In combat, do you reveal the enemy's AC to the players? I think it could help streamline combat posts, and the players are going to get an idea of it anyways once the dice start rolling.
As in so many things, I think the answer is "it depends". XD In my face-to-face games, I often reveal the AC of 'minion' type enemies that the party fights a lot of after the first couple ones they kill. I usually keep the AC's of 'boss' type enemies secret, until they figure it out for themselves, to cut down on the party's ability optimize their tactics. I haven't had a lot of GMing time on the boards yet,
That's ultimately the trade-off: Revealing AC's streamlines things, but greater information allows players to calculate their optimum damage (or other probabilities), so that they base their decisions to use things like Power Attack off of known quantities instead of guesswork. So it all comes down to whether or not you feel the guesswork is an interesting part of the game. For me, streamlining is more important for weak enemies, while the feeling of uncertainty is more important for difficult encounters. For other people the answer will likely be different.
After the first round or two, yes. I'll give them a vague idea of how much they're missing by, if they miss, in the first couple. Then I'll just say "Yeah, you needed a 27. Go for it".
For me, streamlining is more important for weak enemies, while the feeling of uncertainty is more important for difficult encounters
This ^^
For weak / simple enemies I include a spoiler block at the end of my DM posts during combat. For difficult / complex / important enemies I include a stripped down spoiler block that gives no information but is a place holder that I update to a complete block after a couple of rounds.
General block:
Place holder:
Example in a game that I am running now on line:
-- david