This amount of interest is outstanding. My only concern at the moment is that PF combat encounters can take ages in the real world, and I can only imagine that they'd be just as time consuming here on RPOL if not more.
TLDR at the end
What do you guys think about making a compromise. The idea I just had is to make the PCs using standard PF1 rules and distill them down into "The Window RPG" counterparts. If you've never heard of it, The Window is a 100% free RPG that completely emphasizes storytelling over dice rolling. It's remarkably simple and can be used for any type of rpg, that minimizes dice rolling and prioritizes role-playing and grip droven narrative. By combining the two, I'd like to include some aspects of dice rolling, but at the same time rely less on it and more on our collective imaginations as the story unfolds.
The window does away with most, if not all, of the numerical aspects of RPGs and replaces them with adjactives. Let's use my very favorite PF character who I had an absolute blast playing by using PF rules as well as TW rules.
This character was 'Vær Ayshe', a NG, Mistsoul Undine, Fallen Paladin 2 / Fighter X. He had 2 levels of Fallen Paladin and the rest were always Fighter with the following aspects of his character.
As a fallen paladin, he was considered an ex-paladin with the anti-hero Vindictive Bastard archetype. As a fighter he had the Cad and Phalanx Soldier archetypes. His ability scores were something similar to these without magic item enchantments and including level bonuses (which I can't quite remember the actual numbers offhand):
Str 14
Dex 18
Con 20
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 12
Something like that. My primary class was Fighter and, if you noticed, I opted to play as a race that automatically has a -2 penalty to Str right off the bat. I did that on purpose bc I wanted to make a unique character who the other players in the game (who were all total min-maxers) would have never, ever, thought could be an effective party member. In the end, everyone told me that this character was the best played fighter they'd ever had the pleasure of playing with in their parties. And some of those min-maxers decided that next time they'd take a page from my book at try something that on paper seemed like it would be a complete failure. When they reported back, they all said that they had the most fun playing a character who wasn't min-maxed or optimized the way they usually do, and were going to change how they make their future characters.
Probably something else that completely shocked everyone was that I never laid out a 1-20 level plan. When I gained a level, I decided what features I could add to my character based upon what was happening at the time; instead of following a pre-made min-maxed blueprint. Once, we defeated some gigantic insects and after realizing their chitin was extremely protective I asked the DM if I could use one of the giant beetle's wing-cover as a shield. He said I could but it was the size of a tower shield, that I wasn't proficient. I held onto it and when I next leveled up I took the tower shield proficiency. I had never planned on using a tower shield because of the encumbrance and penalties they have, but the DM said that since it was taken from a natural creature, it was much lighter, yet more protective than any manufactured tower would be. It ended up being something like a +4 tower shield made out of mitral, negating all the negative qualities usually associated with tower shields.
I never intended to use a tower shield, but at the time it made perfect sense in-character. If I had followed a 1-20 map for my character like the other players, I would have already known what that feat would have been and never used the giant insect's shell because it wasn't in the original 1-20 blueprint the other players were using. Everyone else stuck to their original blueprint, but since I didn't have one, I allowed my character to grow organically by using his past to shape each new level. If I had done a 1-20 like the others, I would have never gained the tower prof since they're pretty bad shields for the most part. I let my character gain the feat to utilize this new, excellent piece of equipment because of the story itself.
All of his feats were put into teamwork, additional attacks of opportunity, extending his threat-range and most importantly of all, combat maneuvers such as dirty fighting, disarm, reposition, etc. Thanks to the paladin archetype, he could grant any ally around him the use of any teamwork feat he had himself. That plus the fighter archetypes abilities resulted in a combo that made combat encounters a sight to behold.
Vær would use his chitin shield and one-handed reach Glaive Guisarme Polearm (phalanx fighter feature) to protect his party members, reposition his enemies, grant teamwork tactics without his friends needing the feats themselves and never make actual attack rolls. He never, ever truly attacked an enemy's AC on his turn, he used his combat maneuvers CBA against the enemy's CDB to disarm, reposition, trip, and just generally shut down the bad guys opportunities to use their most powerful attacks and spells against his friends and gained numerous opportunity attacks whenever an enemy tried casting a spell, getting up from prone moving in or out of his reach etc. And by granting the teamwork feats to allies, flanking could be made by simply being next to one another and the more Conrad's around him, the larger bonuses to their own attacks, AC, Saves, you name it.
I could list off all the numbers that were involved but if we used The Window I wouldn't have to... all Vær's sheet would consist of everything I described above. He was an incredible melee opponent who never used his turn to directly attack. He used his turn to both hinder his opponents while at the same time bolster his allies with various tactics, teamwork and combat maneuvers.
By making our characters with PF1 sheets and converting them narrative, our game won't need to rely on dice rolling. Instead it will rely on our abilities to transform our characters numbers into adjectives that will make the interactive story truly shine.
I can expand more on these two options for playing a PF1 game with PBP, but I think you've probable got the idea.
You can learn all about The Window and download its rulebook here:
http://www.mimgames.com/window/
So, what do you think? Would you like to play an Eberron game, that uses PF1 characters, who we will as a team convert into The Window characters, with whom we'll participate in an interactive story that isn't interrupted with rolling dice and looking up rules all the time. We'd have the numerical aspects of our characters to refer to while converting numbers to adjectives and in doing so really participate in interactive storytelling where I as the DM move the narrative along and you as the actors describe how you and your friends interact with the world I'll be weaving at the exact same time.
TLDR
I think that by combining aspects of PF1 and The Window, we'll have a great game that really tells a story and will be very much fun for me as the Storyteller and you the Actors.
Please share your thoughts!
