Renegade Game Studios is giving Dungeon Crawler Carl fans something new to obsess over next year – and this time, you won’t need an audiobook queue or an e-reader. The publisher is adapting Matt Dinniman’s wonderfully unhinged LitRPG series into two official tabletop games, both heading to BackerKit in April 2026.
If you’ve spent any amount of time with the books, you already know they’re practically primed for tabletop antics. Reality-TV dungeon crawling? Alien bureaucracy? A cat with more star power than her human partner? It’s all begging to be translated into cardboard.
Two Games, One Wild Universe
The first of Renegade’s projects is a full tabletop RPG set in the chaotic world of Dungeon Crawler World. While Renegade hasn’t revealed what system it’ll run on, the team has confirmed that the corporate, commercialised nature of the dungeon – ads, sponsorships, meta-rules, and all the nonsense Carl regularly suffers through – will be baked into the mechanics. Expect the usual dungeon-crawl beats, but filtered through the series’ “what if reality TV controlled everything” lens.
The second game takes things in a different direction: a co-op deck-building game based on Unstoppable, the system designed by John D. Clair. Here, players tackle the World Dungeon together, fighting through neighbourhood, borough, and city bosses while powering up between bouts. It’s built for solo play or two-player co-op, making it a nice contrast to the more free-form chaos the RPG will no doubt unleash.
And because aesthetics matter, both games will feature art from longtime series illustrator Luciano Fleitas, ensuring the tabletop adaptations feel right at home beside your book collection.
Why Dungeon Crawler Carl Works on the Tabletop
If you’re new to the series, Dungeon Crawler Carl is a science-fantasy blend of apocalyptic Earth, horrific dungeon ecosystems, and surprisingly heartfelt character moments. The premise is delightfully simple: Carl – a former Coast Guardsman – and Princess Donut – his ex’s extremely judgmental cat – get tossed into a massive subterranean dungeon built by the alien Borant Corporation. Civilization topside collapses, leaving Carl with two choices: compete in the deadly televised dungeon crawl or enjoy the world’s most inconvenient apocalypse.
Seven books in, the series hasn’t lost momentum, and Dinniman has mentioned he intends to go up to ten. With that much worldbuilding, monsters, and meta-nonsense to pull from, Renegade has plenty of material to play with.
Both projects hit BackerKit in April next year, and judging by the fanbase’s enthusiasm, they’re likely to climb the funding charts fast. Whether you prefer your dungeon crawling stats-crunchy or card-driven, 2026 looks like a great time to team up with Carl and Donut – hopefully with fewer death traps.
