Good questions.
I think that combat starts once you're in a certain range of an enemy. But I don't know what that means if party member A reaches that minimum combat range, but party member B is a few steps behind A and hasn't yet. Does B also get drawn into combat? Or are they still real time until they move forward a bit?
I think escape MIGHT be possible
I imagine the turn order is based on the relative speeds of the individuals, with possible modifiers based on ambushes and sneak attacks.
I sincerely doubt that you will be able to talk to EVERY enemy to avoid a fight, I think many may just attack on sight without giving you a chance to talk at all, and even in cases where you can talk, you probably can't always talk your way out without fighting. Turn that idea around for a minute. If you could talk any enemy into giving up and leaving, why couldn't the enemy do that to you? What if they got a really good result on their Charisma roll? Do you think it would be a good idea if the enemy talked YOU into giving up, and then you get a "Game Over: The enemy convinced you to go retire in peace."?
Even if you COULD talk to every enemy, I would not want to have even the option to do that every single time for every encounter, that would quickly drive me insane, even if I selected "no I want to fight" each time.
