How to Write My First AAR?

[TomorrowsHerald]

I've been thinking of writing AAR's for a while but several concerns have kept me from doing so:

1) Can I write one even if my research into the time period isn't as comprehensive as it should be to be historically accurate?

2) If in-game events don't follow exactly the same course as I'd like for the AAR narrative, can I make small alterations?

3) What is otherwise generally expected from an AAR?

Rather than keep sitting on the fence, I thought I could simply jump straight into the water and start writing for an existing game I am playing in Kazereich Darkest Hour. I thought to make it a story-narrative about a mountaineer just back from the Norweigan campaign I've finished in the game where he took part in taking control of the heavy water facility there. He is then assigned to a new Abwher military unit charged with conducting similar missions, usually connected to a secret nuclear technology arms race between the Internationale and Mitteleuropa.

Any thoughts?

 

[Dunaden]

To answer your questions

1. People who play these games and read and write AARs have a wide range of knowledge, from total laymen (me) to Doctorates in History. If you don’t know something, you can research more if you want, from a quick Wikipedia search to in depth reading. But as soon as these games start, you are changing history, so if you stay true to the narrative of the game you are playing, the background and history are not as important.
2. You are the author, showing as much, or as little of the actual game play as you need to tell your story. I often adjust things to better suit my narrative, sometimes changing the timing of events to better fit the story, or leaving out events that don’t fit my characters. You could also replay saves, and change events until you get an outcome that better fits the direction you want the story to go.
3. Bottom line is, this is your story, you can tell it any way you want. There is one person writing the game as an epic poem. There are others who use the gameplay as a very vague framework, while they delve into character development. Others do a play-by-play narrative of the every decision they made in game.

For example: if I wanted to write a six-word AAR about my CK3 dynasty in my last Poland play through it would be:

“After two invasions, Poland remains free.”

 

[Wraith11B]

Echoing @Dunaden 's comments above, and expanding: whatever you write, write what you want to, but also be entertaining about it!

 

[Idhrendur]

1) Yes.
2) Very much yes. It happens far more frequently than you'd think. Just don't use ironman. Oh, and it's up to you if you mention that you're doing so or not, either in the first post or at any point you do. I lean towards not mentioning it, but some people like to be explicit.
3) I like it when people take screenshots, but be careful with them. It's easy for them to be too cluttered to make sense. Remember that they're telling part of the story. Figure out what they're saying, and focus them on that. Use cropping and combining to emphasize the story each tells. Character portraits are good to show (in CK3), as are maps. Events can be useful, especially if you highlight the option chosen in editing.

 

[TomorrowsHerald]

Thank you for the replies, it's easy to be somewhat intimidated when some AAR writers put such an impressive amount of work into theirs, but I won't get know until I try and I very much like the idea of giving my games more substance in the shape of a story narrative; one that I see no reason not to share if I pen it.

People who play these games and read and write AARs have a wide range of knowledge, from total laymen (me) to Doctorates in History. If you don’t know something, you can research more if you want, from a quick Wikipedia search to in-depth reading. But as soon as these games start, you are changing history, so if you stay true to the narrative of the game you are playing, the background and history are not as important.

That's one thing I am wondering about; for example, say I want to write a story about the Commune of France? As a completely imagined society, there is little beyond Wikipedia pages about the figures involved and supposition based on the French labour movement and IRL revolutionary societies to go on (what details I can access without a first-rate knowledge of French at any rate) I can try to work to the best of my ability to square things with those details that are available to me and are indeed relevant to the alternate scenario, but ultimately, the story, as well as the portrayal of the characters and world will be as fictional as their altered circumstances. My question is more or less what is expected of a story that tries to be, for lack of a better word, realistic?

You are the author, showing as much, or as little of the actual game play as you need to tell your story. I often adjust things to better suit my narrative, sometimes changing the timing of events to better fit the story, or leaving out events that don’t fit my characters. You could also replay saves, and change events until you get an outcome that better fits the direction you want the story to go.

2) Very much yes. It happens far more frequently than you'd think. Just don't use ironman. Oh, and it's up to you if you mention that you're doing so or not, either in the first post or at any point you do. I lean towards not mentioning it, but some people like to be explicit.

That is a good idea; my tendency of keeping only one or two saves per game is probably undermining my options in that sense. I quite like giving the game the option to challenge my designs with an element of randomness, but sometimes it's a bit immersion-breaking. (AI Post-War border butchery being one way)

For example: if I wanted to write a six-word AAR about my CK3 dynasty in my last Poland play through it would be

“After two invasions, Poland remains free.”

Ha, that's true; most of my DH-KR games (or any Paradox game for that matter) amount to "the story of X painting the world in Y."

(Though KR does produce a very good narrative illusion of creating new puppet governments in place of defeat foes)

Echoing @Dunaden 's comments above, and expanding: whatever you write, write what you want to, but also be entertaining about it!

I am still not fully sure as to my style for AAR's. I can imagine myself writing it as a narrative with characters, as media reports from a radio broadcaster (I have a hobby of listening to period relevant news broadcast from the Second World War), perhaps from a narrator's point of view or the history book approach popular in many AAR's I've read here. Hell, I see no reason why not to choose a mix of all of these. What would you consider interesting from your experiences?

3) I like it when people take screenshots, but be careful with them. It's easy for them to be too cluttered to make sense. Remember that they're telling part of the story. Figure out what they're saying, and focus them on that. Use cropping and combining to emphasize the story each tells. Character portraits are good to show (in CK3), as are maps. Events can be useful, especially if you highlight the option chosen in editing.

I have tried to make a habit for taking screenshots for Stellaris games, but not of DH which is where I currently want to tell AAR's which was probably a mistake. One problem is that the game is so bloody detailed the only way to really access all the information about a situation is via a save. Otherwise, screenshots are very limited in what they can tell, especially if in hindsight I want something I didn't think of. The time period also lends itself to me with a high volume of photographed material that many other AAR writers simply repurpose for the narrative they are trying to tell. I will start taking screenshots and as DH doesn't have a system separating games into their own save sub-files I might simply create mod copies for every game so that the constant saving doesn't become too hectic.

 

[Derahan]

That's one thing I am wondering about; for example, say I want to write a story about the Commune of France? As a completely imagined society, there is little beyond Wikipedia pages about the figures involved and supposition based on the French labour movement and IRL revolutionary societies to go on (what details I can access without a first-rate knowledge of French at any rate) I can try to work to the best of my ability to square things with those details that are available to me and are indeed relevant to the alternate scenario, but ultimately, the story, as well as the portrayal of the characters and world will be as fictional as their altered circumstances. My question is more or less what is expected of a story that tries to be, for lack of a better word, realistic?

It is essentially up to you. Realistic in my repetoir is a very vague definition; It can be realistic because everything is exactly the same as it was in history as when you are writing an AAR. It can still be realistic if its alt-history since just a simple point of divergence can change history (say the French win the Franco-Prussian war of in the 1870s) but much of the people and the technology stays the same, which would be in my book realistic. It can also be that everything about the people and the history is different but it is identical to our modern world in essence of technology and civilization.

So to say, realistic is vague. For example: Stellaris can be said both a realistic and/or a fantasy/sci-fi game. Some part of it I believe use science that we can prove/use today and thus is probably just a an inevitability making it perhaps realistic. However it can also not be so because it includes aliens and futuristic weapons and psykers etc.

If we discuss your example. If you switch the characters and people around the French commune into entirely fictional ones it can still be realistic because who knows what might have happened if say more people died in the French Revolution or the revolutions of 1830/1848.

Now let's say you copy-paste all characters from history and all events that happened in history into your AAR essentially retelling history, then perhaps it is too realistic and people could just buy a history book instead if they are interested in the subject. Paradox games are after all completely/somewhat sandbox and it is up to the player with the tools given by Paradox to create a, realistic, alternative history of what might have happened.

Sorry if long rant and incoherent, just ask if I was not making sense.

That is a good idea; my tendency of keeping only one or two saves per game is probably undermining my options in that sense. I quite like giving the game the option to challenge my designs with an element of randomness, but sometimes it's a bit immersion-breaking. (AI Post-War border butchery being one way)

Keep a lot of saves and be ready to use console commands. A lot of saves are good if one break so you can go back, it is also good if you forgot to take a picture of something and the opportunity to do so exists inside an older save. If you are going for AARs that doesn't rely on 100% accurately retell the game most of the writers I believe would use console commands to change the world to suit their storytelling needs.

Ha, that's true; most of my DH-KR games (or any Paradox game for that matter) amount to "the story of X painting the world in Y."
(Though KR does produce a very good narrative illusion of creating new puppet governments in place of defeat foes)

Some people play a game and then based on the game writes an AAR changing the events and stories after the game to fit their storytelling. The reader never has to know or you can be open about it, doesn't really matter as I view it. It all comes down to what story you want to write.

I am still not fully sure as to my style for AAR's. I can imagine myself writing it as a narrative with characters, as media reports from a radio broadcaster (I have a hobby of listening to period relevant news broadcast from the Second World War), perhaps from a narrator's point of view or the history book approach popular in many AAR's I've read here. Hell, I see no reason why not to choose a mix of all of these. What would you consider interesting from your experiences?

Do whatever you want! Everyone has different tastes and writes different AARs and there will be different audience who more or less likes different AARs. All formats can be made interesting it all depends on you who write it.

I have tried to make a habit for taking screenshots for Stellaris games, but not of DH which is where I currently want to tell AAR's which was probably a mistake. One problem is that the game is so bloody detailed the only way to really access all the information about a situation is via a save. Otherwise, screenshots are very limited in what they can tell, especially if in hindsight I want something I didn't think of. The time period also lends itself to me with a high volume of photographed material that many other AAR writers simply repurpose for the narrative they are trying to tell. I will start taking screenshots and as DH doesn't have a system separating games into their own save sub-files I might simply create mod copies for every game so that the constant saving doesn't become too hectic.

If it is annoying using too many screenshots then I would take notes. I do that and for example: I use google drive/documents and take notes for the main country I am playing but also try and keep notes about what happens on each continent as the game progresses. These could possibly be however detailed one would like to have them or however vague one would like. Just use them however they suit your needs.

 

[DensleyBlair]

I was going to offer a few words on your initial points, but @Dunaden and @Idhrendur already did an excellent job answering those so I'll jump in on one of the possibly more niche points that I may be able to help with.

That's one thing I am wondering about; for example, say I want to write a story about the Commune of France? As a completely imagined society, there is little beyond Wikipedia pages about the figures involved and supposition based on the French labour movement and IRL revolutionary societies to go on (what details I can access without a first-rate knowledge of French at any rate) I can try to work to the best of my ability to square things with those details that are available to me and are indeed relevant to the alternate scenario, but ultimately, the story, as well as the portrayal of the characters and world will be as fictional as their altered circumstances. My question is more or less what is expected of a story that tries to be, for lack of a better word, realistic?

I've done more or less exactly this with the Commonwealth of Britain (not KR but a similar outcome) so here are some thought based on my own experience.

The first thing to say is that I tend towards the extreme end of the "events inspired by gameplay" spectrum, that is I've written an entire AAR off the back of 15 years of gameplay stretching half a century past the end of the save. Sometimes there comes a point in-game where you have everything you want for the foundations of a great story, so I don't think you should be afraid to let your instincts as an author take over. It's entirely valid to say, you know what, I know exactly where I want this to go from here and the game has taken me as far as it can. An AAR absolutely does not need to be a play-by-play faithful account of exactly what happens in a save, and as an author you can take as many liberties as you want.

Off the back of this, to set up the scenario that would become Echoes of a New Tomorrow, I took the game events as a skeleton: massive late-stage-Vicky communist revolt; institution of a British dictatorship of the proletariat; massive overhaul and modernisation of British interwar society; successful counter-revolution just before the game's end. Because I was far more interested in telling the story of a Left Britain than of a five-year commune, I shaped the counter-revolution into a reactionary coup-by-stealth from within the Left bloc, ending up with a bastard socialist British state. From here, I didn't really need Vicky; my own imagination took over and I started assembling a list of characters (historical and otherwise) and pulling together sources and all the rest.

The practical work of this sometimes just amounted to in-depth Wiki trawling. Sometimes I'd find historical political documents or read second-hand material. The CPGB 1928 manifesto was invaluable in being able to imagine how a British Commonwealth might be organised a decade after the Great War, so for the French example you could try the PCF – or frankly just use English-language stuff and apply it to France. (The beauty of vanguard parties at this time is that they all tend to look the same under the bonnet…) Often I tend to work by analogy: some elements of my Commonwealth are CPGB, a lot are proto-Keynesian, a few things come from the Estado Novo in Portugal… more than a few things actually come straight from OTL post-war Britain. It's a real mongrel, but (I hope) it all hangs together by a basic internal logic that sort of triumphs over "realism".

So my advice would be to read around a bit at the start to get an idea of where you want to go, but not to feel like you have to be constrained by OTL events or attitudes. And the further you get from your POD, of course, the wilder your divergences can become – and the more leeway you will have with what exactly is "realistic". If you're telling a good story, from my own experience I'd suggest that your readers will indulge you an awful lot.

 

[Wraith11B]

Thank you for the replies, it's easy to be somewhat intimidated when some AAR writers put such an impressive amount of work into theirs, but I won't get know until I try and I very much like the idea of giving my games more substance in the shape of a story narrative; one that I see no reason not to share if I pen it.

The level of work can vary: some great AARs are basically just the author telling us what happened in the game, others are carefully crafted stories that allow us to revisit history or a glimpse into the future. Try not to get too hung up on what other people are doing, and focus on your own work, as it's what you can absolutely control!

That's one thing I am wondering about; for example, say I want to write a story about the Commune of France? As a completely imagined society, there is little beyond Wikipedia pages about the figures involved and supposition based on the French labour movement and IRL revolutionary societies to go on (what details I can access without a first-rate knowledge of French at any rate) I can try to work to the best of my ability to square things with those details that are available to me and are indeed relevant to the alternate scenario, but ultimately, the story, as well as the portrayal of the characters and world will be as fictional as their altered circumstances. My question is more or less what is expected of a story that tries to be, for lack of a better word, realistic?

As Densley just mentioned, the writing is more important than the absolute accuracy and faithfulness to actual events. If you write authoritatively, and keep things grounded (see my AAR for a counterexample of "realistic" masquerading as a good yarn), most people would probably give a read anyways.

That is a good idea; my tendency of keeping only one or two saves per game is probably undermining my options in that sense. I quite like giving the game the option to challenge my designs with an element of randomness, but sometimes it's a bit immersion-breaking. (AI Post-War border butchery being one way)

I've gotten far into HoI3 save editing, for similar reasons.

I am still not fully sure as to my style for AAR's. I can imagine myself writing it as a narrative with characters, as media reports from a radio broadcaster (I have a hobby of listening to period relevant news broadcast from the Second World War), perhaps from a narrator's point of view or the history book approach popular in many AAR's I've read here. Hell, I see no reason why not to choose a mix of all of these. What would you consider interesting from your experiences?

I read quite a bit, of all of the various types, but as long as the author has put forth the effort, I make the effort to enjoy it. Certainly, this could be most adequately reflected by my own current AAR: Everyone knows what's going to happen, it seems; everyone believes that the end is a foregone conclusion. Because of my writing, however, they remain relatively engaged.

I have tried to make a habit for taking screenshots for Stellaris games, but not of DH which is where I currently want to tell AAR's which was probably a mistake. One problem is that the game is so bloody detailed the only way to really access all the information about a situation is via a save. Otherwise, screenshots are very limited in what they can tell, especially if in hindsight I want something I didn't think of. The time period also lends itself to me with a high volume of photographed material that many other AAR writers simply repurpose for the narrative they are trying to tell. I will start taking screenshots and as DH doesn't have a system separating games into their own save sub-files I might simply create mod copies for every game so that the constant saving doesn't become too hectic.

I live by screenshots, but that's because I'm insane and trying to play a single game on six bloody computers and just can't annotate my games as I progress (though I might try to at least give myself a scratch pad as ideas come to me while playing).

 

[TomorrowsHerald]

Thanks again for all your detailed replies! There is a lot there that I will need to think about before I respond to individual comments but you did give me a direction. While reading I came across Missak Manouchian who in OTL was a martyr of the French Resistance and in KRTL is one of the leading tank commanders of the Commune of France. In IRL he is survived by a letter he wrote prior to his execution and it gave me an idea of a tragic story with him as the main character in the Communard army starting shortly before the Sorelians take over; semi-mirroring Romel's relationship with the Nazis and Hitler (his rapid promotion and execution)

The Sorelians in KR are sort of National-Syndicalist platform (read Fascist) that remains a part of the Socialist movement in the alternate timeline due to the defeat of Lenin. During the Commune elections, the Anarchists and Syndicalists are convinced to work with the Sorelians against the Jacobians (Communists) through a compromise that at face value keeps most of the control of the state in their hands while the Sorelians prepare to lead the Commune against Germany. The Sorelians however gradually take over the state under the cover of emergency measures which after their victory in the war becomes an unassailable dictatorship.

I am not fully sure of the nature of the compromise, but in-game there are five branches of government up for grabs that roughly translate into; military, internal policy, intelligence/security, economics, and foreign policy. Three of these are required for a faction to win the leadership. The mobility doctrine is only available for the Syndicalist faction so I thought I'd give them control over the army, the economy to the Anarchists (to give me a bit more IC difficulty), and the rest to the Sorelians. As an added bone, the Sorelians might compromise by allowing the ageing president figure to remain in nominal power to cover up their intentions.

Alternatively, I could go with the firepower doctrine the Sorelians advocate, give economies to the Syndicalists, and the interior to the Anarchists; it makes a lot more sense as a compromise, but it would diminish a bit the role Missak plays in setting out a Doctrine. On the other hand, it would be more fun as it would raise the difficulty a bit as it's not easy to defeat Germany without tank divisions on account of the Commune's poor manpower potential. Perhaps no faction dominates the congress, necessitating a compromise, but the Sorelians eventually take over. There's also an option of a Jacobian takeover followed by a counter-revolution.

I will have to think about it, but I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on it.

The AAR will be built from four components:

1) Character focused accounts following Missak as he works with the Sorelian command to prepare the armed forces and eventually lead his corps into battle.

2) Political events outside the scope of his POV staring relevant political figures such as Valois, Mosely, and others.

3) Radio news extracts for coverage of other global affairs as prologues before character-focused scenes.

4) History book narratives to summarize the in-story events and give them perspective as intermissions.

That's my pitch, at any rate. I am mostly speaking my thoughts aloud, but I'd be happy to hear what you think about it! Will reply in detail to comments later on.

 

[coz1]

I've been thinking of writing AAR's for a while but several concerns have kept me from doing so:

1) Can I write one even if my research into the time period isn't as comprehensive as it should be to be historically accurate?

2) If in-game events don't follow exactly the same course as I'd like for the AAR narrative, can I make small alterations?

3) What is otherwise generally expected from an AAR?

Rather than keep sitting on the fence, I thought I could simply jump straight into the water and start writing for an existing game I am playing in Kazereich Darkest Hour. I thought to make it a story-narrative about a mountaineer just back from the Norweigan campaign I've finished in the game where he took part in taking control of the heavy water facility there. He is then assigned to a new Abwher military unit charged with conducting similar missions, usually connected to a secret nuclear technology arms race between the Internationale and Mitteleuropa.

Any thoughts?

First and foremost, I would suggest you take a dive into the fAARq linked in my signature and found in the sticky area of this subforum. There is A TON of good advice on this and more. To answer you specific questions:

1. You can write anything you want as long as it adheres somewhat to the game you are playing. The fact is, what we write here is historical FICTION. You can make it whatever you desire.

2. Yes. I've done it. I've gone so far as to alter the save game to fit my desired narrative. More to that, you don't need to hit every event in your game if it does not fit your story/idea.

3. A fun and creative telling of your game and/or story. Make it yours.

Finally, and in a more general sense, the advice I always give is to just start writing and posting. You won't know what works and what doesn't (for you) until you make the leap and try. We are all very accepting and appreciative, to be sure! Good luck!!

 

[DensleyBlair]

First and foremost, I would suggest you take a dive into the fAARq linked in my signature and found in the sticky area of this subforum. There is A TON of good advice on this and more.

Or even The SolAARium, which never really gets resurrected these days but (I don’t need to tell you this, of course, but for others) it is a real gem of a resource. So much good discussion in that thread.

 

[TomorrowsHerald]

It is essentially up to you. Realistic in my repertoire is a very vague definition; It can be realistic because everything is exactly the same as it was in history as when you are writing an AAR. It can still be realistic if its alt-history since just a simple point of divergence can change history (say the French win the Franco-Prussian war of in the 1870s) but much of the people and the technology stays the same, which would be in my book realistic. It can also be that everything about the people and the history is different but it is identical to our modern world in essence of technology and civilization.

That makes a fair bit of sense to me, thank you. It is actually giving me a bit of a reason to not go with the mobility doctrine, or at least, not fully with the Commune of France since if I look at it from a realistic perspective; the main advocate of armoured warfare in France after the First World War was De Gaulle who in the KR timeline is a member of National France. I don't think Paul Le Gentilhomme, who is positioned as his replacement in the Commune, would come up with the theory alone and I can't find anything to suggest he was particularly interested in tanks OTL (if anyone knows better, please correct me)

The main reason France lagged behind in appreciating the mobility of armoured warfare in OTL, in the words of a member of the general staff in 1940, was that having used them to win the First World War they thought they knew all the problems and limitations, whereas the Germans approached them with a sense of novelty. In this timeline, France lost the war with tanks; they are, in a sense, a discredited tool of war that would require an even bigger imaginative leap to introduce them as the spearhead of the mobility doctrine. I'd expect that to emerge possibly in KR Russia, but less so in the Commune and certainly not in Germany.

Instead, I think I will develop a more realistic gradual development towards the mobility doctrine; starting from the baseline of the firepower doctrine faced with the French disadvantage in manpower compared with Germany's bigger national pool and its potential allies. In-game, the way I'd approach it is probably with a strong modern infantry army to overwhelm immediate Belgian-German defenders combined with paratroopers to take the German-controlled bank of the Meuse river before they can fortify it and a large mobile arm of cavalry/motorized infantry equipped with light tanks to quickly reinforce them supported by bombers.

That could be the way they gradually evolve their own mobility doctrine in the story; they know how armies are supposed to fight but they also know that they will lose if they confront Germany in the same way they did it in the First World War. So they improvise with different things that eventually lead to a de-facto mobility doctrine coinciding with when in-game the Firepower doctrine unlocks tank divisions. My main POV guy, who like the replacement for De Gaulle, has no OTL reason to know that much about tanks could thus take the stage as someone who thinks outside the box to solve some of these problems rather than a tank pioneer.

If it is annoying using too many screenshots then I would take notes. I do that and for example: I use google drive/documents and take notes for the main country I am playing but also try and keep notes about what happens on each continent as the game progresses. These could possibly be however detailed one would like to have them or however vague one would like. Just use them however they suit your needs.

Good idea, along with saves after every important decision, screenshots of stuff I think is interesting, and some notes; that should be pretty comprehensive.

Off the back of this, to set up the scenario that would become Echoes of a New Tomorrow, I took the game events as a skeleton: massive late-stage-Vicky communist revolt; institution of a British dictatorship of the proletariat; massive overhaul and modernisation of British interwar society; successful counter-revolution just before the game's end. Because I was far more interested in telling the story of a Left Britain than of a five-year commune, I shaped the counter-revolution into a reactionary coup-by-stealth from within the Left bloc, ending up with a bastard socialist British state. From here, I didn't really need Vicky; my own imagination took over and I started assembling a list of characters (historical and otherwise) and pulling together sources and all the rest.

Thank you for sharing this, that sounds a lot like what I am thinking of doing with the Commune of France! As I said in my previous post, in KR, the Commune of France is split between four Socialist factions; The Orthodox-Syndicalists, the Anarchists, the Sorelian National-Syndicalists (Fascists), and the Leninist-Communists. If the latter come to power, they have an event chain to essentially purge the Commune from the other factions, but if the Sorelians do, they only immediately purge the Communists while leaving the others alone with something of a rather ambiguous event chain at the end of the war hinting at a move towards lessening wartime emergency totalitarian powers or cementing the dictatorship. I've often found this endgame phase interesting.

In the opening events of the game, the Orthodox-Syndicalist & Anarchist coalition falls apart due to the former's impotence against the German Empire's suppression of the Syndicalist organisations in its territory. In that environment, it would make narrative sense for the moderate factions to lose out to the extreme ones; the Sorelians and the Communists. The Anarchists and the Orthodox-Syndicalists, like the German conservatives, have more to fear from the Communists than the Sorelians (the former are more likely to purge them in the in-game events after all) and thus would be more open to compromise with them even if it means becoming the junior partners of a Sorelian regime. I could write it as a close election decided by their support to the Sorelians.

The practical work of this sometimes just amounted to in-depth Wiki trawling. Sometimes I'd find historical political documents or read second-hand material. The CPGB 1928 manifesto was invaluable in being able to imagine how a British Commonwealth might be organised a decade after the Great War, so for the French example you could try the PCF – or frankly just use English-language stuff and apply it to France. (The beauty of vanguard parties at this time is that they all tend to look the same under the bonnet…) Often I tend to work by analogy: some elements of my Commonwealth are CPGB, a lot are proto-Keynesian, a few things come from the Estado Novo in Portugal… more than a few things actually come straight from OTL post-war Britain. It's a real mongrel, but (I hope) it all hangs together by a basic internal logic that sort of triumphs over "realism".

Good idea; I don't have access to the full range of the French content due to the language barrier, and that would be one way to fill in the gaps.

The level of work can vary: some great AARs are basically just the author telling us what happened in the game, others are carefully crafted stories that allow us to revisit history or a glimpse into the future. Try not to get too hung up on what other people are doing, and focus on your own work, as it's what you can absolutely control! As Densley just mentioned, the writing is more important than the absolute accuracy and faithfulness to actual events. If you write authoritatively and keep things grounded (see my AAR for a counterexample of "realistic" masquerading as a good yarn), most people would probably give a read anyways.

I'll be sure to give it a read! Thanks!

I read quite a bit, of all of the various types, but as long as the author has put forth the effort, I make the effort to enjoy it. Certainly, this could be most adequately reflected by my own current AAR: Everyone knows what's going to happen, it seems; everyone believes that the end is a foregone conclusion. Because of my writing, however, they remain relatively engaged.

That is good to know, I think where I'll go with mine will become pretty obvious but I do hope to make the journey more interesting than the destination.

Or even The SolAARium, which never really gets resurrected these days but (I don’t need to tell you this, of course, but for others) it is a real gem of a resource. So much good discussion in that thread.

First and foremost, I would suggest you take a dive into the fAARq linked in my signature and found in the sticky area of this subforum. There is A TON of good advice on this and more. [....] Finally, and in a more general sense, the advice I always give is to just start writing and posting. You won't know what works and what doesn't (for you) until you make the leap and try. We are all very accepting and appreciative, to be sure! Good luck!!

Thank you both for directing me to these resources, they look very useful. I did think to start work immediately on a short experimental AAR based on my current game (which I started without any plan to make an AAR of it and thus have no screen shorts) with a semi-humorous story about German Special Forces and their nefarious French counterparts as they each try to sabotage the other's nuclear programs. I am now thinking more of one with the Commune of France, but I might start with this just to get my sea-legs so to speak. Who knows, perhaps starting from a later date will be a fresh take as opposed to starting from the 1936 baseline.

 

[Chilango2]

Just to round out this discussion let me bring up a few final points:

1) The first and foremost point that I want to bring to you is that writing your AAR should be fun for you.
I mean, look, you are going to be potentially engaging in some light to moderate historical research, a good bit of writing, and the taking and curating of screenshots. AAR's as a creative project take a fair amount of work. You should be enjoying yourself. Among the worst mistakes you could make is to do something/make a choice because of how it "should be" rather than what you want. As others have pointed out, you are the author, your control over the narrative and its content is total. Do what makes you happy and is enjoyable for you.

2) That being said, keep in mind genre conventions.
We discuss "AAR's as a whole, but really, there are many different kinds of AAR's, take a gander at the year end awards and you'll see there's a couple of agreed upon "genres" of AAR.
When you write your AAR, the "style" you write in will set certain expectations about the narrative and what the audience should expect. "Realism" in the alt-history (or future history in Stellaris' case) is very broad, but there are limits to it. Nothing your describing here strikes me as being even within a mile of being "out of genre" for what you are describing, but for truly masterful story telling it can help to keep your audiences expectations in mind, in a WW2 AAR, if one of your characters mentions Germany invading Russia, your audience is both anticipating what will happen as it did in history and wondering if and how it will change this time around. You can use this to "set up" your audience to expect one thing while plausibly setting up another, or by playing with the echoes of history (take a fascist US invading the Normandy beaches against the French Republic, for example..)

3) Have some sort of method to record stuff. Curate it.

Notes and screen shots are the heart of your records of what on earth happened during the game, how you keep trakc of these, update them and curate them can save you alot of hassle later on. But remember rule #1, have fun, and what others have told you about you being the ultimate narrative authority in your AAR. I don't recommend lying to your readers (unless of course, its a PoV character who is lying) but it is 1000% up to you how much of the "truth" to tell them and how that "truth" was arrived at.

 

[TomorrowsHerald]

I mean, look, you are going to be potentially engaging in some light to moderate historical research, a good bit of writing, and the taking and curating of screenshots. AAR's as a creative project take a fair amount of work. You should be enjoying yourself. Among the worst mistakes you could make is to do something/make a choice because of how it "should be" rather than what you want. As others have pointed out, you are the author, your control over the narrative and its content is total. Do what makes you happy and is enjoyable for you.

I am afraid I don't really do light to moderate research, I always obsess over it. I've already started reading Sorrel to gradually get more of an idea of who are the players and ideas I am working with. That being said, it's mostly background reading and the immediate research I need to start is indeed pretty light stuff; mostly just getting profiles of the characters I want to use and an idea of how communard society and its army might look like. It might require a bit more time to get on top of it but I am spending it running the game, taking some screen-shots, testing out some commands, and looking at my narrative options.

My main reason for wanting to go into AAR's is that I have over time found my gaming experiences less and less satisfying, and having less time to game overall these days, I do want to make the time I put into it count; both as a unique memory and as an enduring product of the experience; even if it means less time spent on actual gaming and more time spent writing the account of doing so. I've dabbled in forms of fanfiction for years and tried a few test run AARs/Game journals with other games, all of which have been fun, but nothing comes close to the scope of my historical interest as the world created by KR.

"Realism" in the alt-history (or future history in Stellaris' case) is very broad, but there are limits to it. Nothing your describing here strikes me as being even within a mile of being "out of genre" for what you are describing, but for truly masterful story telling it can help to keep your audiences expectations in mind, in a WW2 AAR, if one of your characters mentions Germany invading Russia, your audience is both anticipating what will happen as it did in history and wondering if and how it will change this time around. You can use this to "set up" your audience to expect one thing while plausibly setting up another, or by playing with the echoes of history (take a fascist US invading the Normandy beaches against the French Republic, for example..)

Kaiserreich is in that sense a bit of an anomaly in that it sets a comprehensive but fairly well-defined list set of potential outcomes. Most of the players probably know where things are going the moment the AAR states which country it's going to use, but that doesn't mean the narratives can't be interesting in their own right. At the game's high point, Darkest Hour's AAR thread had more KR entries then Vanilla games. Also, I can think of several ways to take the AAR outside of the established box most readers might be familiar with ranging from more complex narrative situations to taking up challenging gameplay. I personally more invested in Darkest Hour and never really got into the currently popular Hearts of Iron 4, so while there is no assurance of readership there, I am leaning towards DH.

 

[DensleyBlair]

while there is no assurance of readership there, I am leaning towards DH.

It’s a cliché, sure, but the whole build it and they will come thing is very true in AARland. The community tends to be quite good at finding gems.

 

[Eurasia]

1. I would not worry about following history...none of my AARs ever seem to follow history. The Aztecs rule Western Europe in one of my AARs, Spain invaded the Middle East in one of my AARs, and Germany keeps winning World War Two in most of them. History goes out the window the second you start any of these games. One day I plan to play the USA in Victoria II and we ALL know that will not go as planned.

2. I try to roll with the punches but some events can be so small as to be ignored.

3. A AAR can give the reader anything you want. I have learned from AARs, I have enjoyed them, I have learned about the games.

 

[TomorrowsHerald]

1. I would not worry about following history...none of my AARs ever seem to follow history. The Aztecs rule Western Europe in one of my AARs, Spain invaded the Middle East in one of my AARs, and Germany keeps winning World War Two in most of them. History goes out the window the second you start any of these games. One day I plan to play the USA in Victoria II and we ALL know that will not go as planned.

2. I try to roll with the punches but some events can be so small as to be ignored.

3. A AAR can give the reader anything you want. I have learned from AARs, I have enjoyed them, I have learned about the games.

Yes, that is more or less my attitude for the initial test run AAR I have in mind for my current game with the German Empire seeing as how in order to give the narrative I want to write with the Commune justice I will need to study up on it a little bit more. In it, I am going to mostly tell a rather relaxed narrative using comedy as both the venue and the justification for it in a humerous account of the intelligence battle during the 2nd Weltkreig. Even though I don't have screenshots for anything, one of the fantastic things about DH is that the game keeps a record of all the events in it that can be easily accessed and then processed into a timeline from the save game file. I am going over it now to mark important events to keep in mind. I wish Stellaris had something similar, its very, very useful!

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

First, read the FAQs very carefully. And the rules of the forums.

Especially for HOI.

1) Can I write one even if my research into the time period isn't as comprehensive as it should be to be historically accurate?

Yes. The games are hardly perfectly accurate, nobody knows everything and we're all doing this for fun. Nobody expects masterful research. Indeed, lots and lots of accurate but dull information can be detrimental to an AAR.

Do as much as seems reasonable, depending on the topic, but never to the extent its a chore. This is a hobby, remember. If you get something wrong and it's noticeable enough, someone will correct you promptly.

2) If in-game events don't follow exactly the same course as I'd like for the AAR narrative, can I make small alterations?

Unless you are running a challenge gameplay AAR, everybody does this. Even liberalist, absurdist comedy AARs muck around with timelines, events and characters once in a while for convenience. There is no fan police who will gut you for detracting from what the game gives you.

3) What is otherwise generally expected from an AAR?

Hmm...very little, honestly. If you want people to read it, the bar is a little higher (but not much higher). Usually either prompt updates (every other day) or a set reliable update path works wonders, though in HOI especially, glacial slowness is perfectly acceptable if other things make up for it.

General rule of thumb is to just...write something you would want to read. Respond and encourage commentators when they come (though thanking each individually for coming may be a bit too much), write something good, unique or interesting...and then keep doing that.

Best of luck with it.

 

[TomorrowsHerald]

First, read the FAQs very carefully. And the rules of the forums.

Especially for HOI.

I think I mostly remember them though I will be sure to read up on it again; if I remember correctly, certain aspects of warfare such as the mass bombing of civilians and gas attacks, certain poorly reviewed summer resorts in Eastern Europe, symbols that are illegal in Germany and other countries, may not be mentioned. I am however a bit confused about what it means for AAR's, does it mean I can't talk about civilian buildings being hit during a bombing raid and that everything needs to be very clinical? (as it, all that ever gets hit are military bases, factories, bridges, etc; no de-housing) POW camps are also mentioned as something you can't build in-game, but does that mean you can't write a scene in a POW camp from a narrative point of view? Just curious as to what I can and can't do.

Yes. The games are hardly perfectly accurate, nobody knows everything and we're all doing this for fun. Nobody expects masterful research. Indeed, lots and lots of accurate but dull information can be detrimental to an AAR.

Yes, that is something I will try to avoid. I mostly want to capture what the society might look like in regards to the Commune, but I won't go into diatribes about dialectics in order to do so unless there is a very good reason for a character to be making that kind of argument.

Unless you are running a challenge gameplay AAR, everybody does this. Even liberalist, absurdist comedy AARs muck around with timelines, events and characters once in a while for convenience. There is no fan police who will gut you for detracting from what the game gives you.

Yes, I mostly just need to play around for the initial chapters for which I don't have screen-shots or complete information. I am partially adopting the timeline of events from OTL (albeit two years sooner) in regards to the German invasion of Norway as I have already completed it in-game but would like to use it in story.

Hmm...very little, honestly. If you want people to read it, the bar is a little higher (but not much higher). Usually either prompt updates (every other day) or a set reliable update path works wonders, though in HOI especially, glacial slowness is perfectly acceptable if other things make up for it.

I am working on the first chapter but I did learn from fanfiction that it's better to have a few chapters on the backlog before posting them in order to maintain a regular update schedule.

General rule of thumb is to just...write something you would want to read. Respond and encourage commentators when they come (though thanking each individually for coming may be a bit too much), write something good, unique or interesting...and then keep doing that.

I've seen others write general reply posts to everyone; I'll probably do that.

 

[Wraith11B]

As for POW aspects, certainly the narrator usually describes when units surrender as marching off to POW camps, but since there isn't a POW mechanic for any paradox game (aside from CK2/3), no one has done a sort of "Great Escape" or "Hart's War" narrative. I would PM a mod before starting because of how strict the rules are on that.