Cosplay Chess 2011: What Went Wrong and How to Improve

[luvan1me]

yeah the game is completely improve, except our special attacks and such, well for some people anyways. but that's how i feel about things too. but since it's my first improve i can't say much, other than the things i already said >.<

[@random]

A few random thoughts:

• I was in the lobby, so I don't have a good feel for how the audience perceived it... but to me, the HOHOHOHOs got old. Did anyone inside feel the same way?

• Just wondering, would a travel chess set (magnetic bottoms and a metal board) help?

With regards to scripted vs unscripted, I think we should keep unscripted with regards to what pieces will move where and fight who, but script out what attacks you are going to do and how you are going to die. Obviously some deviation will be required since you don't know who you'll be fighting, but at the same time going in without any idea of what you're going to do is a worse idea.

+1

Maybe this could be made part of the selection process.

[CMD Productions]

With the music, there were some songs that matched the costumes of the pieces, but not who was fighting at the time. Maybe the sound board can have a playlist full of music for each character. That way they just double click the song of the attacker or defender. Sure we'll hear a couple tunes multiple times but they would match at least. IMO appropriate music trumps repetition. Music is one thing that'd be fixed completely by scripting but I still don't think it's worth it.

I didn't know I was going to play music before cosplay chess started. I started to adlib with my final fantasy discs part way through and kept it up because people seemed to dig having music for the battles.  I only had one cd player and my dj cds from the previous night and was randomly trying to find music at the last minute.  I think if Jaki lets me next year I might dj the set more formally and have some special effects and theme musics preset before hand.  I think that might work a bit better and be a bit more cohesive than the random assortment I played during chess.

[Blizzara Dragon]

A few random thoughts:

• I was in the lobby, so I don't have a good feel for how the audience perceived it... but to me, the HOHOHOHOs got old. Did anyone inside feel the same way?

• Just wondering, would a travel chess set (magnetic bottoms and a metal board) help?

With regards to scripted vs unscripted, I think we should keep unscripted with regards to what pieces will move where and fight who, but script out what attacks you are going to do and how you are going to die. Obviously some deviation will be required since you don't know who you'll be fighting, but at the same time going in without any idea of what you're going to do is a worse idea.

+1

Maybe this could be made part of the selection process.

The HOHOHOs got a bit old, but that was simply because as the game dragged on people seemed to run out of ideas for jokes. If the game either was kept a bit shorter, which can be done simply by people knowing in advance what they want to do and getting rid of the audience/alternate chaos. As for the magnetic chess set, that would be very helpful. Especially since from what I've seen from chess masters, they have to be careful of knocking pieces over with their costumes so the magnets should keep them from being thrown around.

Another thing we could consider is experience in Cosplay Chess. While we don't want to exclude people who have never done it before, we also don't want to have it overrun with newer people and potentially become chaos. What would be cool to add would be a line to the application asking for how much experience they've had with Cosplay Chess. On top of that, instead of simply asking what attacks you'd like used we could have them describe their battle plan for both victory and defeat. This way we'll make sure all our participants are at least somewhat prepared and we can keep a balance of both experienced players and new players.

[TomtheFanboy]

I didn't know I was going to play music before cosplay chess started. I started to adlib with my final fantasy discs part way through and kept it up because people seemed to dig having music for the battles.  I only had one cd player and my dj cds from the previous night and was randomly trying to find music at the last minute.  I think if Jaki lets me next year I might dj the set more formally and have some special effects and theme musics preset before hand.  I think that might work a bit better and be a bit more cohesive than the random assortment I played during chess.

That certainly explains a lot! I had totally forgot that this was their first year in main events and maybe they hadn't been planning on having music at all. I'm sure the music will be great once you have a chance to, you know, plan ahead. 

On top of that, instead of simply asking what attacks you'd like used we could have them describe their battle plan for both victory and defeat.

I think that this sort of "What do you do if...?" sort of question is better than an attack question. Much more to the point.

[majinekochan]

With the music, there were some songs that matched the costumes of the pieces, but not who was fighting at the time. Maybe the sound board can have a playlist full of music for each character. That way they just double click the song of the attacker or defender. Sure we'll hear a couple tunes multiple times but they would match at least. IMO appropriate music trumps repetition. Music is one thing that'd be fixed completely by scripting but I still don't think it's worth it.

I didn't know I was going to play music before cosplay chess started. I started to adlib with my final fantasy discs part way through and kept it up because people seemed to dig having music for the battles.  I only had one cd player and my dj cds from the previous night and was randomly trying to find music at the last minute.  I think if Jaki lets me next year I might dj the set more formally and have some special effects and theme musics preset before hand.  I think that might work a bit better and be a bit more cohesive than the random assortment I played during chess.

Good Luck. I do the sound for SakuraCon's Chess games. And while people love it, it is alot of work (specially with other staffing duties as well) even with a scripted match and "custom" music. Usually by the time I get to doing sound for our unscripted game, I'm burned out and just don't want to (or am in the game and don't have an assistant that I trust to do it). I guess you saw what a challenge it can be trying to anticipate battles and such.

[luvan1me]

majineko, you did such a good job at scon this year <3

[CMD Productions]

Good Luck. I do the sound for SakuraCon's Chess games. And while people love it, it is alot of work (specially with other staffing duties as well) even with a scripted match and "custom" music. Usually by the time I get to doing sound for our unscripted game, I'm burned out and just don't want to (or am in the game and don't have an assistant that I trust to do it). I guess you saw what a challenge it can be trying to anticipate battles and such.

Yep that and there were three us at various boards (lighting sound video) scrambling through my collection and we started second guessing music choices and if they fit.  We had conversations like "Alright if Rikku attacks somebody we'll play RSF's I'm too sexy, but if it's the end of the game I think we should end with Jonathan Coltans's Still alive, crap it's monoku moving we'll need to play 19 sai from xxxholic."

One CD player and no dj mixer was the hard part.

[TomtheFanboy]

Maybe one of the participants next year can get some mp3s together and hand them over at the premeet.

I'm sure that a lot of the characters will have really obvious songs no matter what the theme is.

[nekovamp13]

I just found a pretty good solution to the pieces+names problem!
I found this training chess set at Goodwill and it has flat surfaces on them that would be able to cover with tape or something to write the names on.

[obscure_reference]

A few random thoughts:

• I was in the lobby, so I don't have a good feel for how the audience perceived it... but to me, the HOHOHOHOs got old. Did anyone inside feel the same way?

Sorry, it's what our characters do, and I will be the first to admit that 2hours of one-liners gets old. 

We could do better with more prep and something more than "Say something funny!"

[Zensuke]

Personally I never really go tied of the laughing. Even when the jokes were bad the laughs made me smile but maybe that's just my Muppet's show nostalgia.

[majinekochan]

Yep that and there were three us at various boards (lighting sound video) scrambling through my collection and we started second guessing music choices and if they fit.  We had conversations like "Alright if Rikku attacks somebody we'll play RSF's I'm too sexy, but if it's the end of the game I think we should end with Jonathan Coltans's Still alive, crap it's monoku moving we'll need to play 19 sai from xxxholic."

One CD player and no dj mixer was the hard part.

I hear ya, I run Scon's main(scripted) games from my computer with Multiplay, 'cause that way I know what battles are gonna happen and can just plug music in. But for Scon's improv game, this last year we only had the Kings and Queens picked and pulled the rest of the teams from the audience. When I realized we were doing that, I was like O.O "um...can we not do music?" specially when I was selected as one of the Kings.

[Raveen92]

Then if we know the characters, we can get a few song tracks each character, so we can use itunes ans have a reserve of songs in a playlist with what character they belong with. Possibly with the Anime/Game/Other soundtrack. If possible, then provide the music for the staff

Example: Lust (my character) playlist

Marching Army ~ Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 3 (sorta Dramatic)
Life and Death ~ Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 2
Fighting Bravely ~ Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 2 (There is a difference from soundtrack 3)
Ready Steady Go ~ Second Opening first Series

[chibihentaichan]

Maybe one of the participants next year can get some mp3s together and hand them over at the premeet.

I'm sure that a lot of the characters will have really obvious songs no matter what the theme is.

I think that'd be fun Tom. With the Cosplay Contest we all bring MP3 and they loaded them onto iTunes with skit names on it. It worked really well to keep things straight. But I also remember how much Kenna was stressed about Cosplay Chess at SAK last year, so you don't want it to get too complicated otherwise it takes the fun out of it.

[TomtheFanboy]

I think that'd be fun Tom. With the Cosplay Contest we all bring MP3 and they loaded them onto iTunes with skit names on it. It worked really well to keep things straight. But I also remember how much Kenna was stressed about Cosplay Chess at SAK last year, so you don't want it to get too complicated otherwise it takes the fun out of it.

Yeah we don't want more stress! I'm pretty sure that if someone on the forums had gone through the participant list a couple weeks before con they could have found most of the stuff you'd need. Especially if they got in touch with the cosplayers and asked. It's not something I'm expecting of the organizers, and definitely not something I'm expecting of the tech staff. I just think that the participants would be willing to come up with three songs that fit their character and put them on a list for somebody to go gather.

Heck, maybe that could be added to the sign up process?

[Blizzara Dragon]

I think that'd be fun Tom. With the Cosplay Contest we all bring MP3 and they loaded them onto iTunes with skit names on it. It worked really well to keep things straight. But I also remember how much Kenna was stressed about Cosplay Chess at SAK last year, so you don't want it to get too complicated otherwise it takes the fun out of it.

Yeah we don't want more stress! I'm pretty sure that if someone on the forums had gone through the participant list a couple weeks before con they could have found most of the stuff you'd need. Especially if they got in touch with the cosplayers and asked. It's not something I'm expecting of the organizers, and definitely not something I'm expecting of the tech staff. I just think that the participants would be willing to come up with three songs that fit their character and put them on a list for somebody to go gather.

Heck, maybe that could be added to the sign up process?

Good ideas, but one slight problem: for the past few years, the list of people who got in gets posted the weekend before con. If someone has the time to get all the music while also getting ready for con that is great, but as it stands now it'll be hard unless the staff starts prepping for Cosplay Chess earlier than usual. Although in all honesty that should be done anyway, that way we can have people who are for sure ready for the game instead of getting the occasional person who thinks they'll be ready in time and ends up not being ready by the time chess comes around.

[chibihentaichan]

It could be fun to add to the sign up process. With the Sak cosplay contest, they actually give you the link to some sound editing software and say "you do the work to make your songs fit." And that's it's. You submit all of your music ahead of time. If we could get people to do that, it'd be cool. The problem is, you never know how long you're going to be in the game. This year I would have thought that I'd be out within two attacks like last year, so I would have only put two or three songs in for both Mokona (I sign both up since I made both.) It wouldn't have prepared the person running sound for how long we were actually in the game. And then we would wind up with a lot of music for characters that never get used. So it's a give and take there.

[Drauska]

This was the first year watching Cosplay Chess and I thought it was a blast. 

[dark4ever]

It could be fun to add to the sign up process. With the Sak cosplay contest, they actually give you the link to some sound editing software and say "you do the work to make your songs fit." And that's it's. You submit all of your music ahead of time. If we could get people to do that, it'd be cool. The problem is, you never know how long you're going to be in the game. This year I would have thought that I'd be out within two attacks like last year, so I would have only put two or three songs in for both Mokona (I sign both up since I made both.) It wouldn't have prepared the person running sound for how long we were actually in the game. And then we would wind up with a lot of music for characters that never get used. So it's a give and take there.

That could be a problem, but if people submitted even just one song, they could replay it. It could get boring, but it could also show how much thought pieces have put into their forms. One song? Pawn. People could submit as many as they wanted. I mean, pretty much no matter what the character is from (Anime, video game, VOCALOID, Tv show, movie) there is music in it. Even minor characters. For instance, as The Undertaker, I would have probably gone looking for the soundtracks, and if not, there are four songs in the first series alone.

The only issue would be book and manga characters. That's when the forums come in handy. Just ask people for ideas I have lots of fighting music, jazz music and even just regular songs that I could assign to pretty much any character I'm even vaguely familiar with.

[Raveen92]

For some reason for the final song/match I imagine "You've got the Touch" lol

[Pixie]

As a summoned piece during last year's chess, I heard a lot of witty smacktalk during the game.  It enriched the game, making it more fun.  The problem, though, is that the audience could NOT hear most of what the chess pieces were saying, which is a tragedey.... they said some pretty hilarious stuff, some of which was part of their actual attack.

Is microphones for the chess pieces something that could be done?

[luvan1me]

if they do that it would have to be individual wireless mics (like the ones that are attached to you), and those are an issues with Cell phones and such. Also since we are moving a lot, they will have to be attached somewhere (which is kinda hard sometimes for some of our costumes), and they are quite heavy so that would be a bad idea. *speaking from theater experience)

There is another option too though for the wireless mics or mics. Sakuracon uses regular mics (wireless and wired) and they have a stage ninja hand it over to them (or whomever had it before) and will say w/e into the mic, and have a scene or whatever, and then give the mic back and start the fight. That could be an option, but not sure how they set up the stage versus the 4 sided setup like Sakuracon does. 

[chelseahavoc]

theres also an idea of hanging tiny mics (my highschool did that for a huge musical) or even mics by the side of the mats that are soewhat sensitive?

[Raveen92]

Or have people in the front with large signs saying 'Quiet down'

[Jacob_Blackfeather]

I think also would be a good idea is to have some security at the ends of the matts so unwanted "pieces" can't get in and try to ruin a match.

[@random]

The problem is, the yojimbo can't physically restrain a party-crasher. All they can do is ask them to go back to their seat, possibly escalating to the person losing their badge if they keep refusing. But by that time, the mood would be completely ruined.

It might be more effective to have the pieces simply stop what they're doing and walk off the board, leaving the interrupter alone. They would probably slink off in shame very quickly... and nobody would want to try doing it again after seeing that.

[Jacob_Blackfeather]

The problem is, the yojimbo can't physically restrain a party-crasher. All they can do is ask them to go back to their seat, possibly escalating to the person losing their badge if they keep refusing. But by that time, the mood would be completely ruined.

It might be more effective to have the pieces simply stop what they're doing and walk off the board, leaving the interrupter alone. They would probably slink off in shame very quickly... and nobody would want to try doing it again after seeing that.

that actually seems like a very effective way just get off the bard when an intruder is on it

[nekovamp13]

That, or just stop and stare at them being like "What are you doing?!" But either works.

[luvan1me]

well when me and nick were fighting against lelouch and all those other pieces came onto the board. we just stood there for a while and we sorta thought maybe we should just not do anything, but we were caught by surprise we just didn't want the game to be ruined by these guys, so we just sorta "killed" them, but they wouldn't even die when we hit them :/ so it got annoying really fast.

[CMD Productions]

theres also an idea of hanging tiny mics (my highschool did that for a huge musical) or even mics by the side of the mats that are soewhat sensitive?

Deer god no! We have enough problems with those hanging mics for cosplay when they're behind the speakers. Putting them in front of the speakers will cause feedback like you wouldn't believe and we'd need a grid to put them up there.

And we should nix the idea of getting 32 lavalier mics at $300 each they're soooooo not in the budget not to mention that we don't have enough channels on our current mixer to support all those mic inputs, not that I wouldn't want to get as 64 channel mixer at some point, might be something to dream about. 

[Pixie]

^@CMD Productions: While I do agree that the previous idea is overkill (in more ways than one.... $$$) I still have my heart set on the audience being able to hear the fighting pieces. 

Perhaps a wireless mike for each team could be set on either side of the mat, and when a piece is called to fight, he/she picks it up as the other pieces leave the board.... It would be a lot less expensive, and it would not get in the way of the more animated attacks, seeing as the cosplayer does not have to use the mike at all if they are relying on action rather than words.

I know that this would be a decision for the staff, therefore I am powerless, but.....

*sigh*

Would the "Moe eyes" begging expression help my case?

[dark4ever]

My sister and I were actually just have a discussion about cosplay chess yesterday. One thing we both really had an issue with was the audience being too dang loud. Both of us were rooks, her and her roomie the closet to the chessmasters and myself closest to the audience. Both of us had issues with missing instructions. I went the wrong one twice because I couldn't hear, and Stein had to almost yell at Jack the Ripper to get them to move. If the audience had been quieter, the game probably would have lasted longer.

However, I do like the idea of having mics for fighting pieces, but hand helds ones. Next year, I intend to apply with Sho from The World Ends With You. He shouts odd math phrases. I'm trying my best to find a hand held megaphone the size that he uses (it's sort of small), but they're hard to find on a budget. It also would have helped this year, since no one heard me say "You look so funny!" because falling over... only the other pieces >.>

[luvan1me]

i think it'd be a neat idea to have those small shout out megaphones! i'm actually getting one cuz of my cosplay next year >3> but i think it'd be a great idea for each team to have one so that way if we want to actually say something it can be heard somewhat louder than just our voices, and not too loud like the mic, but can be picked up by everyone nearby.

it's just a thought >.<

[dark4ever]

This is true. When you find one, let me know, yeah? I'll be applying, and whether or not I'm selected, I will lend it to the team Sho fits most :3

[luvan1me]

i'm getting in on ebay. it's from china so it's cheap .3.

but i mean it's a great idea for even photoshoots in general, cuz i have lost my voice several times at cons because i keep trying to yell over all the dang loud weeabos >3>

[dark4ever]

I'll have to look into that.

Epiphany: Cosplay Chess this year was like a big photoshoot, but the non-participants were sitting down and not moving >.>

One thing I think my sister mentioned was that there needed to be someone else on stage. The chess masters were awesome and the commentators were great, but there needed to be a Game Master like last year. It's one thing to say the rules before the game. Not everyone is going to pay attention. If there was someone else, in cosplay or not, on stage sort of moderating the game, it would help tons.

[luvan1me]

^^^ that there exactly! we need order >3>

[the_wind_the_sea]

As the person who does Sakura-Con's Cosplay Chess games (yes games), it takes a lot of work to plan scripted games. I do two of them. So, I'm working all year round, that's with my assistants.

So, it makes the most sense for Jaki to do an unscripted game because of her duties as the Director of Programming. A lot, lot, lot of work goes into even that game. Picking pieces, placing them, choosing Chess Masters. Trust me when I say that by the end of Sakura-Con, all I want to do is crawl underneath a desk and hide for a week.

Yes, there were things that could have gone better during the game. But, it's a learning experience, it always is. That's one thing that I enjoy about Kumoricon's game. It's unpredictable. But with Kumoricon the size it is, the unscripted game makes sense. The larger the convention (at least I've noticed) the more serious the games are.

At least Kumoricon isn't trying to do what Metrocon does. They script everything and only locals can participate in the game.

It takes work from both the participants and the audience to make a game run smoothly. So, please remember that when you're sitting in the audience next time.

[4evaRyuk]

I'm going to go watch the chess but not play (chess isn't my thing) I hope I see some Higurashi people there, their attacks would be amazing (seeing as to how the characters had to slaugther each other over and over).

[Taikei]

I'm thinking of going as a chess piece this year instead of a Chess Master. But only if i can get my cosplay from Happy Tree Friends done...Flippy would be awesome to have in cosplay chess XD

[nekovamp13]

Flippy would be dangerous to have....XD

[Blizzara Dragon]

I need to say this: Cosplay Chess was soooooooooo much better run this year than last year. Thank you to everyone who participated this year and kept things sane, thank you to Jaki for making sure that rules were enforced better this year, and thank you audience members who stayed in your seats instead of insisting on being part of the action. Everyone made this easily one of the best chess games we've ever had, if not the best.

[sk_chan]

Great game, guys. My only con: lots of the battles seemed a bit short to me. I think we need to make them slightly longer and more "epic-looking", if possible. I was shouting "Get up! Don't let him beat you!!" multiple times, because I was hoping the one who was on the ground would get up and keep fighting, then die epically some time later. It would make it more exciting for the audience, imo.

Otherwise, great game, and as said above, so much better than last year's! =D