• November Links

    I. Dear Reader, Nothing in this section today. It’s one of those weeks where I’ve thrown out more words than I’ve written. So enjoy the links and have a good week ahead. Yours, crumpling up paper into balls and throwing them at baskets, Thomas II. Media of the Week Heart of the Deernicorn recorded a…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Dreaming about next year

    I. Dear Reader, I’ve been thinking about next year – like many people, I’m just waiting for the pages of the calendar to turn, even though there’s no reason to assume that would help with anything. As far as games are concerned, I have three ideas I would like to try. All of them with…

    Thomas Manuel

  • The Tom Bloom Phenomenon and Sub-cultures Generally

    I. Dear Reader, For the first time ever (as far as I can tell anyway), there are 5 games in the top 10 of itch.io that are from the same creator. Tom Bloom is an artist probably best known for his comic, Kill 6 Billion Demons. He’s also one-half of Massif Press and co-creator of…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Hearts of Wulin & Melodrama

    I. Dear Reader, Apart from Urban Shadows 2e, I’m also playing Hearts of Wulin with some lovely folks. For those who don’t know, Hearts of Wulin is a game of wuxia melodrama. There are a lot of wuxia games out there that are focused on the gravity-defying wirework and the martial techniques (with their ornate…

    Thomas Manuel

  • RPG Reporting

    I. Dear Reader Over on Rascal, I wrote this big piece (around 3000 words) about the new wave of award-winning RPGs from Italy – games like Household, Fabula Ultima, and the Cowboy Bebop RPG. I pitched this article in my very first meeting on the 30th of September and have basically been reporting it since…

    Thomas Manuel

  • New Itch Games From August and September

    I. Dear Reader Welcome to another itch.io round up. If this is the first post like this that you’re seeing: every two months I highlight around ten new games. Most of these games are small in scope and I usually have not played or even read them. I’m often just picking them based on whats…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Part-Time Rascal

    I. Dear Reader, This week, I officially joined the Rascal News team. I’ll be working with them part-time and writing about games for the site once a week or so. This newsletter has always been a personal space. It’s never been journalism (in the professional sense). At Rascal, I’ll be doing – well, I’m not…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Counting Debts in Urban Shadows

    I. Dear Reader, I’ve been playing Urban Shadows 2e recently. It’s an urban fantasy game from Magpie and the first edition is pretty well-loved. It’s probably not as universally admired as their superhero game Masks but it’s up there. It was one of those games that demonstrated that Magpie had a winning formula with PbtA…

    Thomas Manuel

  • What do you see when you look at a game?

    I. Dear Reader, What do you see when you look at a game? When we talk about visual art like a painting, we look it and we see line, colour, composition, pattern and so on. And we could talk about that stuff when we talk about games but then we’d be talking about a book’s…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Mini-letter

    I. Dear Reader, It’s been one of those weeks! So, a very short newsletter. I hope wherever you are, I hope you’re next week is better than mine. Yours briefly, Thomas II. Media of the Week III. Links of the Week From the archive: IV. Small Ads All links in the newsletter are completely based…

    Thomas Manuel