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Salvad

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Little introduction I guess. I have no idea what the hell I'm doing, but I'm a writer who doesn't write and I figured I should at least try my hand at actually attempting some form of writing.
Honestly, I only have like 40~60 minutes to write this before I must leave for work, so I guess I'll just do a quick introduction to how I came across this AAR idea.

This particular story involves a rather annoying courtier who showed up one day during my experimental Duke of Toulouse game, which I started in order to understand vassal mechanics (most particularly, voting mechanics) for my glorious 769 Sweden game.

I got a little involved in the Toulouse game, so it got to be a little more than just an experiment. But then, one day I had to make a painful choice with my advisors; Turns out, after King Karl briefly took over Middle Francia, he had too many vassals, so he gifted me a few.
Naturally, they were terrible vassals, and since I was playing Conclave I had to do something about one in particular.
The vassal himself was forgettable; No good stats, bad traits just garbage all around and no intrigue to help him. So naturally, I killed him.
As a result, a lot of his people started flooding my court. I had a bad spymaster I wanted to replace, so I looked over the ones with the most intrigue.
Turns out, there were better ones but none of them were good enough for my goals. One of them still had intrigue too low to reliably forge claims [EDIT: I mean assassinate. I was pretty irritated by my lack of a good chancellor, but I really needed an assassin too] which is something I really wanted to get started on, but also had loyalty potential.
The other one was a 21 intrigue foreigner who threatened my court with deceitful envy and questionable goals.
That courtier, a former spymaster of the deceased vassal, was named Guttier.

In the end, I decided to go with the lower intrigue spymaster and banished Guttier. Which was a shame, because something about him rather intrigued me.
When I checked on him, I noticed that Guttier now existed as a lowly courtier in Ilmen, a Slavic realm.
This got me thinking; With a very high intrigue being his only boon and enemies staring him down at every side, what antics could Guttier and his kin get up to if he was appointed a chief in Novgorod?


----------------------------------------------------

And with that, I'm forced to leave for work. The rest of Guttier's story will be done in prose form [EDIT: I mean in character from Guttier's perspective; Not me describing gameplay [EDIT EDIT: This should teach me to write things at the last minute before I leave for work. I meant to say the story is told from an in-world 3rd person perspective following Guttier as opposed to my perspective as a player; It's *not* going to be first person from Guttier's perspective]]. Since its not an Iron Man game I should be pretty safe from having too short a story if it comes to that.

Hopefully, I didn't do anything wrong in the way that I started this thread? This is the first time I've ever done AAR. Hopefully, I'm not completely misunderstanding the concept or something, but screw it; No indecisiveness. I need to write.
 

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Specialist290

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Little introduction I guess. I have no idea what the hell I'm doing, but I'm a writer who doesn't write and I figured I should at least try my hand at actually attempting some form of writing.

...

Hopefully, I didn't do anything wrong in the way that I started this thread? This is the first time I've ever done AAR. Hopefully, I'm not completely misunderstanding the concept or something, but screw it; No indecisiveness. I need to write.

Welcome to the forums! :)

I've been reading AARs on these forums for nearly a decade. In that time, I've seen AARs posted here that used a very wide variety of unique ideas, themes, and stylistic formats -- many of them quite well done in their own way.

In all that time, I've learned that, essentially, every way to "do AARing wrong" boils down to one simple fundamental root: Not caring about what you're doing. As long as you enjoy the writing and the audience enjoys the reading, you have to be doing something right. (Which isn't to say that you shouldn't take every opportunity you can to improve, of course!)

It's certainly an interesting premise, and I'll be watching this to see what you make of it.
 

stnylan

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Welcome to writing AARs. Hope you enjoy it.

As @Specialist290 says, I am not really sure there is a wrong way to write AARs so long as one has fun.
 

Salvad

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Thanks both of you. Its good to see an active community.
I've got a draft saved right now featuring the first part of the story which flashes back to Toulouse.
I'm getting there with my rough draft.
 

coz1

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Two points for Specialist and stnylan in telling you there is no wrong way. (Drinks for you in the bAAR gentlemen.) They know well that an obscure and interesting take can be one of the more enjoyable reads. Have fun with it and indeed, welcome to writing AARs! :)

The title alone suggests an interesting story and we all love a good narrative account. Good luck!
 

Salvad

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[whatever was here before I accidentally deleted it]

-----------------------------------
Duke Guillaume of Toulouse was tired Perhaps his most tiring day in office now that the realms of House Karling resided under one king and he had more fools to appease than before. Still, he was happy to see that he was gaining power and his liege's trust as he received two or three vassals which the crown judged extraneous "But that one count.
What's his name... what's he even count of?" the Duke's hand grasps a tired eye, his quill placed now across his creviced forehead, as though staunching it. His contact stands silent, youngly greened countenance furrowing and balking; a torch-lit insignificance. The duke continues "Whatever. Did you make the deal?"
"Yes, the poiso-"
"What did I tell you about saying-..." the duke's left hand joins his right, hands now cradling both darkened circles as his inexperienced contact continues.
"In any case, all we have to do now is wait. We'll receive confirmation of his... departure tomorrow". The duke buries a fantasy involving both hands and a tight grip at the way he says 'departure'.
"Departure doesn't always go well. Did your more experienced assistant mention any acquaintances visiting him while you were there?"
"No, it was a lonely night. He only saw a wet leaf enter. Said only a particularly cautious ghost could've been keeping him company, in fact"
The duke relaxes "Sometimes a lonely night is a good thing. We'll talk again soon".
Retiring to his quarters, Guillaume ponders the difficulties of finding good help.

"I just don't understand it, Hilciperga. How can my court be filled with so many fools when I haven't even hired one?"
Morning dust trickles into the room as Guillaume speaks. The Duke had called off his servants to vent with his Duchess.
"I just need one man I can trust"
"Well, you know I'm kind of good wi-"
"Just one good man"
"But-"
"Just ONE spy that knows how to properly organize a secret file and doesn't proceed to trip over their own dic.. - sorry God... the next time they enter a bar when they JUST-SO-HAPPEN to get it right"
"You know, with 14 intrigue, I could probab-..."
"If only one counselor could put the 'H' in Hush or the 'I 'in illusive or the 'L' in-.. in laconic or um.. or the 'S'- no 'C' in um... and then the other I in-in stuff... or put the 'P' to the... well... you know like... the- the 'E' for e-er... no, I mean the 'I'... the... put the 'P' 'U 'in... the 'G' of... Well you get my point"
"Are you trying to-..."
"I just don't know what to do any more. Who could I possibly trust to carry out these necessary aberrations of law? What do I do, Hilciperga?"
"Before I answer that question, let us bow our heads in subjugation before Lord Salvador, One who patches the breakings of fourth barriers and will now bless us"
Both Duke and Duchess momentarily genuflact and as this momentary genuflaction ends, they return to their prior positions.
Hilciperga pauses briefly, and as she does so, both Duke and Duchess conveniently forget everything Hilciperga had said and done after getting up as well as anything to do with Lord Salvador. "Well what about Guttier?"
"Gouttière? Who's that?"
"Not Gutter, Guttier.

-Someone should teach me French, I swear... Good thing Google Translate has a pronunciation option for things it can't translate properly.

- Duke: Guillaume Duchess: Hilciperga House Nibelunging | House Karling

- Duke of Toulouse hears about Guttier before confirmation of the count's death the next morning
- [Small dialogue story to give reason as to why the Duke knows he might be a good spymaster]
- Tangential 4th wall break which I may or may not remove...
- [Undisclosed dramatization element to enhance how the Duke perceives Guttier]
- Guttier meets the Duke and is banished.
(Everything from here on is unfinished is just stuff in my head that I haven't worked out)
- Guttier travelling/being transported to Novgorod
- Reason for Guttier to get a loan. (Attempt at studying where the hell the Jews actually were during this time so I can stop feeling like whatever idea I use - most notably whether they actually are Jews or not - is forced) (Alternatively, gloss over it in other ways or completely ignore)
- Guttier's continuing adaptation to Slavic land
- Reason for Guttier to actually become a chief
- Possible thing about Guttier and whatever I decide his concubines represent.

-"Do you know why they call me Guttier?" as the knife slides into his back
"W-why?"
"Because 'I' put the gutter in gutter"
"What's... a Gouttière... is that like... a [good tear]?"
"No".
His lifeless body falls to the ground as Guttier puts his knife away.
"Damn. I forgot to ask him what a [god tare] is"
or something to that affect maybe somewhere in the story. Not sure what language the victim
would use yet though. Then again, this would be really, really cheesy so maybe I'll just keep it out...​
 
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stnylan

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If I were you I would write your notes up elsewhere and then copy and paste them into a new post when done, rather than edit a new post. This is because for people who have subbed to your thread will get notifications when you make a new post, but will not know if you have edited and old one.
 

Specialist290

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@stnylan speaks truly. Feel free to edit as much after the fact as you like, but generally, each new chapter 'round these parts gets a post to itself; it helps with keeping the thread fresh in the mind's eye of your subscriber (and the general forum audience).

As far as posting your notes up goes, I'd definitely recommend signing up for an account for Pastebin or a similar site. It'll give you a nice space to store your notes and / or backups of your drafts so you don't have to worry about losing everything if something were to happen to your computer again.
 

volksmarschall

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Welcome to AAR-ing, and with the above advice, an AAR can be endless with what you wish to do with it. And there's nothing wrong with starting over.

Best of luck.
Cheers!
 

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Okay, so here's the deal.
I was procrastinating reading this thread because I was afraid due to the poorly thought out method I was using to update my post, people might be constantly re-checking the thread to see if I had updated. I got so unreasonably nervous about this that I never checked the thread again.
So let's just re-clarify how this is going to work.
Admittedly doing this mostly for myself; I don't think its realistic to think someone would constantly check my thread.

First of all, yeah, I'll use pastebin and Notepad++ from now on as suggested. 30 minutes at most from now, the first post is going to be updated with the stuff I thought up at work almost right when I left for work the day I made it. This is a promise I made to myself, so I'll keep it.

But you don't need to concern yourself with my stubborn promises or edits; Once I've finished the intro (and edited it into my intro post), I will update the thread again with a new post saying its complete.
After I am done with that I will update the-... AAAHHHH

Okay you know what, maybe I will start over.
This thread is going to get unwieldy here's the new one with a less clumsy, though slightly less informative title [edit: Although, inconveniently, I didn't actually retitle it like I thought and meant to do]: New thread
 
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