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About ConTessa's Founder
Stacy Dellorfano has been kicking around the tabletop world since her days as a delinquent band geek in High School, skipping class to hide in the band room and play AD&D with her friends.
In the late 90s and early naughties, she worked in the video games industry, spending her late nights patching up games like EverQuest and writing translation tools to make awesome games in other languages. While her day job is now outside the gaming industry, she is also pursuing her newest secondary job as a publisher of tabletop RPGs and related merchandise and events, including her own RPG, Precious Dark.
Getting more women into tabletop RPGs is near and dear to Stacy's heart. Her passion is bringing the ideas, talent, and enthusiasm of all of those women out of the shadows and into the light, where they belong. She's dedicated to not only bringing the RPG industry into the modern world of web and software development, but also providing platforms for new and up-and-coming designers and developers to showcase and expand their amazing work.
About ConTessa
ConTessa is an apolitical space for women to lead their own tabletop gaming convention, deciding which games they want to run and which panels they want to moderate. ConTessa is a celebration showcasing women who play, create, and love tabletop games.
In addition, it provides women with an outlet to experience gaming as gamers, setting aside for a few fun-filled days the women's issues discussions that often dominate our time and energy in the hobby. While women run all aspects of ConTessa, anyone can join in the fun - playing in games, joining a panel, or watching events. The convention is held online, spanning the globe, open to all. Google Hangouts keeps things accessible - no need for a high-end computer or expensive specialized equipment, just click and play.
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ConTessa Registration Central
This year, we're adding a new tool that allows you to view events, sign up to play or attend, and manage your schedule - all from a central location. Modern and user-friendly design is important to us, but it takes time and skill. Your support will help us build the best version possible, using modern web development practices and technologies. You can check it out, here, now, and register new events early!
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ConTessa Blog & Archives
The ConTessa Blog is home to all of our news and announcements, as well as a central clearinghouse for news and updates about women in gaming. The blog also stores the archives of our previous games, panels, and events, allowing people to watch at their leisure. You can help with maintenance costs by supporting this ConTessa campaign.
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We strive to make ConTessa professional and polished, and that includes paying for high-quality artwork and marketing to deliver a one-of-a-kind online gaming experience. It isn't the cheapest way to go, but we think it is worth it to broaden the appeal and attract new players to online gaming.
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ConTessa merchandise makes great door prizes. Our swag was extremely popular during ConTessa 2013, and we're expanding the program this year.
When you purchase one of the perks from this IGG campaign, you will also be donating a matching Goodie Bag to be given out in your name during ConTessa.
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The 'What Happened at the Con' Card Game
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What Happened at the Con is a card-matching game created by two of ConTessa's staff members - Ethel Buster and Sarah Richardson. Role-play is essential to the fun of WHatC! There is no right or wrong way to do it, but the idea is to tell a fantastic story as you and your friends come up with ways to ensnare each other and devise clever twists to escape the trickiest of situations.
The game comes in its own tuck box with a complete set of rules and a deck of full-color cards. ConTessa art cards match each other. Goblin cards skip people or reverse directions. Dice cards – some with suggestions and some blank – let you create role-play scenarios and trap your opponents. But be careful! They can stack up and you might be the victim of your own plot. Just use your imagination to create your own story of What Happened at the Con.
Grab WHATC as an add-on by adding $16 to any perk, or pick up ☢ ORANGE - WHATC Card Game ☢ with the game as a perk all its own!
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The ConTessa 2013 & 2014 Annuals - PDF copies containing winning contest entries (microgames, random tables, poetry) and more from the convention.
The ConTessa 2014 Coloring & Activity Book - a PDF featuring the ConTessa mascots and friends for the colored pencil and puzzle crowd.
Randomocity #2 – a PDF copy of the second edition of the acclaimed zine.
Exclusive ConTessa Icons and Tokens
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Get and give the gift of GM Prep! Engine Publishing has offered up a discount for ConTessa supporters on their popular GM resource books! By selecting the '☢ GREEN - DIGITAL GM EDITION ☢' to the right, you'll get PDFs of Eureka, Masks, Never Unprepared, and Odyssey, PLUS we'll throw in PDFs of both ConTessa Annuals (when available), the ConTessa Coloring Book PDF, and PDFs of Randomocity #1 and #2 (when available).
What's more, when you purchase ☢ GREEN - DIGITAL GM EDITION ☢, you'll also donate a complete set of all of these PDFs as a door prize to be won at the con!
See below for how you can also purchase the Digital GM Pack as an add-on!
The Bully Pulpit Pack: Fiasco & The Fiasco Companion in Softcover, Plus Carolina Death Crawl
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Get your hands on the softcover print copies of the popular GMless, prepless game Fiasco, plus The Fiasco Companion and Bully Pulpit's card game, 'Carolina Death Crawl'!
To order as a get one / give one, choose ☢ BLUE - FIASCO EDITION ☢, to the right. This will get you print copies of each, plus we'll add the set to our door prizes for some lucky con goer to win!
Want just the books? Choose any of our perks, then add on the Fiasco Pack for just $72 (that's $60 plus $12 S&H).
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Bookmarks, Postcards, and Greeting Cards - some that are specifically ConTessa themed, others that are more 'geeky' themed! With perk packs that contain the 2 postcards, the cards will feature a light grid on the front to draw a dungeon on and a small legend on the back to complete the adventure. One postcard will be addressed and stamped to return your creation to ConTessa headquarters for redistribution in next year's ConTessa!
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Pinback Buttons, Magnets, and Keychains - all sporting the existing ConTessa characters as well as the new monster illustrations we got for this year, AND more generic RPG-themed accessories
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The ConTessa 2013 & 2014 Annuals - zines containing winning contest entries (microgames, random tables, poetry) and more from the convention.
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The ConTessa 2014 Coloring & Activity Book - featuring the ConTessa mascots and friends for the colored pencil and puzzle crowd.
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A three-month subscription to the coolest new site for managing campaigns, Tavern Keeper, along with an awesome title showing the world that you're a ConTessa sponsor!
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Pick up your Tavern Keeper subscription by choosing any of the clearance levels ☢ ORANGE ☢ and above!
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An annual subscription to this gorgeous quarterly zine filled with unique gaming materials and artwork. Randomocity fuels your imagination with lots of fun and interesting roleplaying game adventures, NPCs, and ideas.
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Pick up your Randomocity subscription (and give one to a lucky gamer) by choosing any of the perk levels at ☢ YELLOW ☢ clearance and above!
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We've secured a limited quantity of Large Chainmail dice bags to add to our perks, courtesy of Bryan Rumph at Dark Angel Metal Works! These awesome chainmail bags are handmade and can hold up to 100 dice ... that's about half your dice collection, right?
Pick one up by choosing ☢ BLUE - DICE BAG EDITION ☢ in the perks to the right!
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Check out the side panel for sponsorship levels and rewards. If you want to find out about all the benefits of sponsorship and donation options for sponsors, visit our Become a Sponsor page.
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Add $16.00 to your perk level to get this card game! - A fast-paced card/dice-rolling/role-playing game where everyone gets to be the GM. Exclusively offered to ConTessa supporters.
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Get your hands on GM prep! Engine Publishing has offered up a discount for ConTessa supporters on their popular GM resource books! By adding $39 to any perk, you'll get PDFs of Eureka, Masks, Never Unprepared, and Odyssey, PLUS we'll throw in PDFs of both ConTessa Annuals (when available), the ConTessa Coloring Book PDF, and PDFs of Randomocity #1 and #2 (when available). A bounty of inspirational material for any GM!
Add $39 to your contribution to receive this pack! You'll get the Engine Publishing books, ConTessa Annual #1, and Randomocity #1 as soon as the campaign ends, and we'll send you Randomocity #2, the ConTessa Annual #2, and the ConTessa Coloring Book once they're complete!
The Bully Pulpit Pack: Fiasco & The Fiasco Companion in Softcover, Plus Carolina Death Crawl
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Get your hands on the softcover print copies of the popular GMless, prepless game Fiasco, plus The Fiasco Companion and Bully Pulpit's card game, 'Carolina Death Crawl'!
Add this by choosing any of our perks, then add on the Fiasco Pack for just $72 (that's $60 plus $12 S&H).
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- Decide on a perk level
- When prompted, add the purchase price of your add-on(s) to the total amount of your contribution
- If you want to add additional items during the campaign, you can make changes on your contribution page on IndieGoGo at any time
- At the end of the campaign, be on the look-out for an email from ConTessa with instructions for completing your order
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ConTessa 2013 was a big success - over 40 games and events, tons of goodies, fun contests and a very popular random dungeon crawl competition. Women (some of whom had never GM’d a game before) were so inspired, they are already asking when they can register for 2014.
ConTessa has a track record of doing what we say we will do and delivering on time. We are driven to repeat last year’s success and go beyond what we've already achieved, so you can count on the ConTessa team to efficiently manage your contributions and use them to expand and improve ConTessa for all our contributors and participants - from the first registration through the posting of the final videos.
The proceeds of this campaign will go directly into defraying costs and bringing even more goodies and more fun to the ConTessa experience.
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If you just can’t swing the funds to get in on one of our perks, you can still help. Tell your friends about ConTessa, encourage the gamer women you know to GM or moderate a panel, and post links to this page on your websites and social networks.
Spread the word!
We can’t wait to see every one of you in all your glorious geeky gamerishness at...
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