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After Action Report (view source)

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{{trope}}
A prevalent form of fan literature often associated with [[Turn -Based Strategy|turn-based]] and [[Real Time Strategy|real-time strategy]] games, including [[Four X4X|4X games]]. Frequently overlaps with [[Fanfic]].
 
Originally, an "[[wikipedia:After action report|after action report]]" (AAR) referred to a blow-by-blow account of an engagement prepared by a military official. These reports were typically prepared for military analysts who would read them in order to deduce the enemy's strategy and refine their own. As many early [[Turn -Based Strategy|Strategy]] [[RTS|Games]] were essentially tactical combat simulators, it was only natural that fans of these games wishing to share their own stories and compare strategies adopted the format for their own use.
 
Also related to sportscaster analysis, where they analyze the play-by-play and deliver a verdict on [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|why Team A lost]].
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[[Fan Fiction]] set after a film which included a battle may contain a literal after-action report, but the form in this trope applies to games.
 
See also [[Real Time Strategy]] (RTS), [[Turn -Based Strategy]], [[Simulation Game]], and the various genres of [[RPG]].
 
Compare [[Let's Play]], which is a play-by-play video/and or picture narration of a non-strategy game. The [[Nuzlocke Comics|NuzlockeChallenge]] is a subtype specific to [[Pokémon (Franchise)|Pokémon]].
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* [[Children of the Fatherland]]
* [[Fire Warms the Northern Lands (Fanfic)|Fire Warms the Northern Lands]]
* [[Holding Out for A Hero Gustav Stresemann Survives]]
* [[I Am Skantarios (Fanfic)|I Am Skantarios]]
* [[Land of the Aryans (Fanfic)|Land of the Aryans]]
* [[Rome AA Risen]]
* ''[[Rumors of War (Webcomic)|Rumors of War]]''
* [[Ynglinga Saga]]
 
 
=== Other [[There Is No Such Thing Asas Notability|Notable]] After Action Reports and / or websites devoted to them include: ===
 
* [http://afteractionreporter.com After Action Reporter], a blog devoted to finding the best AARs on the Web.
* [http://www.bluecasket.co.uk/ The Blue Casket], another blog which collects AARs from across the Web. It also hosts a few itself (including one for ''[[MirrorsMirror's Edge (Video Game)|Mirrors Edge]]''). Sadly, it hasn't updated since late 2009.
* [http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forum.php Paradox Interactive Forums] features literally ''thousands'' of AARs and sustains its own subculture of AAR writers, complete with their own archives, quarterly awards, and even a serial newsletter... all maintained by the fanbase.
** Many fans got into Paradox games due to stumbling across a [http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97747 particularly] good AAR.
* SomethingAwful.com's [[Let's Play]] accounts are essentially a variation of this.
** The [[HSQ|infamous]] ''[[Dwarf Fortress (Video Game)|Dwarf Fortress]]'' [[Let's Play]] "[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/ Boatmurdered]" is written as a series of reports or journals by fortress "overseers" on the violence and insanity happening during their tenures. Almost every subsequent DF [[Let's Play]] has followed the same general format.
* [[The Spoony Experiment (Web Video)|Noah Antwiler's]] [[Let's Play]] of [[SWAT 4]] ended each mission video with a summary of the mission, frequently putting a humorous spin on the mission's events.
* [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=161570&site=pcg&skip=yes This] gameplay AAR on ''[[Galactic Civilizations]] II'' depicts an epic game where the player intentionally honks off the entire galaxy at every opportunity, yet manages to squeak out a win anyway.
** There's [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=195920 a second AAR] where the same player tries to win via peaceful methods. 650 billion die along the way. ([http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=198344&site=pcg Part two] is here; link on the page is messed up.)
* [http://forums.civfanatics.com/ The Civ Fanatics forum] has many threads dedicated to playthroughs of games.
* [[Madden NFL (Video Game)|Madden NFL]] generally attracts the Story variant. These can take on wildly different tones - some resemble typical newspaper reporting on the player's season, some will try to add external elements, and others still tell truly bizarre tales of Jack Nicholson taking over the Dallas Cowboys, drafting a female halfback, and then being disenfranchised for fixing games.
* Battle reports are a long-standing feature of the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' community, and tend to come in either or both varieties, depending on the writer. Gameplay reports are mainly used to solicit feedback and advice on strategy, troop selection, and sometimes commiseration.
* A long long time ago (the late 1990s, to be precise) there was a website called "There I Was..." which was devoted to AARs written by combat flight simulation gamers. As in: "There I was in my Mustang, at 30,000 feet over Wuppertal, escorting a wing of B-24s, when suddenly...." There was a particularly good one about a duel between an A-7 and a MiG-29.
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* Dedicated players of the [[Roguelike]] [[Nethack]] often write these up as "Yet Another Ascension Post." Which kind of AAR you get indicates which kind of player the writer is, with players who roleplay their characters during the game usually writing the more "literary" AARs. "Yet Another Stupid Death" posts may contain elements of this as well, if the character had particularly heroic or interesting exploits before getting nibbled to death by a newt.
* The ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' spinoff ''Knights of the Dinner Table: Illustrated'' (''KILL'' for short) is a Story AAR-styled adaptation of the exploits of the Untouchable Trio (plus One), as seen in the original series. The storylines feature in-character versions of the players' antics.
* This is done for ''[[Football Manager (Video Game)|Football Manager]]'', with stories being written around the player's career, with occasional stories actually having a whole plot written around it. The developer's forum even has a section to place them in.
* In ''[[E Republik|eRepublik]]'' you have player written ones, some of the more popular papers have thousands of subscribers.
* An individual by the name of Thexder has chronicled some of his multiplayer games of [[Steel Panthers (Video Game)|Steel Panthers]] on his [http://koti.mbnet.fi/thexder/Steel/steelpanthers.html website]. It's been a while since it's been updated, though.
* Robin Burkinshaw (of [[Alice and Kev]] fame) also wrote a "game diary" for [[Space Rangers]] II chronicling his Ranger's rise to the seat of top Ranger -- by killing all the competition.
* The [http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/ Realms Beyond Forums] contain reports for several single player 4X and strategy games, as well as frequently-updated threads for a number of [[Civilization (Video Game)|Civilization]] and [[Fall From Heaven]] PBEM games in progress.
* [[Nuzlocke Comics]] are either written stories or (more commonly, as evidenced by the name) comic strips that relate a player's experience with a [[Self-Imposed Challenge|Nuzlocke Run]] of one of the [[Pokémon (Franchise)|Pokémon]] games. A lot of them add their own original stories on top of the relatively bare-bones [[Excuse Plot]] of the original games, but with the general series of events kept more or less intact.
 
{{reflist}}
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