Going over the top with Trench Crusade’s Mike Franchina and Tuomas Pirinen

Trench Crusade is absolutely blowing up on Kickstarter right now. A demon-strewn take on the abhorrent conditions of World War One trench warfare, it’s the creation of renowned concept artist Mike Franchina (Diablo 2r/3/4, Path of Exile 2, Magic: The Gathering) with rules from Tuomas Pirinen, the former Games Workshop designer responsible for creating the much-loved Mordheim and layout by James Sherriff of 28 mag. At the time of writing Trench Crusade is five days away from the end of its crowdfunding campaign and just a hair’s breadth from hitting $2m raised, far in excess of its initial $66,666 goal.

Rascal sat down with Mike and Tuomas to chat about the origins of Trench Crusade, the success of the Kickstarter campaign and their vision for promoting indie designers in a market dominated by Games Workshop.

This interview has been edited slightly for clarity.