I've wanted to participate in a collaborative project for some time, but there are so few left.
Make of that what you will.
Make of that what you will.
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DB turns to HistoryDude:
– I reckon keeping an eye on plans for Read Even More About It would be a good bet. Would be glad to have you on board as and when it stars.
– I reckon keeping an eye on plans for Read Even More About It would be a good bet. Would be glad to have you on board as and when it stars.
Yeah, I just checked out the thread. Sounds like an interesting idea, and I'm completely on board with it.
In theory I don't. But in practice it appears that I do.
Pip smiles and sips his whisky.
DB saunters back in to the bar wordlessly and sets himself down in an expansive armchair. His clothes are dusted with confetti and ticker tape, and he looks exhausted in a manner that suggests deep satisfaction.
He calls over to the bartender.
– Something celebratory please, Miss – and drinks all round!
In amongst all of the other stuff going on this week, DB had quite forgotten that he had another cause for good cheer. Friday had been his eighth anniversAARy; it was a whole eight years since the start of his first ever AAR. Nowadays the old thing was best left in its peaceful dormancy, but at the time it was the longest and most complex thing he had ever written. And certainly it was the reason that, at the other end of the decade, he was still happily typing up a whirlwind for the benefit of the collected readership of AARland. Good times indeed.
He calls over to the bartender.
– Something celebratory please, Miss – and drinks all round!
In amongst all of the other stuff going on this week, DB had quite forgotten that he had another cause for good cheer. Friday had been his eighth anniversAARy; it was a whole eight years since the start of his first ever AAR. Nowadays the old thing was best left in its peaceful dormancy, but at the time it was the longest and most complex thing he had ever written. And certainly it was the reason that, at the other end of the decade, he was still happily typing up a whirlwind for the benefit of the collected readership of AARland. Good times indeed.
"Feel free to share stories and greatest hits of aarland," TBC said, "We all seem to be in a bought of reflection at the moment."
Yes, let's pluck a few tales from the depths of time.
This was the first AAR I ever read, @tnick0225's Reforging Burgundy. So I guess this is probably to blame for just about the last eight years on my account. The first time I remember reading something and thinking, Wow, so this is what an AAR can be is when I went back and read @CatKnight 's Resurrection: Rebirth of the United States, which was before my time by a long way (it's for EU2…) but remains far and away maybe the best AAR I've ever read, or at least the one I remember most fondly.
There are a whole load of stories that never saw past about four updates that I remember inordinately well, and wish they had not fallen foul of the law of AARland: that it's a tough old world out there, and only the most dedicated few will make it to there end. I wish I could recall them all by name. The most notable is probably @LordTempest's United We Shall Remain, which showed me what a history book AAR could be. I shamelessly copied it for my own, slightly longer running (though ultimately also abandoned) A Biography of Great Men, which before Echoes was just about my best stab at writing an AAR. Not the easiest for me to read back, seeing as it is literally watching the mind of my 15-year-old self, but fondly remembered all the same. And I wrote it at a good time in the Vicky forums, so there was always a good crowd to be found reading along and commenting.
Then of course I've taken part in my fair share of interactive AARs – the RP ones that we probably won't be seeing many more of any time soon. Good fun all round, but in hindsight they probably took me out of AARland as a broader community. From 2017 until last year, if I was here it was basically only ever to play Revolution and Reaction, now dormant once again, but ably GMed in its day by @99KingHigh, who is now my collaborator on the Echoes timeline.
And of course over the years I've done a lot of other things around here. I wrote for The AARlander during @Derahan's editorship, including my abortive history of AARland which sits proudly over in the fAARq. For a time I briefly held the title of "Vice-Tsar of AwAARds" when I deputised for @Avindian running the ACA's, so I suppose by all rights that title now belongs to @Nikolai. I've enjoyed Guess the Author for many years, being brave enough to write for it on a handful of occasions, and now of course I've taken over the running of it (one week left to get critiques in, for all waiting).
But most importantly I've met a good number of people who have all helped do things like sharpen my writing ability, increase my knowledge of history, define my sense of politics and broadened my cultural reference bank. For a time, @Gen. Marshall even taught me rudimentary Dutch over PM…
So here's to all the stories, and here's to many more. Cheers!
DB raises a glass in celebration.
This was the first AAR I ever read, @tnick0225's Reforging Burgundy. So I guess this is probably to blame for just about the last eight years on my account. The first time I remember reading something and thinking, Wow, so this is what an AAR can be is when I went back and read @CatKnight 's Resurrection: Rebirth of the United States, which was before my time by a long way (it's for EU2…) but remains far and away maybe the best AAR I've ever read, or at least the one I remember most fondly.
There are a whole load of stories that never saw past about four updates that I remember inordinately well, and wish they had not fallen foul of the law of AARland: that it's a tough old world out there, and only the most dedicated few will make it to there end. I wish I could recall them all by name. The most notable is probably @LordTempest's United We Shall Remain, which showed me what a history book AAR could be. I shamelessly copied it for my own, slightly longer running (though ultimately also abandoned) A Biography of Great Men, which before Echoes was just about my best stab at writing an AAR. Not the easiest for me to read back, seeing as it is literally watching the mind of my 15-year-old self, but fondly remembered all the same. And I wrote it at a good time in the Vicky forums, so there was always a good crowd to be found reading along and commenting.
Then of course I've taken part in my fair share of interactive AARs – the RP ones that we probably won't be seeing many more of any time soon. Good fun all round, but in hindsight they probably took me out of AARland as a broader community. From 2017 until last year, if I was here it was basically only ever to play Revolution and Reaction, now dormant once again, but ably GMed in its day by @99KingHigh, who is now my collaborator on the Echoes timeline.
And of course over the years I've done a lot of other things around here. I wrote for The AARlander during @Derahan's editorship, including my abortive history of AARland which sits proudly over in the fAARq. For a time I briefly held the title of "Vice-Tsar of AwAARds" when I deputised for @Avindian running the ACA's, so I suppose by all rights that title now belongs to @Nikolai. I've enjoyed Guess the Author for many years, being brave enough to write for it on a handful of occasions, and now of course I've taken over the running of it (one week left to get critiques in, for all waiting).
But most importantly I've met a good number of people who have all helped do things like sharpen my writing ability, increase my knowledge of history, define my sense of politics and broadened my cultural reference bank. For a time, @Gen. Marshall even taught me rudimentary Dutch over PM…
So here's to all the stories, and here's to many more. Cheers!
DB raises a glass in celebration.
A fine discussion on things that are old and time honoured. Pip raised his glass in salute. But for those who's tastes turn to something new and fresh I can proudly announce the latest community writing project has launched. Please head on over and 'Read Even More About It!' in the thread over in the Vicki 2 area.
Linky - Read Even More About It! An Ottoman Flavoured Community NewspapAAR
Linky - Read Even More About It! An Ottoman Flavoured Community NewspapAAR
A US Army soldier saunters into the bar, his pinks and greens uniform adorned with a few rows of ribbons. He takes off the all-weather coat before the crush cap from its jaunty angle on his head to hang up from all the rain. Clearly not entirely sure what was what, he heads up to the bar breaking out a twenty to catch the tender's attention, a habit from his New Orleans days. "A reposado Tequila on the rocks, salt on the rim."
TBC winced. There are things, he thought, that just don't fly in England. Then again, they were in Detroit, which presumably explained why the bar kept getting shut down, come to think.
He looked at the still-sleeping members of The Butterfly Club (mostly named for Butterfly Effect). They had decided to clear up which was the finer drink, whiskey or whisky, once and for all, but unfortunately, he couldn't remember what conclusions they came to.
Shrugging, he poked at the fire to get the embers up again, then looked around for a empty seat. Most of them were taken. As was most of the floor.
- 1
Sat in one of the armchairs by the fire, a mug of warming hot chocolate in hand, DB looks up from a particularly diverting pamphlet on the mid-century crisis in British manufacturing and addresses the room.
– Anyone found any hidden gems, recently? I've been going back through some of our contemporary classics over the last week or so – Talking Turkey and The Eagle, The Wolf and the Sun and the like – but I could do with some more fresh blood on my list as well.
– Anyone found any hidden gems, recently? I've been going back through some of our contemporary classics over the last week or so – Talking Turkey and The Eagle, The Wolf and the Sun and the like – but I could do with some more fresh blood on my list as well.
"For all I knock it, HOI4 is having something of a resurgence this year. Any of the new projects are good shouts. And the new Vicky stuff. As for CK2, there's a few massive reads that everyone should at least attempt. The Rightful King trilogy by @coz1 is complete, and Before Plantagenet by @JabberJock14 is as good and still ongoing year by year."
– Aye, I’m surprised by how often I find myself in HOI4, considering that I am so absolutely pants at it to the point that I completely lack any understanding of how it works. But it’s where a lot of our best and brightest hang out, so always worthwhile regardless. Coz’s trilogy I need to get around to. I’m sad that it sort of coincided with my period of absence from the boards. Would’ve loved to have caught it at the time.
- 1
Dressed in a charming pair of pyjamas betraying something of a Princess Di influence, DB saunters cheerfully into the bAAR for a nightcap.
– Evening, all. Was doing a bit of reading and digging and I came across this old classic: The Lives of the Saints by @NewbieOne. Sadly unfinished, but I think it deserves a little attention all the same. Not least because it just so happens, by peculiar quirk of chance, to have started exactly eight years ago to the day.
DB saunters just as cheerfully over to the customary armchair by the fire, sinking down into its abundantly cushioned seat and picking out some dog-eared book or other from a small pile by its legs.
– Evening, all. Was doing a bit of reading and digging and I came across this old classic: The Lives of the Saints by @NewbieOne. Sadly unfinished, but I think it deserves a little attention all the same. Not least because it just so happens, by peculiar quirk of chance, to have started exactly eight years ago to the day.
DB saunters just as cheerfully over to the customary armchair by the fire, sinking down into its abundantly cushioned seat and picking out some dog-eared book or other from a small pile by its legs.
The debonair soldier picks up the offered tome, intrigued that something was begun on his birthday. "Thanks, sir, for your recommendation. I'll read it before getting started on these reports!"
Raising a cup of something hot, DB toasts the debonair soldier on his birthday.
– Many happy returns!
– Many happy returns!
"More delicious, delicious patch notes have landed for ck3!" TBC rushed into the bar and said.
"Maybe they've made it not run like crap?"
"Maybe they've made it not run like crap?"
"Avaliable now in the usual place. I also really want to run the character designer through its pages and make a separate post, maybe a whole thread of artistic masterpieces. Gallery of something something."
TBC paused.
"I also learnt yesterday that france has guilty until proven innocent presumptions, which is so insanely backwards that I must reformulate the worst 'western' country list."
- 1
