Telepath RPG: Servants of God: PC: Desura: The A.typical RPG: PC: Desura: The Body Changer: PC: Desura: Feb 14: The Fall Of Gods: PC: Desura: May 14: The Few: PC: Desura: The Golden Jubilee Bundle (Ballads of Reemus: When The Bed Bites Star Hammer Tactics Akaneiro: Demon Hunters Bird Assassin Amazing Zombie Defense Zombie Football Carnage) PC: Desura: The Grave Digger: PC: Desura: Apr 14. A quick jaunt through the intro to Telepath RPG: Servants of God, and we're off in the city of Ravinale! Unbeknownst to me, FRAPS decided that it wasn't recording the mouse cursor during this.

• Faithful Servants Of God

I've been following the development of Telepath: Servants of God for a few years now but actually not checked out the demo seriously before. Sinister Design's ambitious upcoming game combines a strong emphasis on story and dialogue with top-down turn-based combat. The battles take place on differentiated grid-based maps similar to what you'd find in an isometric SRPG like Tactics Ogre (and the Japanese RPG tradition is referenced explicitly by the developer), but still on a small enough scale that more Western-oriented fans of PC classics like Pool of Radiance or Betrayal at Krondor should feel right at home. I played on Normal difficulty in the demo and even early on the combat design and enemy AI was challenging enough that I was rewarded for thinking ahead a few turns and paying attention to tactical aspects like flanking and unit direction (most party members can be revived between battles, but the playable character's death results in instant Game Over). A noteworthy feature of the battle system is that various individual unit abilities work at very specific ranges - such as one, two or three grid squares away from the character in any of the cardinal directions - which obviously makes unit positioning even more important. Apart from some neat portraits the game's graphics are best described as functional, but the music is nicely atmospheric and adds a lot to the experience.

Narratively speaking the writing seems very good so far, and it's clear that a lot of work went into characterization (as evidenced by the voice actor interviews on the developer's YouTube channel) as well as the game's intriguing and original Middle Eastern/Steampunk setting. The plot revolves around a classic 'religious fanatics vs the good guys' conflict, which the main character is immediately drawn into at the start of the game. In general I'm tired of seeing such a complex and multi-faceted social phenomena as religion being reduced to irrational totalitarianism in the vast majority of pop cultural works, but Sinister Design's Craig Stern appears to have crafted a distinct and believable socio-political context in which this age-old drama takes place and I very much look forward to seeing where the story goes in the full game.

Telepath RPG: Servants of God will hopefully be released by the end of this year (2011), and is available for pre-order here (where the very generous demo version is also available for download, as well as earlier freeware titles which can be viewed as less ambitious predecessors to Servants of God).

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The Telepath RPG series is made of three chapters currently. Except the first chapter, they are all very highly-polished tactical RPGs with not only smooth and interesting gameplay, but a well-written plot as well. Characters are very lively and have great personalities, including the main character, whom you can name and customize at the beginning of the game. While the protagonist never speaks for themself, every conversation has many dialogue options, allowing you to choose what you want the main character to be like.

The first and second chapters revolve around an event later known as the Shadow War. Telepathic beings known as 'shadowlings' are at war with humans, and are seeking to expand their empire. Your character is enslaved while trying to rescue their brother. From there, they must figure out a way to escape and, possibly, take down the empire from within.

The third chapter, Servants of God, is not a direct sequel to the second chapter. It is set a few decades after the conclusion of the Shadow War, but a new and dangerous faction has arisen. Digitour multimeter q1467 manual lawn. A religious cult deems all psychics anathema to their religion, and stages a coup in the desert city of Ravinale to enforce this ruling. The main character is the son of two Senators, and joins the People's Resistance of Ravinale, a group dedicated to overthrowing the Cult and re-establishing their democratic government.

The fourth game in the series, Telepath Tactics, is a departure from its predecessors, featuring a brand-new engine that shucks the Western RPG approach in favor of a more linear Tactical RPG akin to Fire Emblem.

The series can be found at its home site, Sinister Design. Some may find the first chapter to be rather low-quality, but don't be off-put by it; the series gets better and the first chapter isn't really necessary to understand the second chapter's plot.

Tropes used in chapters 1 and 2 of the Telepath RPG series:

• Ambiguous Gender: The protagonist, until a Retcon refers to him as a male in Servants Of God.

• Animated Armor: Phantom Armors appear as Elite Mooks as you close in on the Final Battle. They are slow but tough with a devastating melee attack.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: It can be increased by upgrading Personality, but it still caps at eight no matter what.
• The Atoner: Festus changed careers to healing to make up for the suffering he caused doing unsavory things for the Shadowling army.
• Back from the Dead: The shadowling queen has this power; if someone on your team dies, all you need to do to revive them is pay her some money.
• Badass Cape: At the Psy Academy, a student's cape more or less has the same role as a belt does in martial arts. In the first game your character has just earned their black cape. By the time you reunite in the second game both Guy and Anya have theirs. You can also snark at another classmate for still being a blue cape after the four year Time Skip.
• Badass Normal: Helena and Gamblin' Jack both start out with only a melee attack, but have capable stats for when you can recruit them.
• Big Brother Is Watching: It's implied that the shadowling queen is capable of this, though whether the shadowling society actually counts as one is unknown.
• Can't Drop the Hero: Not only can you not leave him out of your battling party, but you also can't move him from the fourth character slot.
• Casting a Shadow: The shadowlings, in particular Shadowboxer and Darkling.
• Character Level: Almost entirely averted; you pay for training to upgrade stats directly. The main character does gain levels every three training sessions, however.

• Cutting Off the Branches / No Canon for the Wicked: Judging from the Servants of God demo, the 'bad ending' where you ally yourself with the shadowlings is non-canonical, since there couldn't be a Shadowling Republic otherwise.
  • Likewise, the first chapter has 4 multiple endings, but only the 2 endings where the hero becomes a slave do not contradict the sequel.
  • Also, all the party members from TRPG2 (except for Niven and Gamblin' Jack) make appearances in Servants of God, which means that everyone survived the final battle.

• Dark Is Not Evil: The shadowlings are not inherently evil; it's just because of their queen that they've been driven to such racism and violence against humans. Their queen even uses light powers!
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: All it does is make you cough up some cash to make the queen revive them. It can be pretty bad during battles themselves however, since people cannot be resurrected in-battle, and it reduces the amount of gold you gain after a battle. Unless the main character dies, that is; in that case, you lose the battle instantly.
• Defector from Decadence: Niven, Festus, Shadowboxer, and Darkling will continue to follow you if you opt to fight the shadowling queen.
• Degraded Boss: The Mechanic Captain first appears as the boss of an early mission. At a certain point Captains take the place of basic Swordsmen in Random Encounters.

• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: If you ally yourself with the Academy, you end up fighting Nelis, the shadowling queen, who is rumoured to be a goddess. Subverted, however, as you are told she is not actually divine (she is still extraordinarily powerful, however).
• Early Installment Weirdness: The first game is completely different than 2 and Servants of God in gameplay, and uses some odd mechanics that the designer decided to scrap.
• Elemental Powers: Light, Shadow, Heat, and Cold.

• Empowered Badass Normal: Gamblin' Jack can train his Psy Defense to let him unlock some psychic support powers. Helena can learn a psychic Status Buff that boosts her own melee damage.
• Face–Heel Turn: The main character themselves, if you choose to ally with Tastidan.

• Fragile Speedster: Darkling doesn't have the best damage potential or durability, but has the highest Speed of any character, and with Shadowport he has near-unlimited mobility.
• Friendly Fireproof: Played straight for your team, but averted for enemies.
• Glass Cannon: The main character generally ends up as this, having punishing damage spells (which you can train individually along with your Psy Power stat) but less-than-great durability and mediocre Speed. Guy has most of the same traits.
• Golem: The Mechanics employ these. Stone and Bronze Golems have a powerful melee attack, with the latter hitting targets in an arc. Energy Golems are immobile but can attack in a straight line with unlimited range.
• Heal Thyself: Gamblin' Jack's final learned skill is Recover, allowing him to hold his own without the need for a healer.

• Herd-Hitting Attack: Shadowboxer, Helena and Guy learn area attacks when their Psy Power is trained. Grotius has the same elemental blast that Spriggat enemies do, and with training can learn a better one. Training the main character's Feedback turns it into an area version, and activating the Crimson Orb does the same with their Pyro Blast.
• She Who Must Not Be Seen: The shadowling queen. Until the climax, that is.

• An Ice Person: Grotius. Justified, since he's a frost spriggat.
• Jerkass: The main character can be this if you pick certain dialogue options.
• Knife-Throwing Act: This is Niven's shtick. The problem is he's very good at hitting the target with his knives, not missing them, forcing him to reimburse you for the damage he deals to you when you volunteer. You can get him to join your party and put those 100%-accurate blades to better use.

• Lightning Bruiser: Shadowboxer and Grotius combine high damage, great mobility and solid defenses.
• Magikarp Power: The main character is generally like this, especially if you opt for high Personality and Aptitude during character creation. They're frail and weak to begin with, with no health or psy point bonuses, but if you take the time to level them up (and get the eight orbs), they can easily become the deadliest and most versatile of your teammates. They still tend to be a bit of a Glass Cannon, however.
• The Medic: Anya and Festus are healing specialists, both gaining more support options though training rather than damage ones.
• Mighty Glacier: Flint and Dorgon have high damage starting out but a miserable Speed stat. Flint can boost his in battle if you buy the Steam Engine.
• Multiple Endings: Four in the first (canonically, the hero is enslaved by the Shadowlings and David is released), two in the second. Servants of God assumes the Good Ending of the second game.
• Mutually Exclusive Powerups: Depending on which stat of his you choose to train first, Darkling will either learn Shadow Blast or Feedback with the other becoming unobtainable.

• Noble Demon: Niven is also very polite to the main character, and does not appear to harbour any racism towards humans.

• Non-Action Guy: Festus. Though he does participate in combat, he will usually spend much more time healing people than fighting. Anya more so, who lacks Festus's useful mobility but packs a ranged heal enabling her to stay out of the thick of battle.
• No Name Given:
  • The protagonist. The author and fanbase always refers to them as 'Main' or 'Hero'.
  • Nelis, the shadowling queen, does have a name, but no one ever says it. Justified due to the fact that she can hear her name being spoken anywhere in the world.
• Optional Party Member: Niven, Dorgon, Flint, Helena, Grotius and Gamblin' Jack. In addition, Helena, Flint and Grotius are permanently missable.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • If you don't recruit him at the end of mission 5, Grotius leaves and can never be recruited again.
  • Helena and Flint will be lost forever if you refuse to pay them when you first land in the bug pit. They'll just stand there and refuse to talk to you.
• Playing with Fire: Guy and, to a lesser extent, the main character. Flint can have a Flame Thrower installed. For enemies you have the Red Spriggat.
• Psychic Powers: Explored greatly and overlaps with Gameplay and Story Integration. During dialogue, you can often scan people to find out what they're thinking, scan thought imprints to read books you can't understand, etc.
• Random Encounters: Averted except in Lake Alto, which is one of the reasons it's a Scrappy Level.
• The Red Mage: The protagonist, although they lean more towards offense than defense.

• Silent Protagonist: Averted. While the main character never says anything automatically, they can be very talkative depending on which options you choose for them.

• Stockholm Syndrome: The is a possible in-universe reason for why the main character might side with the shadowlings.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment:
  • If you kill Grotius' father, not only do you have to kill him too, but your Personality goes straight to hell.
  • Stay with the Shadowlings in the end, and you lose two party members who side with the Academy.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: If the main character gets killed, you lose, no matter how many other characters are still alive. This can cause Fridge Logic to kick in once you realize that your other teammates could just drag his corpse back to Somnus and have the queen revive him, as you do if anyone else gets killed.
• What the Hell, Hero?: If you take the 'evil' dialogue options, people will occasionally call you out on it, the most notable example being Festus.

Faithful Servants Of God