Thomas Manuel - itch.io

Thomas Manuel ttrpg.substack.com/ @chaibypost

Hello! I'm Thomas M (he/him). I'm an award-losing journalist, award-winning playwright, and award-ambivalent game designer based in Chennai in India.

I write and edit the The Indie RPG Newsletter, a weekly dispatch about indie RPGs that curates articles, reviews, podcasts, videos about indie RPGs. You should check it out!

This page has all my tabletop games. If you like solo games, check out The Spider and the City.

Apart from what's here, I've done a handful of freelance gigs as well - writing, layout, and cultural consulting. I'm particularly proud of being a contributor for New Agenda Publishing on Orun: Post Apotheosis, Afro-Inspired, Space Opera RPG and for Rowan Rook and Decard on SIN, a sourcebook for Spire.

Contact me:
📧 notrueindian@outlook.com

Deck of Kith (NPCs for Wanderhome)

$12

a deck of NPC cards for use with Wanderhome RPG

Sangam: Academy of Poets

$3

a system neutral one shot

$5

a ruleslight TTRPG to play characters and factions

For The Other City

storytelling game of two detectives in two cities solving one case

HyperCity [Status: Perma-Beta]

$5

a cyberpunk TTRPG where you play solo together

The Spider and The City

$10

a solo TTRPG about a criminal mastermind in a rebel city

Odds and Ends

A collection of my small, ancillary or unfinished work submitted to Itch jams

Blades in the Spire

a fan conversion of Spire classes to BitD playbooks

Triptych: Art Horror TTRPG

a storygame of a painting and its macabre secret

The Magic of Names

a ttrpg magic system inspired by Ursula LeGuin

Cities of the New Weird, Rise Up!

OSR supplement to generate the peoples, parties and neighbourhoods of your own City of the New Weird.

How to Find Love and Lose the Time War!

A 2-player storytelling game of enemies turning into lovers!

a storytelling game based on indian folklore

a character sheet looking for a game

Co-Op Dice Mechanics

a one-page cut-and-fold mini-zine with 2 co-op dice mechanics

Wishlist

Games that I soon hope to own.

A role-playing game of interstellar profiteering

A solo soulslike TTRPG

GUN-WITCH: Lead, Thread, and the Dead - A Weird West RPG

Master the mysteries of Shot and Shell

Blackberry & Holly

A tabletop roleplaying game of resistance, rebellion, and revolution against Heaven.

Far Horizons CoOp

Make Our Own Heaven

A Biopunk Angel RPG of Community, Found Family, and Resistance.

Houses of the Sun by Night

everything that happens in the dark

Emily Zhu 朱寶敬

24 Hour Crime Scene

A Crime-Solving Tabletop RPG

Thou Art But A Warrior

Muslim Knights sworn to defend Islamic Spain at the beginning of the Crusades.

An unofficial supplement for HEART: The City Beneath

Trouble For Hire

A tabletop game of high octane adventures in a post-western world, by Kevin Allen Jr.

Nathan D. Paoletta

Bloodbeam Badlands

Gunslinging Vampires in the Unsetting Apocalypse

Extracurriculars

A game about being in class and wishing you were on the field.

A Theatrical Heist RPG

Copperhead County

Tennessee noir, Forged in the Dark.

The Sun's Ransom

a gmless ttrpg where you play vampires restoring the sun

Our Queen Crumbles

A collaborative storytelling game about magic, revenge, and inevitable death.

They Took Our War

A Descended From the Queen game about War, and Hate.

Nguyen Conditions

The Playmakers (collection of interviews)

A collection of interviews with some of the key people who organise public play of tabletop roleplaying games

EpistolaryRichard

A game of family and ancestry