An After Action Report. Basically people that play sessions or mp games and then in narrative format detail what happened to share it with the community.What's AAR?
I would love that. ParadoxPlaza has a whole AAR section under “Fun Forums,” which seems like a natural place to host the AoW4 AARs.An After Action Report. Basically people that play sessions or mp games and then in narrative format detail what happened to share it with the community.
We didn't have one for Planetfall though. If it's something that really takes off we can always look into adding a subforum for it somewhere.
Agreed, I always wanted to do one for AoW3, but couldn't find a hook to start a story!A dedicated section would be great, though I feel this would most likely happen if it starts dominating the "other" section. In the meantime, that's where I suppose it will go and depending on how many AARs people make, the mods may find it necessary.
I suspect they will, I for one am very much hoping to do at least one. Actually wanted to do one for AoW3 but those random map games didn't lend themselves to storytelling hardly at all.
Agreed, I always wanted to do one for AoW3, but couldn't find a hook to start a story!
It's fiction. You can gloss over the less interesting or uncharacteristic activities.For me it wasn't getting the story started as much as coming up with explanations for the weird diplomacy that would occur as well as why such "heroic" characters were brutally murdering node guards for loot. I like that now there is far more explanation and possibilities for what's going on when you encounter a node.
It's fiction. You can gloss over the less interesting or uncharacteristic activities.
Example explenations for killing node guards:For me it wasn't getting the story started as much as coming up with explanations for the weird diplomacy that would occur as well as why such "heroic" characters were brutally murdering node guards for loot. I like that now there is far more explanation and possibilities for what's going on when you encounter a node.
Example explenations for killing node guards:
1 the guards are brigands holding the node hostage from the local people, who lived nearby before being included into your empire (cities grow in a matter of days because people from rural areas join in, not from birthrate)
2 the node seems to be empty and your party is inspecting it for use by the empire. Oh no you're ambushed.
3 the guards are wild monsters that need to be put down
4 the node needs to be claimed for the good of <empire>!
5 got some greedy heroes
For 4: Just because your devoted to good doesn't mean you agree on what is good. Perhaps the devoted guards are convinced that the wizard kings returned because people had overused magic, and thus the only good thing one can do is limit or even prevent magic use. And your champion is like, even if that is true killing the problem, we have now is a bigger good then not. Or maybe your wizard is like, I was going to use that mana to heal the sick and dying, I'm doing my best to improve the lives of all around me. So no, I will be doing more good by tacking this from you than leaving it be.With the exception of numbers 4 and 5, that doesn't work very well when it's creatures that literally have "devoted to good" as part of their stats. 4 is still very much a stretch, in that if there was any justice in it, generally guards that are devoted to good will give you what you need. 5 works if it isn't your leader. I suppose you can just avoid attacking those nodes, but there's still the issue with diplomacy.
For 4: Just because your devoted to good doesn't mean you agree on what is good. Perhaps the devoted guards are convinced that the wizard kings returned because people had overused magic, and thus the only good thing one can do is limit or even prevent magic use. And your champion is like, even if that is true killing the problem, we have now is a bigger good then not. Or maybe your wizard is like, I was going to use that mana to heal the sick and dying, I'm doing my best to improve the lives of all around me. So no, I will be doing more good by tacking this from you than leaving it be.
One of the biggest failings morality systems have is that they make it really easy to assume all 'good' factions will agree in general and work together. But reality is never so simple. Just because the game says that they are good doesn't mean they actually are in agreement on how to achieve said good, or even what is good in the end. Just look at the arguments on this forum over the faction creation system. Everyone wants to make the game better, but no agreement is ever going to be reached on what the 'better' faction creation system is.
Plus there have been plenty of civilizations “devoted to good” led by leaders who were lawful evil.