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

Update—Renegade has reached out to clarify that they do not intend to use the abbreviation ‘DCC’ and instead recommend that people use “CarlRPG’.

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

 

[Parmandur]

it probably helped that Cosmere was in essence funding two sets of RPGs simultaneously (6 books)

True, the Cosmere "all in" had a lot of books with Lore and Adventure material for two Settings, whereas as this one is the Starter Set and the core book plus the unrelated card game and a ton of swag. Might be more people dipping their toes in just some of the core RPG or card material.

 

[doctorhook]

Just to clarify, did this publisher reach out re: “CarlRPG” instead of “DCC RPG” in this thread and I somehow missed it? I’m basically wondering where I can link to with the official statement about this when the inevitable debates arise.

 

[SteveC]

Please tell me you listened to the audiobook?!

This is one of those things that was recommended to me. "Get the audio book!" So I waited for a month when my daughter hadn't bought any new Audible books and picked up the first one. It is a TON of fun as an audio book, especially all of the in-game explanations or achievements.

 

[Morrus]

Just to clarify, did this publisher reach out re: “CarlRPG” instead of “DCC RPG” in this thread and I somehow missed it? I’m basically wondering where I can link to with the official statement about this when the inevitable debates arise.

You would need to be able to link to my email inbox. Which you can't. My statement in the article is the best you are going to get from me, unless they publicly post that elsewhere also.

 

[doctorhook]

You would need to be able to link to my email inbox. Which you can't. My statement in the article is the best you are going to get from me, unless they publicly post that elsewhere also.

Fair enough! Thanks for the confirmation

 

[humble minion]

Just to clarify, did this publisher reach out re: “CarlRPG” instead of “DCC RPG” in this thread and I somehow missed it? I’m basically wondering where I can link to with the official statement about this when the inevitable debates arise.

I'm no expert, but I believe the online shorthand for the Carl books has been 'DCC' for a long time, so despite the best of intentions I think the publishers etc might be spitting against the tide on this one.

 

[Morrus]

Fair enough! Thanks for the confirmation

However, I do offer you this:

 

[Parmandur]

I'm no expert, but I believe the online shorthand for the Carl books has been 'DCC' for a long time, so despite the best of intentions I think the publishers etc might be spitting against the tide on this one.

Yes, given how big the novels have become in recent years, this is probably inevitable at this point.

 

[Parmandur]

$8,226,372 from 34,869 backers, now, sliding into the third highest number of backers over Gloomhaven, with 18 days to go.

Should pass Avatar within a week or so, but passing Cosmere seems like a more distant possibility now unless it goes out ludicrously strong.

 

[ffanxii4ever]

For anyone that was on the fence because there wasn't a lot of details about the game, there are a couple of new videos that give some more details:

Ginny D going through an overview and making a character

Jon Godek and Ron Lundeen (two of the developers) going over a handful of things and answering some questions

Nothing that feels like they are reinventing the wheel or revolutionizing anything, and so far everything shown in pretty much content from the Starter Set and thus is low level, but they are definitely starting to show more of the game, which I appreciate it.

It seems like a pretty good base, and I am definitely interested to see more of the rules/guidelines for building more custom stuff, which is going to be absolutely essential to deal with the tremendous amount of different options and random things that you see in the book.