Dungeon Crawler Carl is breaking crowdfunder records

Launched just this week, funded its $250K goal in under a minute, and currently sitting at nearly $5.5M with a month left to go, Dungeon Crawler Carl is already the third biggest TTRPG crowdfunder in history, with a strong chance of climbing to the #1 position.

Based on Matt Dinniman's novel series, which features the titular hero Carl and a cat which belonged to his ex-girlfriend, forced to compete in an intergalactic Running Man-style reality show centered round a deadly dungeon crawl. The World Dungeon is a massive megadungeon created by an alien corporation, and livestreamed across the universe. The players take on the role of crawlers, tasked with surviving the dungeon.

The crowdfunder by Renegade Game Studios includes not just the Dungeon Crawler Carl TTRPG, but also a deck-building card game, and more merchandise than you can shake a stick at--dice, bags, screens, miniatures, trays, playmats, stickers, journals, cards, and more.

The campaign also includes a 'season pass' which gets you digital content throughout the year.

The current leader in the Million Dollar Crowdfunder Club is 2024's Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere RPG, which came in at $14.4M, followed by 2021's Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, which made $9.3M. Dungeon Crawler Carl currently sits in 3rd place with $5.4M and climbing.

The TTRPG is a d20 'skill-based TTRPG' and features 30+ playable races, backgrounds, and a 'massive class roster'. It has five stats--the D&D stats, but with Wisdom removed. Skills are divided into attack, spell, utility, and passive skills. A skill check is--as you'd expect-- a d20 plus modifiers compared to a target number. As part of the megadungeon's conceit, the actual floor number of the dungeon (in the novels that goes from 1-18) is added to the target number, meaning all tasks are more difficult the further you progress. One feature of DCC is that GMs do not make skill checks; only the players do.

Speaking of 'DCC", Renegade is abbreviating this to the 'DCC' RPG, which is bound to create confusion with Goodman Games' existing Dungeon Crawl Classics, which uses the same abbreviation.

Dungeon Crawler Carl is on Backerkit right now, and ends on May 15th.

 

[Von Ether]

I'm not sure the book is to my taste fully, but enjoying getting into the first one now. Lit-RPG is one of the first things to give me real "Get Off My Lawn, You Darn Kids" energy, but I'm happy for the people who like it.

Then it's time for a shout out to a foundational "litRPG" book that doesn't get enough love. Dream Park by the greats, Steven Barnes and Larry Niven. It inspired LARPing and was also the holodeck before the holodeck, it eventually became a trilogy. No aliens but lots of industrial sabotage and muuurder.

Dream Park - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It was also a fun ttrpg written by Hall of Famer Mike Pondsmith. You had a core "player" PC and then changed up your stats depending on the genre of the PC player picked for their in-game PC. It really embraced what would now be called that Player One meta, so a PC player could be decide they wanted to be a wizard walking into a sci-fi adventure.

Dream Park: The Roleplaying Game - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Bill Zebub]

I just want the Dungeon Crawler Carl edition of Munchkin.

 

[Parmandur]

They definitely get better, which is not to say you should slog through if you detest the first one, but I was kinda ambivalent after the first one but got sucked in by the second. However, all that being said, I think the audio book version is better than the print book.

I don't detest it at all, in fact I love the prose. Just not sure I get it.

 

[Parmandur]

I just want the Dungeon Crawler Carl edition of Munchkin.

That is what the card game in the crowdfunder looks like.

 

[Parmandur]

Thinking about the design choices, I think I've realized there's a difference between, "designed to feel like you are in a Dungeon Crawler Carl book", and "designed to be playing the RPG Carl is playing, but tabletop instead of Carl's live action".

Those are actually two different design goals. For the former, I'd have chosen a more narrative approach, I think. But for the latter, obviously not.

I had the surreal experience of browsing the rule examples yesterday, and then starting the book for the first time in the evening and going "oh, hey, this is just the game they are making now"...

 

[Paragon Lost]

Oh, do not let the boxer shorts fool you. Dungeon Crawler Carl is both dark and serious. It is also kind of absurd, but in context, that absurdity is also dark and serious.

This, very much this. The first book kinda shocked me at how dark it was. My wife had been reading them for years and I hadn't gotten around to them until about six months ago. Dark and absurd, 100 percent. Also a lot of fun to read.