I don't mean the text itself, but during your game session. Do you take notes on paper?
For example '1100: marriage x to y.'. Or do you write or do something else?
What are your suggestions for someone who wants to write an AAR?
Ladies and gentlemen, the account you are about to see is from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away—from the Legends Continuity, which is the real one. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
This is the City. Coruscant. Triple Zero on the standard Galactic Navigation Chart.
The most populous planet-wide city in the known cosmos, which started out as a dark, inhospitable, smog-choked, pock-marked ball of rock and metal hurtling around a small yellow star, in slow orbit around a Bermuda Triangle of supermassive black holes. In those respects, it hasn’t changed much since.
According to the latest official census, 1,165,210,872,453 human and extra-terrestrial souls, decent and otherwise, call the 5,127 storeys of real estate here home. With that many sentients to account for, you can bet that it’s awake and bustling at all hours. A lot of things get made and shipped here in Triple Zero. That’s because it’s the biggest industrial centre, and the hub of commerce across twenty-eight separate galactic shipping lanes. A lot of toxic gas and solid waste also gets made and shipped here. That’s because it’s the seat of power for the Republic. Politicians, advisers, aides, accountants, secretaries, filing clerks, think-tank denizens and other less-than-savoury operatives of official business seem to crawl out of every ventilation duct and take up all the oxygen. Too often, those less-than-savoury operatives engage in less-than-official business, and the number of decent inhabitants inexplicably goes down. That’s when I go to work.
I wear a robe, and I pack a lightsabre.
It was Friday, May 6th, Year 21,094 of the Republic, 9:42 AM Galactic Standard Time. It was fair and clear in Coruscant’s Upper City, though with a thick covering of the usual smog. We were working day watch out of the Reconciliation Council. The boss is Master Dorak. My partner is Bastila Shan. My name is Revan.
A Sergeant in the AAR precinct, a fellow member of the CSF surnamed Pepper, service number 092, was looking for some pointers on documentation. When you work in law enforcement like we do, proper documentation is incredibly important. Small details, even ones that might seem insignificant, can make or break a report to your superiors, and in a hard city like this one, getting broken is not something easy to recover from. Having a standard system for taking notes really improves your chances when you're taking account of the facts, and just the facts.
Speaking for myself, I don't trust to just my memory. Believe me, when you've been on the Force as long as I have, you can suffer some serious memory problems. Couple of times when I was under deep cover I even forgot which side I was working for. That caused everyone a shipload of problems. Particularly for my rather by-the-book, stodgy partner, who has a tendency to be edgy, critical and overly secretive at the best of times. Truth is, you can't do without the grey matter between your ears. But when it comes to accounting for facts, you really need to have some backup. A well-built assassin droid or even a utility droid will often do the trick, but remember that their memory is always fungible. And when you don't have those, you have to consider your other options.
When you first arrive on the crime scene, before you even begin writing your report, Fn+F11 -
the screenshot - is your very best friend. Photography has always been a part of forensic science, and the wonders of technology whether newfangled or legendary and ancient will never cease to amaze. It's funny how looking at a crime scene from several different angles can bring a sense of clarity, sharpen your perspective. Taking a full account of the crime scene can be incredibly valuable, particularly if a crime of passion happens out in a secluded grove on Dantooine, and both of the suspects brought in for questioning sound like they've got something to hide.
Problem is that you can run out of film, or drive space, quite quickly if you don't know what you're doing. And screenshots alone don't give a sense of continuity unless they're organised in some way. When that happens, what I'll do is I'll start
cataloguing suspects (
characters who might be involved in the action) on a notepad. Often, quite literally, Notepad. Or Word. Usually I'll have a list of suspects, some general facts about their lives (DOB, home address, relationships, personal habits), and I'll keep the whole thing organised in a document entitled, for example, '
Rychnovsky Rulers Version B.doc' in the '
CK3 AARs' folder on my hard drive.
And if you're like me and you want to take account of the bigger picture while you're on a case, you might also want to build a
research resources folder for
historical references. Have any crimes like this happened before? Have other hypothetical scenarios in other versions of history played out similarly in another past? I don't really go in for metaphysics, I've got my hands full with the reality I live in. But occasionally, finding and then using
history books or
journal articles on sites like JSTOR or Google Scholar can be a very powerful way of recreating the crime scene for the benefit of the department chief, or the next fellow down the chain of custody, or a jury. Audiences are generally appreciative, but they can be tougher than a judicial review panel of selkath in Ahto City, when the life and reputation of a retired Republic Army officer with a penchant for sleeping with the enemy are on the line.
Well, that's just for starters. It can be a hard city and a hard life, but there's a certain amount of satisfaction that comes with writing after-action reports, and knowing that you're doing something worthwhile that will improve the community. There's a reason I do what I do. I sincerely hope that our friend Sergeant Pepper, service number 092, over in the AAR precinct will find the effort similarly rewarding.