The most funded game campaign in BackerKit history is almost ready for store shelves. Renegade Game Studios is bringing Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable and the Dungeon Crawler Carl Roleplaying Game to retail late next month, and for fans of solo board games and deckbuilders, Unstoppable is the one to watch.
Both games are based on Matt Dinniman's LitRPG book series, which drops its heroes into a deadly 18-floor dungeon run like a game show. Renegade says fulfillment for crowdfunding backers was set to begin this month, ahead of the wider release.
A Roguelite Built On The Unstoppable System
Unstoppable is a standalone card game designed by John D. Clair, built on the Unstoppable system he created. Renegade calls it the next game in its best-selling Solo Hero Unstoppable series, and it is fully compatible with all Unstoppable expansions.
You play as either Carl or Princess Donut, fighting through mobs and bosses on your way to the stairs. It can be played solo, or two players can team up for a co-op crawl, which makes it an easy pick for anyone who wants a game that works just as well on a quiet night alone.
Renegade describes it as a roguelike momentum deck-building game. Its product page explains that the power curve in this "momentum builder" gives you a fighting chance against the threats you will face.
How Card-Crafting Works
The standout mechanic is card-crafting. Every card in Unstoppable is a sleeve with swappable parts, so instead of simply buying new cards, you build and customize your existing ones as you play.
There is a catch that fits the source material well. According to Renegade, crafting cards levels up your abilities but also boosts the threats you face, so every upgrade raises the stakes along with your power.
Each session covers a single floor of the World Dungeon, and the core box includes the first three floors. In true roguelite fashion, only a few of the benefits you purchase with XP carry over to the next floor before you descend. The core game costs $60, and Renegade has made the rulebook available to download from its site for anyone who wants to read up before buying.
Two Expansions At Launch
Renegade is launching two $25 expansions alongside the base game, and neither is standalone, so both require the core box.
Iron Tangle continues the campaign onto the fourth floor, a maze of interconnected subway tunnels. It adds five new bosses, 16 Floor 4 threats, 24 core cards, 14 upgrade cards, new Tactics, Allies and Upgrades, Iron Tangle map mats and a train token for travelling on the Nightmare Express. Renegade also warns players not to get stuck in The Abyss.
Crawler Chaos is all about variety in your party. It adds the durable Katia, the supportive Imani, the spell-slinging Prepotente and the nimble brawler Archie as playable crawlers, plus new races and classes and the option to build your own crawler. The box also includes a storybook containing "Swarm," a new short story by Ben Wolf about Archie's arrival in the World Dungeon.
The Roleplaying Game
For groups who prefer a game master and open-ended adventures, the Dungeon Crawler Carl Roleplaying Game launches at the same time. The $55 Starter Set covers tutorial floors one and two, with rules, character customization, a Game Master's Campaign Toolkit, a scenario called Par for the Course, pre-generated characters, 12 blank character sheets, five map posters, 41 tokens and an eight-piece dice set.
The $65 Core Rulebook Royal Court Edition is a 300-plus page book focused on floors three to five. Renegade says it supports more than 24 sessions, with eight or more neighborhoods or quests per floor, and lets players create their own skills, races and classes. A $25 GM Screen and Token Set, dice sets, a Royal Court miniatures set with nine prepainted figures and an oversized d20 are also on the way, and preorders of the Starter Set and Core Rulebook come with a PDF copy for a limited time.
Breaking BackerKit Records
Both games come out of a joint BackerKit campaign that wrapped in May after nearly four days in BackerKit's Overtime Mode. It raised more than $13.29 million from 55,972 backers, hitting $1 million in just 19 minutes and more than $4.57 million in its first 24 hours.
Renegade says that made it the most funded game campaign in BackerKit history, the second most funded tabletop RPG campaign ever on any platform and the third most funded tabletop game campaign of all time. It was also the most followed tabletop campaign ever before launch.
"Watching tens of thousands of Crawlers come together to celebrate these games, break records, and build such an energetic community around the project was something really special," said Jordan Gaeta, Senior Marketing Manager at Renegade, when the campaign closed.
Renegade's catalog already includes Heroscape, Robo Rally and the Transformers Deck-Building Game, and preorders for both Dungeon Crawler Carl games are open now on its webstore.
Are you more interested in crawling solo with the Unstoppable card game, or gathering a group for the full roleplaying game?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.