Sinister Design's Craig Stern recently launched a new Kickstarter funding campaign for the upcoming Telepath Tactics, this time seeking $15,000 to fund the completion of the game. The tactical RPG is set in a psionic powered steampunk universe full of unique races and constructs. It focuses combat on "terrain manipulation as much as it does position, facing, and powers."

Telepath Tactics is a turn-based tactical RPG in the tradition of Fire Emblem and Disgaea. Featuring mod support, a robust map editor, and a dialog editor, you can create your own campaigns and download others' off the internet!

On top of single player, Telepath Tactics also features 2-to-6 player local multiplayer matches (i.e. you and your friends playing together in the same room, Super Smash Brothers style).

Telepath Tactics is being developed for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Gameplay

Telepath Tactics borrows the best parts of our favorite tactics games to create a dream team of available strategies in battle.

Throw enemies off of cliffs; push enemies into water or lava; fling friends across gaps; set your enemies on fire; freeze them; blind them; cripple them; stun them; use hit-and-run tactics with cavalry and bowmen; teleport; grab item drops; stick your ranged units on the high ground to boost their effectiveness; the list goes on and on.

Telepath Tactics also brings fresh, brand new new environmental manipulation mechanics to the table. Freeze water and build bridges to create new routes across water or lava; build barricades to brunt an incoming attack; destroy walls, doors and bridges to open up or close off routes of attack; push boulders, barrels and tables in the way to block off certain routes; shoot through open windows; place down explosive charges to create a trap for an unwary opponent. Telepath Tactics supports all of this and more.

Attack damage is 100% predictable, and attacks always hit unless there is some intervening factor (such as the attacker having been blinded, or the target having some special defensive status effect). In this regard, it is very much a game of skill akin to chess. Chance will seldom determine the outcome of a battle; victory depends on you and your wits.

And you'll need all the wits you can get: the enemy AI in Telepath Tactics is aggressive and reactive. The enemy will not just sit around the battlefield waiting for your characters to wander into aggro range or trigger a script—the AI will actively maneuver and seek out ways to get at your most vulnerable characters. It will backstab you, compete with you to grab useful items, break down your barricades, and shove you right into the lava every chance it gets.

Telepath Tactics features 22 unique character classes, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, and battlefield roles. The single player campaign uses unique, named characters based off of these classes, each with its own custom stats and leveling schemes.

On top of all this, Telepath Tactics features extensive mod support that allows you to create custom battles, custom tilesets, custom destructible objects, custom items, custom attacks, custom character classes, and even whole single player campaigns filled with unique characters, enemies, dialog and cut scenes. Everything is stored in easy-to-read files that can be opened by any text editor, so modding is a cinch.

The game also comes with a full-featured map editor to make creating new battles fast and simple. There's even a built-in dialog editor to let you add dialog trees and create cut scenes! Make your own scenarios, or download someone else's: Telepath Tactics supports all of the above.