I think present tense only really works in free-rp's. One you start putting paragraphs together, it sticks out awkwardly. That's literary tradition really, since books and stories aren't usually written in present tense. Goes back to the days when novels were treated like fictional accounts being repeated to the reader. If instead of coming into RPing through literary tradition you come through via gaming tradition where things are usually present tense, that's going to be what you find normal
I was going to mention that as well. Most stories rarely use future tense as it's more of a planning aspect for what the characters may do, but it might not turn out the way they intended way. Using it in a roleplay is just suicidal because you are telegraphing moves that may not even happen or controlling the scene. "Gary will open the door", means that no other characters may have a chance to perform that action and they have to play catch-up posts for what he is about to do.
Most stories though would use past tense for their main and present tense as a suspense trick or unique trait. Deathnote: Another Note uses this as the story is a recollection of Mellow's account but written a bit from his point of view.
"It did not particularly matter to him whether it succeeded or not. Beyond Birthday simply shrugged, and took out a knife...
No, no, no, no, no.
Not this style, not this narrative voice - I'll never manage to keep up this arch tone all the way through. The harder I try, the more bored I'll get and the lazier the writing will be."
It works really well because the perspective shifts from third to first and past to present throughout the novel, building up suspense during Mellow's recaps and shifting to story telling during the past tense parts. That's where present tense has it's biggest advantage. It can be used to create so much drama and tension by making you feel like every word takes you closer to the climactic point. So if any player can't seem to wrap their head around that logic, they'll never be able to create a post that will engage the other players as people naturally want to read about what happened, and not what is going to happen where they have the opportunity to think about the repercussions of any actions.