Who's Afraid of After Action Reports?

WHO WAS THAT GUY AGAIN?    

    The absolute worst thing that can happen in a mystery RPG is for the players to awkwardly sit around in silence because nobody is sure what they should do. The GM feels bad, the players feel bad, and the session grinds to a halt, often until the GM tepidly reminds everyone about Ms. Rodney's missing dog two sessions ago. 

    It's the worst not just because of the awkwardness, but because having to be pointed in the right direction breaks down the entire machinery of an investigative RPG. Making the right connections and teasing apart a complicated situation is the whole fun of playing one! When roleplaying God has to step down from on high to give everyone their quest, you lose out on the joy of solving the mystery.

    I'm being a little pessimistic and giving a worst-case scenario for the sake of example; getting the game going again is way better than languishing in limbo, it's not bad to reappraise players of their options or remind them of the game state, often players will end up remembering some critical thread before this point, etc. But the point of the matter is that RPGs are information games, and investigative ones are information games most of all.

    There have been a lot of attempts to solve the information problem with game mechanics; the various games made using the GUMSHOE system for example. I'm not trying to address information players don't discover, though, I'm talking about the stuff people don't retain. A lot of investigative scenarios require players to retain a fuckton (term of art) of names, places, events, objectives...

    This is compounded in longer campaigns, where if people are struggling to keep their Inspector LeGrasses from their Neil T. DeGrasses, you lose out on a lot of the fun of seeing the web compound upon itself. An NPC introduced six sessions ago returns in a new role, the faction you thought was destroyed pops up on new turf, the home base has changed in strange and fascinating ways while you were away.

DELIGHTING YOUR GAME MASTER FOR FUN & PROFIT

       So. Interminable monologue done. After action reports, AARs, game reports, session recaps. They're not new tech, I'm just writing a polemic. AARs serve an incredibly important purpose: you're reminded which stones were turned, left unturned, and/or smashed into dust by a rocket-propelled grenade. 

    Many GMs write the play reports for their sessions. I'll briefly point to Mellonbread's The Rogue's Wallet and Top Hat's Spears & Spreadsheets for some genuinely excellent prose writeups of games. That's perfectly good, GMs typically have the highest investment in their games already and they need a good understanding of the past to write material for future sessions.

    But it is another thing on a busy person's plate. Which is why I will evangelize to you about the value of having players write their own AARs! 

 

An example of my own prose.

    There's nothing more satisfying as a GM than to see players interested in your game. Players writing recaps, drawing intelligent inferences, recalling or raising points about specific things in the game world is heavenly. Sharing a table with people invested in the game elevates the experience for everyone involved; you enjoy better roleplaying, better problem-solving, better fights, practically whatever you enjoy best in RPGs. 

    My own best memories of gaming come from a long term of Delta Green called Panama Blue, run by the eponymous Panama. The staggering sixty-five sessions of the PB campaign (to date) are recounted in almost as many player-and-GM-written session recaps. Over a dozen people have lent their hands to the tragic deaths, the deeds of cruelty and heroism, the sacrifices and the triumphs. I doubt we would have had such a good time had nobody bothered.

 

DO IT AT HOME!

    For the value you get from taking the time to write out the events of your games, the time investment is a very small price to pay. I tend to write game reports heavy (maybe too heavy) with purple prose, but my way is not the only way. I just like to show off. Lighter prose, bullet-pointing notes, mind maps—all serve the purpose well!

 

Mind map of a cult in a session of Delta Green

    
     If I were to provide a few tips for writing good AARs for investigative games...

• Try to keep notes as the game is being played. These don't have to look pretty, it's just good to have the information down while it's fresh in your mind. Even if you don't polish it up later, your fellow players will thank you.
• Use the proper names of NPCs, factions, and locations. If your GM name-drops something, having the specific phrasing already in your mind will help you notice connections or recurring names.
  
• Record your hunches and your unanswered questions. By doing so you can identify new focuses for your investigation, keep on track between sessions, and help your readers understand what a given piece of information suggests about the case.

 

    Should you have even the slightest desire to write a session report, please do! It's less of a burden than you might fear, particularly if your fellows are good enough sports to share the duty.