Interview with Venus De Coy about Kronea, Part 1

It was a few long months ago that LPJ sent me this adventure by this lady whose name was either Lady Ophelia or Venus. I will admit I thought one was an alias and the other one a nom-de-plume. Well I was partially right. Venus is her name, yes, her real name!

She and I spoke as we discussed a potential NeoExodus product (which AFAIK never came out). She was a really cool and creative person. I left things at that.

Then one day I get an email from her asking me if I would be willing to do some work for her on a project she was putting together with a number of people. I was intrigued and cautiously agreed. I did not know what my schedule would be, hence my caution. I spoke with her a few times through email and Skype and I was sold. I did a few small things for her, including two religions. I guess she really liked what I did because she commissioned a short piece of fiction to go with it.

I'm pretty excited about this project and finally announcing the release on the 19th of August!

JP: Who are you?

Venus De Coy So I'm Venus De Coy, (yes this is my legal name) and I am a nursing professional by day and Pathfinder Publisher by night. I have written for Pathfinder and Dark Aeons. (And hopefully more settings in the future.)

When I am not healing the sick, writing, or cracking a whip on writers, I play RPG's! I am a huge Pathfinder Society Organized Play fan, and spent two years being a regional coordinator in my area. I now run conventions in my local area for not only PFS, but general RPG's as well.

Somehow, I still have time to review for Roleplayer's Chronicle, which a online news site, that talks about all things RPG. I am their Northwest Correspondent, and I specialize in Pathfinder reviews. Although I do plan on moving into some other fun systems in the near future.

Besides RPG's, I also am an avid reader, lives and loves to travel, meet new people and chat with other awesome like-minded people. I also admit that I am a Facebook addict. I don't play games on it anymore, but for those who are friends of mine, they get at least 4-5 updates per day about me along with all my insane pictures of my life as well.

I reside in Northern California, USA.

JP: What is your favorite game of all time?

VDC So I admit it, I am an eternal Legend of Zelda fan. It was just "that game" which inspired my love of fantasy RPG's all together. In the tabletop department, my auntie/mentor started me with D&D 2.0 edition in 2007 and that is how I got hooked. When she died in 2011, I came into Pathfinder and Shadowrun. I haven't looked back since.

JP: Your favorite adventure/campaign setting?

VDC My big three are Spelljammer, Golarion, and the world of Shadowrun. Spelljammer because it was my first campaign setting, Golarion, because it is so robust, and is still growing canon wise as I like settings to be constantly evolving. I love the world of Shadowrun, because it is post-apocalyptic without being zombies and mass murder. Also, I always loved the art in Shadowrun.

JP: Why did you decide to become a publisher?

VDC Well, I loved to write and be creative. I also like to organize and create things. Finally, I wanted to create games that shared the love of tabletop roleplay games with others. I know there should be some big "aha" moment, but for me it's simple like that.

JP: How did the basic idea for Kronea come to you?

VDC So I wanted to write an original campaign setting for my company to work with when writing adventures. But I did not want to do a big epic world like Midgard and Golarion. So I created an island, that was a big nation state. Once I complete this realm, I will expand the world more, but for now, I wanted to start small and work my way into an Inner Sea or Midgard of my own. Who knows? I may end up connecting with other realms in the future and have their world be attached to mine. That would be sweet.

JP: What would you say are the biggest influences that led you to Kronea?

VDC All of the following things: Hyrule, Golarion, Glorantha, Shadowrun, Spelljammer, Stargate, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Midgard, and the Victorian and Edwardian eras in England. Yeah, needless to say, I have got an interesting collection of hodgepodge going on. :)

JP: What is, in a few words, the story of Kronea?

VDC The Publisher's Official Story: Kronea is known as "The Island of Possibilities". Here you can find a realm where the world is progressing, but not without remembering it's roots. As technology and culture advance, there is a clash with the past, present and future which makes Kronea that much more of a growing and ever-changing land.

The Gamer Friendly version: It's a lot like Absalom in Pathfinder.. Only with Airships, Archgates, Steampunk, and a whole lot more epic scenery. All set, in a post-apocalyptic world.

JP: What are the most unique aspects of Kronea?

VDC We blend a lot of things that many campaign settings can not (or have not yet) developed and/or thought of. We plan on incorporating many elements of cyberpunk, steampunk, and a lot of medieval and Victorian themes with not only regular Pathfinder, but Mythic Rules when it comes out. We also plan on expanding current Pathfinder mechanics to new heights, stretching our compatibility license for as far as it goes!

JP: In what aspect is Kronea like other settings?

VDC Although we are adding all this sweet new material, if a group didn't want to do all that, and they wanted to strip it all down, they can do that as well, and keep a high-fantasy campaign that is on the same level of regular Pathfinder groups to date. I have seen a lot of homebrew groups, take the system, and spin it by adding their loves of video games such as Fallout and Bioshock. We want to get material that fits their themes, along with the traditional sword & board gamers.

JP: Who worked on the project?

VDC Well there is you (JP) and I chose you because of our awesome conversations and emails so that when the time came to pick new writers, you were one of the people on my list. Nicholas Milasich joined on the project via a recommendation from fellow freelancer Brian Darnell who is also a part of my "Evil Wizards Team". Nicholas has written for Kolbold Press in the past, so I was already aware of some of his work, so I was pretty stoked to score you both for this project.While this project only had the three of us, future projects will have more contributing writers, artists, and other awesome people. But for now, as I am getting my bearings in this whole "publisher life", it is best to take my time, work small and grow into something big.

JP: Any interesting stories that happened during the creation/writing of Kronea?

VDC I still get a kick out of explaining Kronea to people. Pathfinder, has yet to get in deep with a lot of new age RPG gaming such as Post-Apocalyptic, Steampunk and Cyberpunk. So Kronea is a new element to Pathfinder. I have no desire to add other races like Neo-Exodus and Midgard has, but I want to take the races, classes and put some new spins to them, that bring forth the new age of gamers, but still bridges the old school hack and slash dragons groups as well. (which I do love!)

The best "in creation process" moment to date is having a potential writer say to me: "Can we make Clockwork Airship Dragons?"*personal squees* Yeah, that makes writing Kronea that much more fun. :)

(To answer the question: If we can mechanically make it sound, yes we will make a Clockwork Airship Dragon)

The conclusion of my interview tomorrow!

JP