No matter what game a person plays when playing PbP, combat can always be tricky.. many games sink or swim during the first round of combat. It either bogs down, or people just do not post and things tank.

To battle that, I run combat a little differently, and where this is my first attempt for Alien in PbP, the format may change.

But during the first round, I will post up everyone's turn order, this is of course when everyone's turns will be played out. Preferably people will respond in order of the initiative But people can post when ever they want to, stating their actions, rolling dice, what ever. usually this is some descriptive texts, and secret msgs to the gm with actual instructions.

After everyone has written a response, I may ask for dice rolls, etc. When that is collected, it is my job to collate it all into one turn describing what happened. If you post out of sequence, when your turn order arrives, then your action may or may not happen depending on the situation playing out which is determined by me.

This is not a perfect system, as the GM sometimes needs to alter what happens. Sometimes, people will say, well if I knew I was hit then I will do this or do that. But it gets very tangly, so please just try your best to roll with the punches as best as you can.

Sometimes, people who post out of order will give orders like, if player a runs here, I do this, if he stays put I do this.. etc, that is fine. But ultimately, the GM decides what happens. Again, I stress some leeway is needed for play by post games, if not.. it gets bogged down and the game dies.

So, I figured I would post an example on how I would post an attack or some action thread. If I was a player.

The way I always done it, was I write my action, roll the dice, right my outcome, in that order.

So for example, lets say the Jolly is running in a hallway, and ahead of him an airlock is closing and he wants to dive under it before it closes.

I would do something like this..

---

The black hell beast was nearly on him, he could feel the slashing claws swipe past his exo suit. He needed to get away! The airlock ahead of him is closing, if he didnt get through the gap he would either end up torn apart by the monster behind him, or just as bad, squat under the closing airlock.

Jolly always liked to gamble.. he needed to gamble more then any other time in his life right now.. He dives under the door.

(Post a private line to the gm. Rolled a pile of dice and the outcome was no sixes, failed)

Just as he dove, his suit hooked in some cables that was protruding from the grating under him, it was now or never, he gave one final push!

(post a private line to the gm. Pushed that roll, I added on stress and rolled again and got a 1 on my panic dice!!!, Rolled panic and got a 14! I freeze)

His heart stopped in his chest as he could not clear his hooked up suit fast enough and he awaits his fate as the door closes quickly on him, and the xenomorph reached out to grab him!

---

The private lines are usually copy and pasted from the dice roller log, and what ever notes you wanted to share with me.

This allows you to write what you are doing, and how you want to describe things.

I then write the outcome of the situation. So above, he may be cut in half, dragged back into the claws of the alien, or who knows.. I will describe it in some gory fashion.

Another thing about this, is that other people, only see what you are writing and it reads like a book, as the private msgs are only seen by me (or who they are addressed too)

If you were to roll and actually succeed, you just write what you are doing, and how you want the outcome to go.

(I will also be posting hints, tips and suggestions in the posts with info on the scene, what you can and can not do, etc)

Hope this helps.

Also I want to add this...

If you are the type of person, who does not want to, or for some reason, do not have time too. You can just say what you want to do, and leave me the instructions, and I can make the rolls for you..


Its all up to you, I am easy.