't World of Darkness, and try to shoehorn complex combat into a system that doesn't want it.) Also, the GM has to give up a lot of narrative control to make things run smoothly. Part of the issue is having to ask the GM if there's a chandelier to swing on before you swing on the chandelier. If you allow players to just do things, you can skip a lot of the questions. It also helps immensely if the GM is consistently available to the players outside of the forums, either by phone, text or IM, since you can handle any sort of rules questions away from the game itself.

Also, having filler combats absolutely destroys the narrative that you might be building. When you have to feed your party a group of goblins so they can get some levels, you're instantly setting back your entire story by months simply for the purpose of giving out XP. If you just eliminate these combats, you cut back on the immense combat weight that pops up.

Overall, I think there is a potential for a playable PbP RPG game run through a message board, but it would require very specific conditions to work. The limitations of the environment just make it far too difficult to just pick up something and run, like you could at a tabletop.