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.

 

[sevenbastard]

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.

The use of red and yellow in the font for the new DCC also doesnt help as the OG DCC also used those

 

[Parmandur]

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.

It will be fascinating to watch this play out. DC had more backers on day 1 and 2 than Cosmere, but smaller dollar totals, but the number of examples of TTRPG Kickstarters of this magnitude is just two, so how it legs out will be fun. The Backertracker spread currently is $7.5-$22.38 million with a trend of $14.9, so it may well get ahead of Cosmere.

It has five stats--the D&D stats, but with Wisdom removed.

This is straight out of the books: Wisdom is a secret stat the AI doesn't let the players manipulate for game purposes.

 

[el-remmen]

I am very curious about these games (probably the card game more, since I find it hard to imagine running the RPG as it plays in the novels), but until there is more specific info about how they both work, I am not willing to lay out the bucks. Hopefully, I will get a chance to pick up both or either after the fact, if it turns out to be mechanically appealing and something I might actually get to play.

 

[Morrus]

I am very curious about these games (probably the card game more, since I find it hard to imagine running the RPG as it plays in the novels), but until there is more specific info about how they both work, I am not willing to lay out the bucks. Hopefully, I will get a chance to pick up both or either after the fact, if it turns out to be mechanically appealing and something I might actually get to play.

There’s a video all about the mechanics on the page.

 

[the Jester]

Congrats and good luck to them.

I read the first DCC novel and found it to be disappointing after all the buzz I had heard about it. I finished it but didn't feel compelled to get the next one. But it was okay. And I thought that it would probably make a better game than a story (at least for my tastes).

As a game, I think this could be very fun. I hope it maintains the fairly old school, gonzo, high lethality sensibilities of the book.

 

[GMMichael]

It will be fascinating to watch this play out. DC had more backers on day 1 and 2 than Cosmere, but smaller dollar totals, but the number of examples of TTRPG Kickstarters of this magnitude is just two, so how it legs out will be fun. The Backertracker spread currently is $7.5-$22.38 million with a trend of $14.9, so it may well get ahead of Cosmere.

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This is straight out of the books: Wisdom is a secret stat the AI doesn't let the players manipulate for game purposes.

The predicted margin of error is almost the suggested end result. Thanks, Backertracker.

I am glad there's finally an RPG that includes heart-printed boxers in the inventory.

 

[CommodoreKong]

I’m a big fan of the books but I’m unsure if I’ll ever play this so I haven’t decided to back it yet.
Great to see the series is becoming so popular - hopefully the TV show also does well.

 

[EthanSental]

Tv show coming as well, didn’t know that was in the works (not tied to this crowdfunded obviously).

The dungeon crawling aspect feels like old school D&D with high importance placed on continually going into a dungeon for treasure, equipment and deeper (or higher pending hoe thr levels go from the entrance) is more dangerous type design.

 

[Superchunk77]

Congrats and good luck to them.

I read the first DCC novel and found it to be disappointing after all the buzz I had heard about it. I finished it but didn't feel compelled to get the next one. But it was okay. And I thought that it would probably make a better game than a story (at least for my tastes).

As a game, I think this could be very fun. I hope it maintains the fairly old school, gonzo, high lethality sensibilities of the book.

I've heard mixed reviews of the novels as well. You either love the style of humor in them, or you don't. I'm hesitant to start it as my tastes tend to lie in darker more serious stories.