How To Raise $1 Million in Under 20 Minutes : The Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG Launches

One of the hottest fantasy properties has become one of the hottest crowdfunding properties of the moment. Launched at 6pm BST it had already hit it’s first $1,000,000 in pledges by 6.19pm. By 7pm it had cleared $2,000,000, and by 9pm $3,000,000, and will just keep rising.

Already the most followed tabletop roleplaying game on prelaunch, with just under 65,000 followers, Renegade Game Studios Dungeon Crawler Carl + UnstoppableBackerkit campaign is likely to challenge for the highest funded RPG by the time the campaign finishes on 15th May. The current leaders on that front are two other franchises - Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game by Magpie Games which raised just over $9.5 million in 2021, and Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere RPG by Brotherwise Games which smashed it’s way to $15,149,874 in 2024.

For those not familiar with Dungeon Crawler Carl, it is an ongoing series of science fantasy novels by Matt Dinniman, that he originally started self-publishing during Covid, featuring Carl and Princess Donut, his ex-girlfriends cat. They, and a few million other survivors who have escaped the destruction of Earth’s civilisation by an alien corporation looking to mine it’s resources, are forced to compete in an intergalactic reality show that is live-streamed across the civilised universe. The show, Dungeon Crawler World, sees many of earth’s survivors descend into The World Dungeon, an 18-level dungeon crawl that many tabletop RPGers and video gamers will find familiar.

One of the first items that Carl receives is an enchanted pet biscuit which, after Princess Donut eats it, imbues her with intelligence, speech and able to use magic. On their journeys Carl and Princess Donut meet a number of other Crawlers, alien beings and non-player characters, fighting mobs and bosses, gaining new gear, earning experience and gaining levels and new classes - and in many cases even new character races.

Each level has a time limit before that level collapses in on itself, killing anyone who has yet to descend to the next floor. So finding one of the stairwells down to the next dungeon level becomes a race for survival. The dungeon is run by an increasingly erratic AI that provides Crawlers with information and also distributes loot - both for completing objectives (many of which the Crawlers were previously unaware of) and also those from sponsors and fans which the Crawlers start to receive as the show progresses.

The series currently has seven published books, with an eighth - A Parade of Horribles - due for release on 12th May, just before this crowdfunder wraps. There is also a live-action TV series in development.

Anyway, back to the current campaign on Backerkit… The campaign is for both a tabletop rolpelaying game and also a Dungeon Crawler Carl deck building card game called Unstoppable, which can be played either solo or cooperative.

The roleplaying game core rulebook will give us over 30 playable races and a massive choice of classes and subclasses for our Crawlers to choose from, plus rules and guides that will enable us to make our own classes, races and more. The campaign not only offers a Core Rulebook but loads of other goodies, including a Starter Set, GM Screen, pre-painted miniature sets, Character Journals, dice, dice bags, and dice trays, and more. The Unstoppable Card Game also has two expansions sets and neoprene playmats available.

You can check out the Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG + Unstoppable campaign on Backerkit, with the campaign running through to Friday 15th May.

Images courtesy of Renegade Game Studios.