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Description
EDIT: I've updated the LARP very significantly from feedback I've gotten over two playthroughs. If you want to use it, please use this newer version, it's far more polished!

In short: For my final paper in college I wrote and ran a LARP of the musical "Chess". I also ran it at Gencon 2012. Attached is a folder with all my materials, character sheets, and anything you'd need to run the game yourself. I was helped along the way by my fiancee and fellow Chess fanatic .

Chess is subject to copywrite, by Tim Rice, Richard Nelson, Benny Andersson, and Björn Ulvaeus etc. Please don't use this game for profit, just a fair-use game that'll allow other people to run the game for fun if they enjoy the concept or the musical's many iterations. If you have any comments or variations you did or enjoyed I'd be delighted to hear from you and might even add them to the original for other players to try! Email me at ChibiSilverWings@gmail.com if you'd like to comment.

NOW. Welcome to the land of TL;DR.

In my college career, I got the chance to write only one or two papers about topics which I was truly passionate. This is most certainly one of the most pleasurable writing activities I'd ever had the privilege of working on, and I hope that in the future, I'll keep myself motivated to write about and interact with the stories I love. The reason I really wanted to write this LARP is because I feel like this is the sort of thing I really love about English, and about writing in general. Since I was very young I loved making stories and enjoyed seeing the power and pleasure that narratives could convey to others, though I also often felt that narratives could be a bit isolating.

So when I got a chance to use my writing and storytelling in group efforts, such as my pen and paper roleplays, Dungeons and Dragons and the like, I was thrilled to combine two things I loved, writing and being creative with my friends.

There is something absolutely magical about playing a game through just a few rules, dice, papers, and a few friends all talking. I think that it's both one of the most enjoyable and most intellectually stimulating things you can do with a group of friends (or even strangers). I can't imagine that anyone going out drinking with their friends has nearly as much of a stimulating and fun experience.

I think that for me, pursuing an English degree was an exercise is staying close to the discipline that I enjoy the most and this paper was a chance to engage in some of the kinds of things I plan to continue using my English education for. I'm sure that for many this seems like a frivolous activity to put your college education into, but I know I'm never going to be one of those career-oriented people. I'm going to be happiest doing what I love, earning enough money to live on modestly and getting joy out of the activities that I can share with my close friends to keep my mind sharp. So writing this game is a reminder to me that writing can be applied in ways other than moneymaking or research and that working hard on a long writing project like this need not be a chore.

When writing the sheets I had trouble with creating characters than interacted well, meaning some are meant to get along and others that are written to purposefully clash or have certain reactions to each other. It's important to write in some opposing goals so that it will be interesting and challenging for the players to accomplish their goals. After the first play test of the game, I took in several suggestions, many asking for more to do, and because of the somewhat low turn out I wasn't surprised. With a small cast, many characters were lacking important character connections and people to interact with. There's a very delicate balance you must maintain to write a good game that's playable even when you don't have a full cast.

Something interesting that arose when writing was that I needed to do some historical research about the Cold War, especially for Florence. I also noted that some of the players had some moments where they had to rely on their own personal historical knowledge during play, such as knowing who was the President of the United States and who was leading the USSR in 1980. Knowledge like this isn't really required but it helps flesh out a believable game, and it was fun to see what sorts of things people ended up talking about during the game.

I feel like another challenge that I had was taking the story of Chess (which has changed MANY times through it's performances) and making a large cast all with something interesting to do during the game. I can't be sure I did it perfectly until I've seen all the characters played, but I know that I succeeded at least in some respect, because every one at the playtest had a great time and wasn't bored during the game.

This game, because it covers Communism VS Democracy at the height of political tensions, has some political insults/xenophobic sorts of comments in a few places on character sheets. None of these comments are intended to insult real people or their countries. The comments are meant to portray racist CHARACTERS and atmosphere, not reflect the opinion of the author. This is a game, only meant to be played for fun and never meant to offend.

I hope that the few Chess fans out there get a chance to enjoy this. I know Chess is a very obscure musical but it's certainly my favorite, it's depth and complexity really sets it apart as one of the best shows I've had the pleasure of seeing. And now, the fact that I was engaged right after a performance of Chess means that the show has become even more dear to me. In the future I hope to do even more with it. ENJOY!

Description
EDIT: I've updated the LARP very significantly from feedback I've gotten over two playthroughs. If you want to use it, please use this newer version, it's far more polished!

In short: For my final paper in college I wrote and ran a LARP of the musical "Chess". I also ran it at Gencon 2012. Attached is a folder with all my materials, character sheets, and anything you'd need to run the game yourself. I was helped along the way by my fiancee and fellow Chess fanatic .

Chess is subject to copywrite, by Tim Rice, Richard Nelson, Benny Andersson, and Björn Ulvaeus etc. Please don't use this game for profit, just a fair-use game that'll allow other people to run the game for fun if they enjoy the concept or the musical's many iterations. If you have any comments or variations you did or enjoyed I'd be delighted to hear from you and might even add them to the original for other players to try! Email me at ChibiSilverWings@gmail.com if you'd like to comment.

NOW. Welcome to the land of TL;DR.

In my college career, I got the chance to write only one or two papers about topics which I was truly passionate. This is most certainly one of the most pleasurable writing activities I'd ever had the privilege of working on, and I hope that in the future, I'll keep myself motivated to write about and interact with the stories I love. The reason I really wanted to write this LARP is because I feel like this is the sort of thing I really love about English, and about writing in general. Since I was very young I loved making stories and enjoyed seeing the power and pleasure that narratives could convey to others, though I also often felt that narratives could be a bit isolating.

So when I got a chance to use my writing and storytelling in group efforts, such as my pen and paper roleplays, Dungeons and Dragons and the like, I was thrilled to combine two things I loved, writing and being creative with my friends.

There is something absolutely magical about playing a game through just a few rules, dice, papers, and a few friends all talking. I think that it's both one of the most enjoyable and most intellectually stimulating things you can do with a group of friends (or even strangers). I can't imagine that anyone going out drinking with their friends has nearly as much of a stimulating and fun experience.

I think that for me, pursuing an English degree was an exercise is staying close to the discipline that I enjoy the most and this paper was a chance to engage in some of the kinds of things I plan to continue using my English education for. I'm sure that for many this seems like a frivolous activity to put your college education into, but I know I'm never going to be one of those career-oriented people. I'm going to be happiest doing what I love, earning enough money to live on modestly and getting joy out of the activities that I can share with my close friends to keep my mind sharp. So writing this game is a reminder to me that writing can be applied in ways other than moneymaking or research and that working hard on a long writing project like this need not be a chore.

When writing the sheets I had trouble with creating characters than interacted well, meaning some are meant to get along and others that are written to purposefully clash or have certain reactions to each other. It's important to write in some opposing goals so that it will be interesting and challenging for the players to accomplish their goals. After the first play test of the game, I took in several suggestions, many asking for more to do, and because of the somewhat low turn out I wasn't surprised. With a small cast, many characters were lacking important character connections and people to interact with. There's a very delicate balance you must maintain to write a good game that's playable even when you don't have a full cast.

Something interesting that arose when writing was that I needed to do some historical research about the Cold War, especially for Florence. I also noted that some of the players had some moments where they had to rely on their own personal historical knowledge during play, such as knowing who was the President of the United States and who was leading the USSR in 1980. Knowledge like this isn't really required but it helps flesh out a believable game, and it was fun to see what sorts of things people ended up talking about during the game.

I feel like another challenge that I had was taking the story of Chess (which has changed MANY times through it's performances) and making a large cast all with something interesting to do during the game. I can't be sure I did it perfectly until I've seen all the characters played, but I know that I succeeded at least in some respect, because every one at the playtest had a great time and wasn't bored during the game.

This game, because it covers Communism VS Democracy at the height of political tensions, has some political insults/xenophobic sorts of comments in a few places on character sheets. None of these comments are intended to insult real people or their countries. The comments are meant to portray racist CHARACTERS and atmosphere, not reflect the opinion of the author. This is a game, only meant to be played for fun and never meant to offend.

I hope that the few Chess fans out there get a chance to enjoy this. I know Chess is a very obscure musical but it's certainly my favorite, it's depth and complexity really sets it apart as one of the best shows I've had the pleasure of seeing. And now, the fact that I was engaged right after a performance of Chess means that the show has become even more dear to me. In the future I hope to do even more with it. ENJOY!