gistfile1.txt

// need to define these inits so you can instantiate a dummy object in code (and coder init is required as well)
class ArrayTableViewController<T>: UITableViewController {
       init() { super.init(style: .Plain) }
       required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) { super.init(coder:aDecoder) }

class OffersTableViewController: ArrayTableViewController<Offer> {
       required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) { super.init(coder:aDecoder) }
       override init() { super.init() }

// then instantiate a dummy object
func application(application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [NSObject : AnyObject]?) -> Bool {
     let _ = OffersTableViewController()  // after this call this viewcontroller would load fine from a storyboard!

nice one! how did you manage to find this?

In my case I didn't have to instantiate the dummy object at all, but I'm not happy with having to create a new XIB for every class, the only thing that remains Generic is the TableViewController.