Crawlers who have been waiting for something new from the World Dungeon will soon have plenty to choose from. Renegade Game Studios is releasing Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable and the official Dungeon Crawler Carl Roleplaying Game at retail next month, turning Matt Dinniman's hit LitRPG series into two very different tabletop experiences.
Renegade has said retail releases for both games are planned for late November, with fulfillment for backers of the record-breaking crowdfunding campaign scheduled to begin this month.
What Is Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable?
Unstoppable is a standalone card game built on designer John D. Clair's existing Unstoppable system, and it can be played solo or as a two-player co-op crawl. Players take control of Carl or Princess Donut and fight through mobs and bosses as they try to reach the stairs on each floor of the World Dungeon.
The hook is its card-crafting system. Every card is a sleeve with swappable parts, so you craft and customize your cards as you play. Renegade describes it as a roguelite momentum deck builder, and there is a smart twist that fits the books perfectly, because crafting cards levels up your abilities but also boosts the threats you face.
The core box covers the first three floors of the dungeon. You explore a single floor each time you play, and in true roguelite fashion only a few of the benefits you purchase with XP carry over to the next floor. The box includes 100 core cards, floor threats and quest cards, upgrade, race and class cards, player and floor mats, and 120 card sleeves. It is priced at $60 and is fully compatible with the rest of the Unstoppable line.
Two Expansions Arrive At The Same Time
Renegade is also launching two $25 expansions for Unstoppable in November, and both require the core game.
Iron Tangle continues the campaign with the fourth floor, the infamous subway system from the books. Renegade's description promises thousands of interconnected tunnels, new monsters, new Tactics, Allies and Upgrades, five new bosses, and a ride on the Nightmare Express, along with a warning not to get stuck in The Abyss.
Crawler Chaos focuses on the cast instead. It adds new playable crawlers, including the durable Katia, the supportive Imani, the spell-slinging Prepotente and the nimble brawler Archie, and it lets players build their own crawler from new races and classes. It also comes with a new short story by Ben Wolf titled "Swarm," which tells the story of Archie's entrance into the World Dungeon.
The Official Roleplaying Game
For groups who want something more open-ended, the Dungeon Crawler Carl Roleplaying Game launches alongside it. The $55 Starter Set focuses on tutorial floors one and two, with rules, a Game Master's campaign toolkit, a ready-to-play scenario called Par for the Course, five map posters, tokens and a dice set. It also includes pre-generated versions of Carl, Donut, Brandon, Chris, Imani and Yolanda.
The $65 Core Rulebook goes deeper. At more than 300 pages, it covers floors three to five, including character creation, skills, spells, neighborhoods, saferooms, loot and mobs. Renegade says it offers more than 24 sessions of play and lets you use canon characters such as Carl, Donut and Katia or build your own crawler from the ground up. A GM screen, dice sets and miniatures are also on the way.
A Record-Breaking Campaign
Both games come out of a joint BackerKit campaign that ended in May after raising more than $13.29 million from 55,972 backers. Renegade says it became the most funded game campaign in BackerKit history and the third most funded tabletop game campaign on any platform, with $1 million raised in just 19 minutes.
"We knew the Dungeon Crawler Carl community was passionate, but the scale of support throughout this campaign completely exceeded our expectations," said Jordan Gaeta, Senior Marketing Manager at Renegade, when the campaign closed.
More On The Way For Crawlers
The games are not the only Carl release next month. Ace is publishing Dungeon Crawler Carl: Deluxe Edition on November 17th, a $65 collector's hardcover of the first novel with artwork by Victo Ngai, stenciled edges, a hardcover case featuring a solvable maze and a Q&A with Dinniman conducted by Princess Donut herself.
Dinniman is also working on the ninth book under the working title The Beautiful Place, which he has said will be released as two volumes. On screen, Peacock's live-action series is still in development, with filming planned for next year.
Will you be diving into the World Dungeon with the Unstoppable card game, or are you holding out for the full roleplaying game experience?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.