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Pathfinder Tales: Blood Crimes ePub

Paizo Inc.

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By J. C. Hay

In the dead city of Mechitar, where vampires and zombies rub shoulders with still-living citizens, life—or the lack thereof—is a delicate balance. For plucky thief Omaire, it's a perfect setting for a girl with quick hands and even quicker feet who's looking to grab a little cash. But when her bumbling ghoul associate brings her into contact with a human Pathfinder disguised as a zombie, things quickly become a whirlwind of crime lords, covert scholars, and human chattel raised to the slaughter. Can the quick-witted rogue stay one step ahead of the competition, or is she destined to join the ranks of the shambling dead?

From author J. C. Hay comes an urban adventure in a city of the dead, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder campaign setting.

This story originally appeared as part of Paizo's free weekly webfiction series, and is available for free at http://paizo.com/pathfinder/tales/serial.

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Average product rating:

(based on 1 rating)

Clever Story with Great Supporting Cast and Interesting Setting

Jhaeman — Feb 8, 2017, 09:20 pm

NO SPOILERS

J.C. Hay's Blood Crimes is a really fun story in a really dark setting. Available as free web fiction (here), it's set in Mechitar, capital of the undead-ruled nation of Geb. The main character in the story, however, is a human rogue named Omaire. Blood Crimes has some of the most memorable supporting cast I've seen in Pathfinder web fiction so far, and they lend the story an air that is simultaneously clever and ghastly. The macguffin that keeps the plot moving in this one was easily to forget about, but I definitely enjoyed this one and would love to see Omaire and her "friends" in future stories. If I had any complaints, it would be about the artwork accompanying the story--inferior to what we've seen elsewhere. But since it's free web fiction, I can't complain too much.

SPOILERS

I can safely say I've never read a story with a ghoul as a main character, nor one with professional zombie-impersonator. The latter is such a clever idea for a place like Geb where anyone who's alive has to work hard to stay that way, and I think it's something I'll have to steal for one of my games. As for the former, I'm not sure if the personality of Arduga, Omaire's ghoul companion, fits with what we generally think about ghouls; but they are intelligent creatures, so I suppose diversity is plausible.

Product Discussion (4)

Search Thread

Chris Ballard

Jul 30, 2011, 05:44 pm

Any chance of this one and the other epub tales becoming available as a pdf?

Paul Ryan

Jul 30, 2011, 06:24 pm

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber

The answer in the past has been no.

I find it's simple to make a PDF version using Open Office and a bit of cutting and pasting from the blog, since Paizo has declined to provide the format I'd prefer. And yes, that means that I would purchase a PDF format version from Paizo if such was made available, rather than make my own. OTOH I'm definitely not going to purchase them in a format I don't like or use, such as ePub.

Vic Wertz Chief Technical Officer

Aug 1, 2011, 04:09 pm

We don't make web fiction available in PDF form because we've chosen to put our effort into optimizing products for formats that present our works in the best light possible. For works that are primarily running text with few or no illustrations, ePub delivers a better experience to the reader than PDF does. Among other things, ePub readers give you the ability to select font style and size, and often colors and backgrounds, to make reading easier.

We only offer PDFs of the Pathfinder Tales novels because that happens to be a by-product of preparing them for print; the web fiction is never laid out that way, and it would require additional designer and editorial time to make them look as good as our other products in PDF form—and it's just not worth it for a low-cost product that actually functions better *without* that effort. (Try reading your next Tales novel in ePub format, and I think you'll like it much better than reading the PDF.)

ePub readers are available for a whole pile of modern platforms, and most of them are free. See Wikipedia for a (probably incomplete) list.

Paul Ryan

Aug 1, 2011, 06:19 pm

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber

When it comes to reading an ebook on my computer, I've tried other formats, and find I prefer the PDFs. It's a matter of personal taste I guess.

I haven't tried out ePubs on my new tablet yet, so it's possible I'll find them a superior format there. If so, I'll probably buy the web fiction in that format eventually.

As for the cost/benefit aspects of whether it's worth your while to make PDF versions, Paizo is the company which is doing what seems to be a roaring trade and competing well against even WotC. I'm not going to doubt your analysis and business sense, even if I do wish it was worthwhile for you to do PDF versions.