Hey, you remember when I wrote that article about making what you love and pouring enough of yourself into it that people who like it like you? And it was made in response to all the bitching and moaning that was coming out of the Warhammer community about the culture wars and that people were making a new game to better capitalize both on the breakup of the fandom and to make something they enjoyed?
Yeah, I don’t like Trench Crusade.
I don’t have to like it, mind. There’s no gun to my head to play it. But I spent some serious time digging into it recently and I’ve just kind of settled on the fact that it isn’t my cup of tea. I want to explain why, though, because I’m not just jerking a knee as a response to drama.
First, I don’t like the real world setting. Part of it is the subtle sense of Christbashing I feel from reading some of the fluff, but it actually goes deeper than that. I think the bigger issue is that it doesn’t use the real world effectively.
There’s a spectrum to this stuff, obviously. The 7th Sea RPG (particularly the early edition but the new one is as well) is inspired by the real world, but makes a point to file the names off. Germany is Eisen, Poland is the Sarmatian Commonwealth, the Ottomans are the Crescent Empire, England is Avalon, and boy is there some goofy stuff going on in Inismore, fantasy Ireland. It’s different from the real world, but it isn’t shy about wearing its inspirations on its sleeves. Legend of the Five Rings does the same, but for its Asian setting. The real world in games like LotFP and Call of Cthulhu plays a more active role, but it also has a purpose: it makes the horror work. The fact that you’re being attacked by monsters in a world so very much like your own normal world is what adds tension to the story.
But Trench Crusade doesn’t dive into the world outside of the war enough to play up the horror angle. Everything sucks, and while it’s clear what people are fighting against, it’s not clear what the people who are fighting the Devil are fighting for. It’s funny, because the game tries to be an alternative to Warhammer 40K and runs into the most critical Warhammer problem: there can’t only be war. There’s never only anything. There’s got to be stories and food and jokes and logistics and family and honor and all the other things that humans do besides stab themselves with spears. War recontextualizes, but it doesn’t completely erase. Warhammer is at its best during the Horus Heresy, because, yeah, you got the super-human super-soldiers fighting the giant space demons, but at the same time it’s sad because they wanted to be farmers. Trench Crusade doesn’t have a world beyond the trench. There’s all this implied technological innovation and shocking reversals in fortune, but the lives of average civilian seem too distant. If I can’t imagine a Ciaphas Cain in Trench Crusade, it’s going to be inferor to Warhammer 40k.
Moving forward, Trench Crusade kind of has a Kingdom Death problem going on with its models and art. Kingdom Death was a game created by Adam Poots while “bored while waiting to be summoned during a stint of jury duty… he read a rulebook for a role playing game and started to imagine ways it could be improved.” He improved the game by adding scantily clad cavewomen and monsters with thirty breasts and wrote a ruleset to justify all these bazongas he was commissioning. It had its own unique style that’s instantly recognizable, but after the initial shock (“check out this troll woman with extended stomach and saggy tits”), all the models start looking the same. How many Oedipus Complex monsters do you really need? It’s like the Dark Souls meme about how good the bosses are.
Trench Crusade has some sick art, but it gets samey fast, almost to the point where I feel some of the art has to be generated by AI. The same poses, the same “hands nailed to shield,” the same blood and dirt, the same armor and guns mashup from a dozen other art projects… I mean, I’m sure they’re going for a “there are no good guys” angle that Warhammer took, but at least the factions in Warhammer looked distinct. Even the Space Marines, with the same damn pauldrons and stocky build, came in Viking flavor and Ancient Egyptian flavor and “covered in human skin” flavor.
And honestly, the AI art thing is something I’m noticing more and more. I made the comment about D&D 6E’s art looking like it came from an AI art generator, but I feel like there is something deeper going on. I read a news story recently about how Go players were developing new strategies at a faster rate because advances in AI made playing against a computer harder and harder and Go players had to innovate to stay ahead. I think in the same way corporate artists are being influenced by AI art to be more in line with what the AI is making. There was drama recently about WotC using AI art in one of their books they put out, and I think artists are responding to the threat of AI art by creating art in the same style that business owners want to see. I’m sure the artist who made the Trench Crusade art is a hard working, diligent, and creative artist, but there’s a sense where even if there’s a human hand drawing on a real canvas, AI is still seeping into the work.
In some ways I guess I’m having the same reaction to Trench Crusade as I had towards Diablo 2 the first time I played it. Diablo 2 was gory. Dudes on spikes, fighting demons in the basement of an Arabic mosque, fighting the Devil… all of it was a bit much when I played it as a kid. I was a little freaked out by Necromancer, not gonna lie. Now, as an adult who has to pay taxes, I’m a little numb to the ultra-violence. I also main Necromancer when I jump back into Diablo, funnily enough. But when I look at Trench Crusade, I just kind of shutter and shrug and ask “why?” Warhammer gets a pass because I’m nostalgic, but Trench Crusade is too new and I’m not interested in getting invested in it.
But hey, I linked the game in the article, go check it out if interest. As for me, I’ll probably just keep thinking about running Dark Heresy and if any of my players say what I add to the setting isn’t canon, I’ll strip them naked and hunt them in the woods like an animal. You know, usual DM stuff.