Renegade Announces Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG

Renegade has announced plans to develop an RPG based off the popular book series Dungeon Crawler Carl. Renegade announced plans to release a wide-ranging line of tabletop games based on the popular book series, which features a former Coast Guard veteran and his ex-girlfriend's cat forced to compete in a dungeon crawl competition created by hostile aliens. The first of these projects is a "full scale" roleplaying game that will allow players to immerse themselves in the world of the games. No designers were named for the project and it's unclear whether the game will use a bespoke system or one of the systems previously designed by Renegade for other publishers.

Renegade has built up an RPG line built primarily on licensed IPs. The publisher works with White Wolf on various World of Darkness books and also develops RPGs based on Power Rangers, GI Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony, and Welcome to Night Vale.

 

[darjr]

Renegade's Essence20 (E20) system is their current rules backbone allowing crossplay between the GIJoe, Transformers, and Power Rangers settings. E20 is d20/5E derived with escalating dice tossed alongside the d20 instead of using modifiers. It would not suprise me to see this license use E20 rules as well. I believe WotC alum Elisa Teague (Tasha's Caudron of Everything, BaHotH: Widows Walk) is still design lead over at Renegade.

I’d be surprised if it wasn’t E20. Still ya never know.

I’m kinda hoping it isn’t? Is compatibility and important thing for this game?

Hmmm, monster compatibility would be a big boon.

 

[richK]

I think this would work better as an MMORPG PC game. Designers could just keep creating items and monsters.

 

[doctorhook]

This is a great question that gets me thinking about what the book might contain. This is one of those cases where it could be adapted to D&D or Pathfinder or something similarly crunchy, but I can easily see why it would get its own system, especially since there's already the bones of an established system present in the book material.

• As mentioned, attributes deviate. Scores range from 1 to 120, with human average being 3-4. Because...
• The system itself is an artificial one in the context of the universe, with an express intention of making crawlers super-human very quickly. This is because...
• The context is that this is an intergalactic game show. One of the most important "stats" is view counts. Popularity means the show-runners want to keep you alive, benefactors give you extremely powerful equipment not found in the dungeon, and, if you're "lucky," the system AI that keeps things running could develop enough of an interest to not kill you for funsies. Any Dungeon Crawler system worth its salt should heavily incorporate this as a mechanic.
• A frankly insane bestiary with a a slimmer overlap with standard RPG tropes than you'd think
• A spell list with loads of unique spells, in a system where almost all crawlers can cast spells to some extent, regardless of class
• Speaking of it being an artificial system - it borrows MMO-like elements as well. In addition to a spell point system, cooldown mechanics run rampant. There's a cooldown on consuming potions, for instance.

Some folks have spoken about breaking the rules/system/game. That is a massive theme of the books, but I wouldn't weigh that too heavily as an imperative. Players won't be playing Carl, they'll be crawlers in the system. They can choose to try to break the game, or just try to survive. Honestly, if this game does it right, PCs will be getting so many wild magic items with weird potential interactions that they'll be finding ways to break things not because they have to, but because it's fun. The DM, as always, will have their work cut out for them.

If the game does things wrong, it'll just use a system similar to one they've already done for a different IP, and make it Carl-themed.

This is interesting. It sounds the there’s a decent amount of thematic overlap with XCC (the “dungeon crawling as televised sports” spin-off of DCC by Goodman Games).

 

[Baked AK]

This is an area where I'd love to hear people who've read this series talk about: what's special about this that it shouldn't just be a sourcebook for another game?

I've read all of the books and the one thing that stood out to me is that the power creep in DCC is insane.

While XP is the root of leveling, it's not explained, spells go to lvl 15, individually (the spells themselves level, less so the spell caster) and similarly, each level seems like a ridiculous improvement over the previous with every 5 levels being a significant addition (usually additional features).

Achievements that grant boons or loot exist for the most inane things come randomly for absolutely anything, not set awards for leveling up, in addition to looting the environment and bodies.

Inventory in the books is unlimited and anything you can hold for 4 seconds can be added to inventory (not alive).

Levels proceed ad nauseum, the highest levels so far being 250 (gods) as do the stats (those may max at 100?)

It feels very convoluted and any set systems I've played so far feel like they could only scratch the surface of the mechanics. Not that I know of every system in existence, just my limited opinion.

 

[JamesR404]

Do you mind if I ask what the appropriate age group is? I suspect my daughter (9) is a bit too young for them, but she loves several Minecraft series, and so I get them recommended to me. Don't want to give her nightmares!

I would hold off till she's 14. Just speaking as a dad, not a professional rater. It's just because there is some gore in there, and some eggsual language especially in later books. But if she starts reading/listening, she'll be wanting to know how it continues.