Ro’s Wondrous Guide to Cosplay for Beginners and Cheapskates

Mission (Mostly) PossibleWelcome to the wonderful world of cosplay! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to come up with a cosplay that suits your personality, will stay comfortable for the several hours you’ll be at a con, and hold up to the character’s integrity while still maintaining whatever creative flair you choose to toss in for fun (if any). If you read this message before it self-destructs, you’ll have taken away the following: • Selecting a character to cosplay! • Strategizing to get your cosplay finished before the convention! • The items you’ll want to carry on your person to survive the con!

It’s up to you how much time and effort you want to spend. Just know that the better you want your costume to look, the more time and effort you’re gonna need. Plan ahead! If, like me, you know yourself to be a procrastinator, take note of that and write yourself a rigorous schedule. If you’re reading this days, even weeks before your con… shit. Let’s get you prepped. But be warned, this won’t be an easy feat; at one of my first cons I made the mistake of attempting to make a cosplay the night before. It was a simple one — or so I thought; I would be a scientist from the Half-Life games and just paint their lambda logo onto an old lab coat. That sounds easy enough, right? This turned into an all-night venture that lasted from the prior afternoon right up until 10 AM the next day when my group had to drive up to Baltimore for Otakon. That’s me in the middle. You …