Question: How does a play-by-post go about?

[Doktor_Q]

Pathfinder doesn't really solve it, but it alleviates some of the symptoms. CoC is something entirely different, and I'll admit it's at least a fairly complete, contained setting.

[Dangerus]

[Rothene]

How do people handle play-by-post combat scenarios without resorting to any established combat systems?

Advance discussion or impromptu reaction to everything that happens?

[noodles]

pretty much.

every time i've done forum RP combat i basically had a discussion with the other writer about what they thought the outcome would be, realistically. if we couldnt come to an agreement then it was basically trying to out-write the other person while being fair and realistic and making sure i wasn't going outside what my character could do, basically ending right as i make an attack.

usually there was some kind of judge in that situation to say if someone's amazing dodge was unfair or whatever, but usually the point was to write something entertaining, not to win, and if two players were ever pitted against each other (rather than going against an npc) usually both would somehow come out unscathed.

with everyone i played with, no matter whose character lost, we made sure the outcome always was effective and added to the story, and no one was really upset afterwards

[Rothene]

Hmm...Ever seen a system where basic stats were used as 'guidelines' such as assume PCs had a stat rating of 1 to 10 in a particular stat and when they can't decide how conflicts resolve, they compare the stat numbers to each other and those with a higher margin win the conflict easily while if the values are close then it calls upon other comparisons, get pulled off successfully and efficiently?