That Rifts game I mentioned running earlier ran at a significantly faster pace. I ran it for about two years, and that was long enough to get through a fairly big campaign arc. Battles typically lasted three to nine days. The City of Veils was much slower. It only lasted a few months once I got involved, and I played, perhaps, five or six turns, but they only covered a little more than two days.

The pace largely depends on the style of the game and how much attention the participants can give it. If you're dealing with "Gimbal darts forward and savagely attacks the goblin with the gimpy leg" then it will take a long time to get through a combat. On the other hand, you can play it like "Gimbal joins the fray, laying about him with his pickaxe, striking at any goblin flesh he can reach." With that kind of approach, the GM's next post can tell about how Gimbal slew six of the goblins before taking a spear in the leg, and now what does he do?

The thing of it is, it's really difficult to satisfy both people who want tactical combat and people who want in-depth storytelling at the same time in a PBeM. Splitting battles off into VTT space might ameliorate that, though. I've never tried a game that exists in both spaces before.

I'll be happy to participate if you want to get the ball rolling.