I was planning on doing simple d6 vs. d6 initiative, but it seems like that would slow the game down vs. something else like 'players always go first' or simultaneous.  I've been running MSH and that is basically 'players always go first' which seems to work pretty well, but does leave me wanting for some situations where the bad guys could get the jump on the PCs.  It works o.k. in MSH it's superheroes, but doesn't seem like it would work as well in a grimmer dungeon crawl.

I was wondering for those of you who do run OSR/AD&D type games in PbP, how do you handle initiative?

I use d6 group initiative in my Castles & Crusades game.  I also do all of the dice rolling.  Basically, I ask everyone what their PC is doing.  Once everyone has chimed in, I roll initiative and resolve the combat round based on the players' stated actions.  I typically have the PCs act in the order in which the players post (i.e., first player to post has his/her PC go first).  I will sometimes take the PCs' actions out of posting order if it makes narrative sense to do so.

group initiative. every pc acts at almost their posting order, depending on common sense. Then all opponents act. I believe this is the usual way to do this on forums.
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was against the ToU, at 19:14, Tue 10 Oct 2017.

Usually the everyone rolls, go from highest to lowest.  Unless you have lots of enemies, then the D6 per side.

I use a system of initiative that uses a roll of 2d6 in one of my games (Not D&D).  The higher roll goes first, as the segments of a combat round are counted down from 12.  Outcomes higher than 12 go in round 12 in order, highest to lowest.

There are die modifiers for DEX, weapons proficiencies, special equipment, etc., that apply to these initiative throws.  These are all done "in the background" by the referee if the player does not know or does not supply them.

Time scale is one segment = 5 seconds, one round = 1 minute.

The way it works is that I have all participants roll for initiative and declare their intended actions in individual posts.  When everyone has posted, I look at all declarations, stack them in order of initiative, then adjudicate and describe the scene to declare the results in my reply for that round.  Damage in this game is done in cinematic fashion, so no one ever sees "XX hit points of damage", rather they see what their character is capable of evaluating.

It's a bit of work for me, but it seems to work well enough.