Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Mining Media here on the Rene Plays Games podcast feed where we see your one more episodes late at night or one more chapters.

I can do it and say, proud of you, keep at it, and turn all of that binging into better gameplay experiences at your table.

Now before we dive into the subject matter of today's episode, I do just want to give myself a little pat on the back and a few months ago, actually, I couldn't tell you how many months ago, but I have done a mining media on the Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee, an incredible trilogy of modern urban fantasy that I cannot recommend enough.

It's five stars down the line for me, which is.

Very rare.

And when I did my mining media on it, I was thinking to myself, this could be really good for blades in the dark.

This could be really good for a lot of cool systems.

Turns out Evil Hat is making a green bone Saga, T-T-R-P-G, called Streets of Jade.

Very excited to see how this plays out.

And just pat myself on the back for my first mining media prediction come true.

Now, technically I've had.

This mining media scheduled for a little while now, and I think only a few days ago.

Turns out this book series that I'm going to be talking about right now.

Has been picked up by Renegade Game Studios.

The company that is, they do a lot of licensed stuff.

They're also doing a lot of the modern White Wolf or um, vampire the masquerade games, but they're licensed stuff like Power Rangers and GI Joe and whatnot.

I don't think have hit and splashed all that well.

So I'm very interested and hesitant to see how this is going to go.

But regardless, I want to talk to you about Dungeon Crawler Carl, the Lit RPG series that is.

Absolutely blowing up in popularity.

It is a book series.

You can get the physical books now.

It is an incredible audio book.

It's narrated by Jeff Hayes over at OO Theater.

And while I would never recommend anybody give Audible Your Money because it's not a great company, especially lately with all of their licensing that they're redoing over there, the audiobooks are so good and they've kind of ruined every other audiobook.

Experience for me, highly recommend the series.

It's hysterical, but it's also getting a web tune.

It's supposedly getting an animated cartoon like TV series in the near future with Seth McFarland's company, dungeon Crawler.

Carl is blowing up, which is appropriate if you read that book because it's well.

But also it's a lit RPG book series, so therefore the RPG part of it should not be that hard to talk about.

Right?

Well, I think it's a little more complicated than you might think, but we're gonna get into it today.

Now, for those of you who are listening to this episode but haven't read Dungeon Carl Crawler Carl, I'm going to avoid spoilers to the best of my ability, and if you're listening to this, but I don't even know what Dungeon crawler Carl is.

One, thank you for just listening.

And two, here's my hopefully spoiler free high level summary of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

One night on an otherwise normal day on Earth.

Aliens that seeded the planet with life to extract resources, come back to collect.

Any who survive.

The initial flattening of all above ground structures are invited to partake in this season of Dungeon Crawler World, an intergalactic competition show where the inhabitants of planets being harvested for their resources attempt to survive and venture through 18 levels of a mega dungeon.

It's bonkers, dangerous, it's wildly entertaining, and it's definitely blasphemous to the actual world's cultures and history because it's the aliens understanding of where they left this planet.

I don't think that's a spoiler.

You get that pretty early on, but.

It's a lid, RPG genre.

So as they defeat enemies and complete story missions, which are all supplied by an absolutely insane artificial intelligence overlord, they level up.

They receive powerful gear and equipment to help them be even more entertaining until eventually it's expected.

Most crawlers die or take a deal Additionally.

Based on their performance.

Crawlers get sponsorships.

They get to guest on intergalactic TV shows during rest periods, create squads, factions work together or betray their other crawlers.

It's a very entertaining book series.

It's kind of like Hunger Games meets some kind of like intergalactic game show, squid game maybe, or Survivor, any of those kind of.

Competition shows.

I think Running Man was referenced in something.

Um, so yeah, it's ridiculous.

It's absolutely over the top.

It's perfect for what a lit RPG needs to be.

And we're gonna talk about the usual mining media stuff.

The first question we always ask on mining medias is what existing games could run a dungeon collar Carl like game?

Well, and this is going to vary because as a lit RPG, obviously there is role-playing game elements in it.

It's kind of more MMO than tabletop.

But again, like we said, very easily portable.

So I'm gonna give a couple.

Different recommendations here.

My personal favorite Death Match Island, which is a agon system, but it is specifically a game show where people are watching you and you are gonna amass fandoms and things like that, and you're gonna get viewers and all of this stuff as you go through these challenges on these islands to.

Proceed from season to season.

I think that that's probably pretty well portable.

I would also argue maybe with some hacking heart, the city beneath, because that's all about people who just desperately need to descend to learn something.

And while that's not really a theme in the dungeon color, Carl books descending a always getting worse.

Like more terrifying Dungeon is on brand, and I think that in the Heart books there is notes that like at the center, at the core of the heart is like a godly of immense power, and that could absolutely be Koola Pendra from the Dungeon, Carla Carl Universe.

And I think that the classes.

In heart accurately reflect the absolutely gonzo nature of some of the things that people get in the dungeon for classes and abilities and stuff like that.

We can always talk sort of generic systems, right?

Like I would say index card RPG already covers multiple genres and has like world hopping stuff that could handle the.

Vast differences between levels of a dungeon.

You know, the subreddit has had conversations about this, and a lot of people will say things like rifts or GRPs, but I think those are a little too crunchy because to me it's so over the top and ridiculous that I wouldn't want the minutia of rules getting in the way of something that's supposed to be just like.

Absolutely out of control.

Like one of the main characters of this book is a talking cat, right?

Who has like basically super crazy magic powers, right?

She's awesome.

Princess Donut is the best.

So yeah, I would say, you know, if you're gonna play one of those games that is generic and crunchy enough to handle anything, it's just probably gonna give you too much work.

I would lean more towards the narrative, but you all know me, I'm more of a narrative kind of game person anyway.

So I've been told there is a game.

I don't have this one of all the blank crawl classics.

Mutant Crawl Classics.

Dungeon Crawl Classics.

There's one called X Crawl Classics, which is supposedly extreme dungeon delving in the North American Empire, and it is like televised crazy dungeon crawler adventure.

That seems stupid appropriate.

However, you know, I would say if, if it's something that delves into tactical grid-based combat, I would lean away from it personally.

But I bet thematically there's tons you could get from X crawl classics.

However, dungeon Call Carl the series has a very OSR play style mentality where oftentimes cleverly bypassing the problem works just as well, if not better than doing what was expected of you.

Right?

So.

Avoid the fights if you can, because there's a very good chance you die.

So do something else.

That's definitely something that should be supported in the Dungeon.

Crawler Carl, like game.

And speaking of OSR and the Dungeon Crawl Classics like games.

Also A DCC, dungeon Crawl Classics, dungeon Crawler, Carl, it's in the name.

If this game put out by Renegade Game Studios does not have a Level Zero funnel of just normal human beings who survived the initial apocalypse, having to enter the dungeon and just a crazy meat grinder of Level Zero, nobodies entering the dungeon and living long enough to get their classes.

Otter Complete failure in my book, and I don't know how you missed that.

It's the perfect introduction to a game like Dungeon Call or Carl, whatever system you use.

I highly recommend you have to use a Level zero funnel.

Last little note on what games could do this well is if you wanna get super experimental, maybe this is an appropriate campaign where people are using different rules from different systems based on the classes and crazy stuff they could get in the dungeon.

Right?

I can see something like an overarm to represent certain classes where they have like.

A persona esque or like jojo's Bizarre Adventure esque stands or persona like entities that are helping you.

I would also say something like Ultraviolet Grasslands is a perfect book to just use alongside a campaign like this where you just open it up to a certain section and you're like, here's the level, here's some real out there stuff, and let your players get into trouble and tie together an overarching narrative.

Around the whole thing, which I'm not gonna get into for spoiler reasons, but there is an overarching narrative and we'll get into the level design in a little bit because I think that that's another great thing that you can mind from this series.

So the second question is, what from Dungeon Carl or Carl is Gamier.

Honestly, given the main character, Carl, as you progress through the books, if this isn't in the official RPG that comes out from Renegade, I'll be super disappointed.

There needs to be a good crafting system.

There's a lot of really interesting crafting in the Dungeon Parler Carl series, and a lot of Ttrp GS suck at crafting systems.

I think that's something like a stat for crafting that gives you more options and makes your creations more stable or gives them more options and ways to be used and things like that.

Basically, something like, and again, this is a bad example of crafting.

Like a Pathfinder two E Alchemist, dedication, but just better, right?

Without the hours and tracking gold and spending gold on things.

I mean, make them narrative, make them interesting, loot drops that you have to figure out why you're getting these, because it's clearly trying to foreshadow something or tell you that you're gonna need these.

So what are you supposed to build with them?

Right, just collect ingredients, role for effectiveness.

But yeah, I think that a crafting system from something like Dungeon Crawl or Carl could be really, really interesting.

Also, there's a really great set of items that one of the characters gets that are basically like, I think they're supposed to be like Beanie Babies, but basically they can like turn into monsters that help you for a while, which is just super fun.

That's a great item.

Take that also.

Sponsors and gifts.

This is technically doable in any game.

You can do this in your high fantasy game.

Have they been to a city where they met a powerful person who gave them a quest?

Cool.

That person can give them things that they're gonna need.

Hey, thank you for doing this thing for me.

Not just as a Quest reward, but hey, I'm continuing to support you 'cause I'm watching what you're doing and I think that you're gonna need this in the near future.

Come up with a magic spell that just transports it to them.

A magic postman, if you will.

Is it a sci-fi series?

Cool Drone couriers, drop stations, loot boxes, you name it, it doesn't really matter.

And actually, loot boxes is another great example of something from this.

Series that is gam fireable.

I think it's really interesting.

Obviously I played loot by Spencer Campbell as a holiday, one shot on this podcast last year, and that is a game that is very obviously emulating the looter shooter video game genre, but let's just lean into it and be even more egregious and just.

Give loot boxes for level ups.

Give them for achieving certain quests or even parts of quests, right?

Like if it's multi-stage, again, if you're doing something, using a system that uses something like clocks, well maybe give rewards at certain thresholds on that clock, right?

And like literally just make it aloo box.

Have them roll.

To see randomly what they get or something like that could be interesting.

Now, speaking of rewards and getting them and wondering what you're supposed to be doing with them, I love the idea from Dungeon crawler Carl, and using this in a tabletop roleplaying campaign of self-contained dungeons within an otherwise overarching story.

Each level of the dungeon in dungeon crawler, Carl, is hyper-specific to itself.

And has its own themes.

Any two levels are unlikely to even seem like they're from the same place.

There is an exception to this, but no spoilers.

So this is kind of old school DD 1 0 1 anyway, right?

Like there were some bananas anachronistic vibes for some dungeons or areas that just didn't actually make sense within the wider world, but that didn't matter.

So this game is giving you total permission.

To just say, congratulations, you've met all of the criteria to clear this level.

You have done it, you've survived.

You move on to the next level.

All bets are off.

Whatever you may expect based on what you just went through for hell on this level, might not be anything like what you get to on the next one.

Right.

Underwater ones or Sky Islands or a racing level or whatever you name it, right?

Anything is fair game.

It's just crazy.

I don't wanna spoil book six, but oh my gosh, book six is so funny as far as like what they came up with for the mechanics.

It's, it's great.

Please go read it.

And actually, that segues very well into another point, which is that if all of these levels feel.

Incredibly distinct.

Beware, but also be excited about the fact that items you've given them in previous floors, in previous levels might all of a sudden seem kind of useless or they don't make sense or what have you.

That's great.

Let them break stuff.

Let them get weird with it.

Maybe recontextualize what this thing does if the level is so wildly different all of a sudden, something they didn't realize this could do.

Is now available and its original function isn't important right now.

Right?

But you've given them a reward.

Let them continue to use it, or that's a great way to challenge character, right?

It's like, Hey, this thing that you really leaned on this whole last level, not only the AI and the viewers and everything like that has.

Caught onto the fact that you're using it too much.

We're gonna negate it, right?

Get more clever, figure out a new thing.

You can't be a one trick pony in this dungeon.

Another thing that I want to bring up about the Dungeon Car Carl series that I don't actually know if this is doable in a tabletop campaign, but it's got my gears spinning and it is how they treat the NPCs in the dungeon crawler.

Carl books sometimes.

They're just unfortunate victims of craziness that's going on on the level.

Sometimes there's more to them.

I'm not gonna get into any spoilers, but I would say maybe not as a huge part of the campaign, but maybe even as a level or something like that.

If you're doing a game in this system, is think about, you know, in the wheel of time, for example.

Matt Coffin at one point finds a village where I think, I think the premise is that they're stuck in a time loop, or everyone there is actually dead and they don't know it, and like every day plays out the same.

And it's hard to leave that place or insert like any Issa Key anime here, right, where NPCs are just basically doing their programmed loops in their lives.

What if there was a whole level of the dungeon, or use this for any of your games.

It doesn't even have to be Dungeon Carlo car related.

What if it's just a mystery where certain actions break this loop and give you more information about what's actually going on here?

The underlying story.

That's being told, but you're just getting the face value programmed actions of these NPCs, and you need to find out how to break the enchantment over all of them to the point where you get enough information that you can go and actually.

Break the whole thing so that way you can either complete the level or what, whatever that like, you know, there's gonna be, insert your plot hook here, but seems like a pretty good one.

And that's great because in an otherwise very combat heavy, very violent kind of story and game like Dun Crawler Carl, it gives you an opportunity to spend time in those character moments in those investigation social scenes.

And make them matter based on maybe the information they give you.

It helps you in an upcoming fight or something like that.

And the last two things I'm gonna bring up for my mining media on Dungeon Crawler Carl, is remember the past of whatever game you're running, right?

If you're doing and trying to emulate dungeon crawler, Carl, obviously this is a new season of Dungeon Crawler world, which means there have been many, many other.

Dungeon Crawler World Seasons.

Eventually there's a manager for Carl and Donut, and I don't think that's spoily enough.

I'm not gonna say who it is, but that's a good way to have a recurring NPC who can't help them, but can give them information like not gonna help them in combat, et cetera, but can give them information, can slowly leak information about past seasons or history, or explain who these.

Other people watching this show are, and what the context of all of this is.

There's also in-game items that can also give information, either breaking the rules or needs to be kept a secret or what have you that are rife for.

Playing with Juicy Drama and Secrets.

You can even do that with just one other player at the table.

That could be really cool.

And speaking of the past, we don't have to limit it to the past seasons of Dungeon Crawler World or whatever version of that you're playing at your table.

Remember that these characters that your friends are playing at the table had lives on Earth, an earth that we all know intimately, and they had mundane lives.

And random things going on, and they don't know if other people they know have survived and made it into the dungeon.

They don't know about anything that's happened in the world since.

Anything like that and all of their past experiences, who they were, what matters to them, those things can be brought into.

Scenes you can play on their backstory and give them a reflection of it within the dungeon and see how their character might respond to that thing.

It creates very interesting character moments when you let their past matter.

And lastly, I would recommend for a game like this, I would say that.

Whoever's turn, it isn't when you are playing this game, if some player and their character is in the spotlight and they're doing stuff, let the other players narrate it like it was a game show or like it was a sporting event, and let them come up with like celebrities in the intergalactic sphere that are covering this season of Dungeon Color World.

They can come up with ridiculous personalities and just do color commentary and maybe even stats and stuff like that.

It would be really funny.

To just let players look at it like that and then get back into their character.

I don't know.

That seems funny to me.

I kind of love that.

Okay.

Actually last thing, now, there's a quote from Dungeon Crawler, Carl book number three, the Anarchist Cookbook that I really liked.

And it says we wouldn't work well on a team, but I probably needed more people like that around me.

It's okay.

Small teams that occasionally work together seems best, and that in itself, as a quote suggests to me that a dungeon call or Carl esque game, if you wanted to play one at your table with your friends, would lend itself very well.

To a West March's style campaign, let your players make multiple characters who might be parts of different squads or factions within the larger games of Dungeon Crawler World this season, and let there be overlap from level to level.

Maybe they get split up if they're not part of a team together, then maybe they get put with a different team or starting at a different location and interact with each other's other characters.

That's a great way.

For people to explore multiple character types within the same game while still being able to play characters they want to play and they can just switch it up level to level, depending on how they're feeling or what they want to explore or anything like that.

And that's gonna do it for my mining media on Dungeon Crawler.

Carl, have you read the books or listened to the audio books?

If so, let's talk about them one, because I need more people to talk to with these about two.

If you need a place to do that.

Join the dms after Dark Discord where we can talk about it in our books in Good Reads Channel over on the Discord.

Very fun place to hang out.

Still super small and yeah, I'm not gonna do my whole outro spiel.

It's a my media episode.

Email me at Rene Plays Games pod@gmail.com if you want.

Lemme know what you're reading or recommend me other lit RPG series because I think I'm gonna really go in.