cosplay chess!

[chrono]

I figured I should start a thread about this, since there was some talk about it in the Cosplay Picnic thread :3

Who's running?
Do we want to consider running this at Genericon in 2010?
If we decide we want to take this on as a group, I can talk with the cosplay coordinator to see what they think -- Maybe it'll can be a joint Genericon/UNYCosplay run event. I'm thinking Cosplay Chess can be a slight logistics nightmare -- Especially the first time running it.

Game scripting
I know Genericon was working with the RPI Chess Club to have a scripted game created, which seems like a much better idea to me, than to simply have 2 people making up moves on the spot. I actually have a certain level of interest in helping with this part too, as I was on the Chess Team in High School LOL

Music/sound
Another department I'm interested in! We'd want to figure out if there would be theme music, closing music, themed music for certain characters, sound effects for attacks, etc.

Who knows the game outcome?
I don't know how cons traditionally do this, but from what I've seen, it appears that the players have no idea what's going to happen -- And maybe this is part of the fun. My counter-argument to this concept is that if the characters know ahead of time what's going to happen, they can not only plan for how long they will need to be there, but also, fight scenes can be better scripted as well. This ties to music/sfx as well.

Registration
Registration ahead of time seems like a good idea off-hand. It can't happen without 16 cosplayers! If sign-ups are required ahead of time, say, before the conbook is due for printing, it will let the con schedule be more correct, considering that the event may not happen if there isn't enough interest. Other than that, if players need to rehearse battle scenes ahead of time, this reinforces the prereg idea.

Themes
:o It can't hurt to take ideas now.

Board Construction
@_@

Let's discuss!

[Phoenix]

This sounds like fun. We should get a hold of someone now from Genericon to see if we can contact the chess club.

[Quantum9]

I've only been to a few chess events, so I'm not 100% on how the actual behind the scenes things go. That said, here's a few things that really make it work well.

1. Registration takes place a few weeks before the event, decided on as a first-come first serve basis. Usually, each King and Queen are members of the staff, cosplaying as two main characters from the same series who have a romantic relationship. After that, people can choose their pieces (Rook, Bishop, Knight, or Pawn) and their side (White or Black). Obiviously most players are more driven towards the major pieces (Rook/Bishop/Knight) so emphasis is given on registering early. In addition, two people are needed to actually play the game, and one player is the announcer.

2. From what I've seen, the events are actually not scripted, so there is a fair bit of ad-libbing. When a piece is taken, a short scene plays out, as one character kills the other in a fun little skit. Pieces can have other characters in from off stage, props, there's theme music, all sorts of good stuff. Another cool way of doing this is with audience interaction...when a players next move must result in a piece being taken, usually they ask the audience to vote via cheers as to which they want to die.

[chrono]

Stacy:
Contacting the Chess Club should be fairly easy -- But I'm thinking we'll want to talk internally first to make sure we actually want to do it first But yes, if we decide to do so, I can easily ask the Genericon cosplay coordinator for help

Eric:
As far as one player being the announcer -- I'm fairly sure the last Cosplay Chess I saw... which was at Katsucon? That one had each of the chess players do the announcing -- Quite well, actually. I have some footage, I'll have to see if I have anything useful and Youtube it.

Not being scripted could be okay... When they pre-register, do they have to say which costume they will do? I'm just thinking from a bgm perspective, because having a list of costumes ahead of time will help a lot when collecting the music.

The voting on which character dies thing sort of defeats the scripted game idea though :/

[Replica_Heart]

One thing with registration... I saw they did try to do cosplay chess at Genericon this year, but they closed it down because of a "lack of interest". I doubt that it was a lack of interest so much as a lack of advertising, because I have a feeling that for a convention of Genericon's scale, most people aren't scouring the forums very long beforehand. We might want to have some members willing to do "backup" pieces if not all the pieces are filled by Friday. Alternatively, strap a drum to someone and have them get the rest of the signups on Friday night.

[Phoenix]

I'm thinking that lack of advertising was a big reason also. The website had no info, it was on the forums. I signed up for the forums last year and it took FOREVER to get approved to post there.

If we do pre-reg and Friday night/Saturday morning sign up, I think that we will get enough people to hold this.

I've never even seen cosplay chess, so I'm not sure how it's run to give any input there. I think as long as we don't have two of the same costume maybe, it should be ok?