Marc Gascoigne Joins The Crusade

Marc Gascoigne is no stranger to the games industry, having spent much of his career at Games Workshop. Now he has been lured out of semi-retirement to take on the role of Head of Special Ops for Trench Crusade.

Back in the 80’s at Games Workshop Marc was the developer and editor of a number of their classic boardgames such as Blood Bowl and Dark Future, as well as co-writing GW’s original Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game and working on the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. He also worked as an editor on the Fighting Fantasy series of books, and wrote five books for Advanced Fighting Fantasy, including the world’s guide Titan in 1986.

After a decade freelancing he returned to Games Workshop in 1997 to help set up and run their fiction imprint, Black Library. He joined HarperCollins in 2008, after GW downsized its staff, and helped create Angry Robot - a new science fiction and fantasy imprint that was eventually brought by Osprey Publishing in 2010. Asmodee was his next port of call, in 2019, when they recruited him to launch a new fiction imprint, Aconyte Books, which published a range of novels based upon a mix of Asmodee’s own IP - such as Arkham Horror, Legend of the Five Rings, and Twilight Imperium and licenses inlcuding Marvel and Assassin’s Creed.

What his new role with Trench Crusade brings is anyone’s guess at the moment, as they’re remaining tight lipped at present. But given Marc’s background I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the world branch out into fiction, roleplaying, and board and card games.

Here’s what Trench Crusade had to say with their announcement:

One of the twisted minds behind Games Workshop’s legendary Black Library novels has been lured onto the Trench crusade mission.

Marc Gascoigne has spent his whole career on the borders between fiction and gaming,most notably establishing and running the Black Library, inlcuidng the Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, and Horus Heresy ranges. He has also contributed to Fighting Fantasy, Blood Bowl, the Judge Dredd RPG, Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, and more. His original SF imprint, Angry Robot, won him a World Fantasy Award. Now, under the newly created title of Head of Special Ops, Marc will be building a range of in-house and licensed products to accompany the core Trench Crusade game - and with his track record, speculation is already running wild about what he might be working on.

Marc said: “By all that’s holy. I was just considering retiring and finishing some personal projects, but the summons to join the crusade proved too strong. I’m very much looking forward to assembling this whole new flank of the Trench Crusade attack. I know that the exciting talents we are gathering for our new projects will well-serve the most astounding game world in decades. Onwards to victory!”