I think you want to limit the amount of interruptions to player turns. Basically, have all the enemies act on one initiative block (which can interrupt the players' turns.) I think the best way I've seen is: roll initiative for the bad guys. Post it, and tell the players to roll initiative. Anyone who beats the bad guys can take a turn, then you do the enemy turn, then all the players take a turn (since its everyone who hasn't yet acted + the top of round 2), then bad guys, then all the players, repeat. That saves at least one round of posting with just initiative posts.
For some combats, you can post the AC/Saves and possibly the HP of the enemies. That way, you're not stuck with having to update thing mid-round so players don't waste their actions on downed enemies. You might not want to give all HP, for example for a climatic boss battle, omit the boss's hp. But posting AC/Saves probably doesn't harm that much.
Finally, keeping track of statuses can be hard, especially if people are granting situational bonuses. I'm not sure what the best way to handle that is. Having the GM do it (with appropriate reminders from the players) works well, but does increase the GM's workload.
I'm in one game that has all the players act on 1 initiative and all the bad guys act on one initiative, with the added wrinkle of giving small rewards to players whose initiative beat the enemy.
Here's the full rules:
Deepdelve Combat rules:
Each round will consist of a series of player posts followed by my post for NPCs and opponents.
Within the player posts, characters can act in any order they like. (It's fine if this includes table-talk in the OOC thread to determine the best strategy as to who should do what in what order.)
Whether the players or the opponents go first will be determined by a set of aggregate initiatives. I'll roll an average Opponent Init, and roll inits for the party. If half or more than half of the PCs beat the oppoenent init with their rolls, the PCs go first.
If the players go first, characters who beat the Opponent Init will get a full action, and characters who didn't will be upgraded from no action (the Pathfinder standard) to getting a standard action similar to the standard action one gets in a surprise round.
If the opponents go first, characters who beat the Opponent Init 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.
Familiars, companions, and summoned creatures should each roll their own init. They'll move with the players, and have no effect on which party goes first, but their initiative will determine whether they get a full or standard action when the players go first, or a defense bonus or not when the players go second.
