Question About Tabletop AARs

Started by BanzaiCat, October 16, 2017, 04:19:39 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

BanzaiCat

So I'm just curious what you all prefer when it comes to taking in tabletop AARs.

There's various pros and cons to each of the above options. I've vacillated back and forth between VASSAL and actual images of a game on a table and think they're both effective, though I wonder if VASSAL just doesn't look 'cleaner' and easier on the eyes. The only problem I have with VASSAL is, I like to be able to see everything at once. I know I can scroll a VASSAL board, but it honestly annoys me somewhat that most of a board is out of sight/out of mind.

A video seems to be a viable third option, but that takes up much more time.

I know some of you would probably reply, "I don't care, it's however you want to do it because it's your time in doing an AAR," which is fine, too. But surely you have an opinion, in any case.

Let me know, if you don't mind. I'm leaving this poll open for just over one week, with the results displayed after the poll expires.

mirth

Non-vassal stills and text.

I watch very few video AARs.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

bob48

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!


Barthheart

Non-VASSAL stills are nice and all but if yer playing on VASSAL it's just easier to take screen grabs.
When I post a solo game I do the real thing. But for stuff like what SDR and I are doing the screen grabs make more sense.

I don't watch videos.

mirth

Well sure. If you're playing via Vassal, I'd expect screenies from Vassal. I don't expect someone to set the physical game up just to do the pics  :crazy2:
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Silent Disapproval Robot

I like the Vassal images as they don't suffer from flash, reflections, poor angles, etc.

Mostly, what I'd like to see is if an AAR gets started, then it gets completed.

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

MengJiao

Quote from: BanzaiCat on October 16, 2017, 04:19:39 PM
So I'm just curious what you all prefer when it comes to taking in tabletop AARs.


  I read all the ARRs here.  I like the finished and the unfinished.  I like the VASSAL and the tables of miniature things.  I haven't watched very may videos of gaming for more than a few minutes.

   Obviously, I admit to a certain preference for attempting to photograph the game board.  There's a lot going on there (sort of, some times): unstable piles of units and markers, maps from other games showing up on the edges, shadows, murk, indistinct haze.

bbmike

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on October 16, 2017, 10:27:06 PM
I like the Vassal images as they don't suffer from flash, reflections, poor angles, etc.

Mostly, what I'd like to see is if an AAR gets started, then it gets completed.

I think more might get completed if there were more interest in them. I know I started a Don't Tread on Me AAR and it received a good number of views but no comments. I just guessed that no one was interested and stopped. It does take a lot of time and work to put together a really good AAR.
"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence."
-Sherlock Holmes

"You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets."
-Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

"There's a horror movie called Alien? That's really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you!"
-The Doctor

"Before Man goes to the stars he should learn how to live on Earth."
-Clifford D. Simak

BanzaiCat

Quote from: mirth on October 16, 2017, 10:29:07 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on October 16, 2017, 10:27:06 PM
Mostly, what I'd like to see is if an AAR gets started, then it gets completed.

:2funny: :2funny: :2funny:

This is one of the reasons why I ask. Besides my job keeping me insanely busy these last three months, I know I can find time to actually do more AAR pieces (especially Outpost Gamma). Thing is, though, I'm not highly motivated to do an AAR using Photoshop or VASSAL or otherwise through the computer.

However, if that's what people LIKE, then that's what I will do. If they do not, there's not much of a point, is there?

That one (OG) is small enough that I can continue it. And I will...I'm just trying to get through the next few weeks of this project and then things should quiet down for me. I've been having to work nights and weekends on top of normal day work to get this done, so it's affected my production around here. That OG AAR, I have to do it on my work laptop, because Photoshop is on it. And I'm usually on it to do actual work. And after 14+ hours or so of it in a day, I'm not all that motivated to keep working on my laptop. :(

I'll be honest - like bbmike said, I can see a number of views on my AARs, which always blows my mind, but then there isn't that much actual feedback, so that makes me think I'm spinning my wheels with that AAR. I'd like to think an AAR is something of a therapeutic venting of some inner gaming nerd need, perhaps with a big dose of voyeurism when it comes to this hobby. And, many folks around here are perfectly happy with lurking and not saying a word. But it gets to a point where it can become a slog, especially if not much feedback is coming into that thread, and my motivation can evaporate. Views are one thing, but posts are always much more motivating than seeing the numbers, if that makes any sense.

I'm pretty flexible when it comes to HOW I do an AAR. I started this thread to see how the community here ENJOYS...absorbing them, for lack of a better word.

There's also a bit of pressure. For example, the Champions of Krynn AAR I did/am doing, that's a really fun thing for me to do. I look back and actually laugh at some of the crap I put into it. And then when I sit down to do a new post, I completely and utterly second guess myself as to what's amusing and what's not, and I get severe analysis paralysis in that case. Usually if I take a step (or twenty) back from said AAR, that helps me stop doing that. Besides other distractions of course.

Anyway...thank you for your voting/feedback, folks. Much appreciated.

Staggerwing

I prefer VASSAL, then physical game setup, and then video. Video is way down the list mainly because it's a pain to watch, pause, do chores, watch, pause, make lunch, watch, pause, answer a text or call, etc, etc.

With the first two it just feels easier to enjoy in small doses broken up by other things.


AFA VASSAL, can you hook up an extra external monitor and slide some of the game windows over to it? Screenshot tools must allow for multiple monitor capture, no?
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

Barthheart

Quote from: Staggerwing on October 17, 2017, 06:40:43 AM
...
AFA VASSAL, can you hook up an extra external monitor and slide some of the game windows over to it? Screenshot tools must allow for multiple monitor capture, no?

Yes you can use multiple monitors with VASSAL just as you describe. The regular PrintScreen and paste to MSPaint captures both monitors... at least on my setup. Thought I use the Snipping Tool more that PrtScn.

As for views verses comments, I'm OK with views. It's when you post lots and the view total increase starts to decrease that slows me down.... beside my usual habit of starting an AAR and then getting bogged down in other things... ie short attention span....

bayonetbrant

I think "views" are a better indicator of interest than actual discussion / feedback.

Other than "great job!" there might not be too much to say about it.

I had a crap-ton of views of the Civ5 AARs on the front page, but not near as much discussion as you might've expected based on those views, and those AARs actually had some commentary & feedback
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

MengJiao

Quote from: bayonetbrant on October 17, 2017, 08:10:07 AM
I think "views" are a better indicator of interest than actual discussion / feedback.

Other than "great job!" there might not be too much to say about it.

I had a crap-ton of views of the Civ5 AARs on the front page, but not near as much discussion as you might've expected based on those views, and those AARs actually had some commentary & feedback

  In my case at least, some of the AARs I've started have not gone in particularly interesting directions.  This is a risk when a an AAR is really more of a during action report.  I'm usually as surprised as anyone with the twists and turns of what I end up reporting in an AAR.  Sometimes my own AARs just are not very interesting and I let them close down relatively quietly.