(Note, there are some spoilers in this post if you haven’t read past book 4 in the Dungeon Crawler Carl books)
Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl books have become very popular in the past few months. I’ve seen ttrpg games based on them and talk of making a TV series, although it has to be anime not live action to really pull things off from the books. This book series is one of my favorites, although from starting out mostly funny and over the top, they’ve gone into some pretty dark places in the most recent books. I know many of my fellow Blaugustans are also Carl fans, so I proposed a group project based on the books, specifically around Achievements.
One of the original people who introduced me to the DCC series was Belghast. I thought it was a good tribute to him to use the books as the inspiration for a topic this year. I love that his blog is still available, although there will come a day when this link will no longer work.
Achievements: Enthusiastically announced by the dungeon’s System AI, achievements are snarky notifications that come with rewards and loot boxes, or just insults that make fun of crawlers’ suffering. There are many favorites out there and an entire Wiki dedicated to capturing them. Some of my favorites are:
The classic, that sets up Carl’s look for the rest of the dungeon, and is now the iconic look for DCC cosplay, is this one:
New achievement! Why aren’t you wearing pants?
You entered the dungeon wearing no pants. Dude. Seriously?
Reward: You’ve received a Gold Apparel Box!
New Achievement! PETA Enthusiast!
“You somehow managed to remove the hostility of an aggravated, non-sapient enemy. That enemy then fought against other enemies to your benefit. The ghost of Steve Irwin smiles down upon you.
REWARD: I SAID THE GHOST OF STEVE IRWIN SMILES DOWN UPON YOU.”
This is the one with the best reward IMO.
New Achievement! That’s Not How You Use Arrows, Dumbass.
“You took an arrow, and you physically stabbed someone with it. That’s something a kid who eats glue would do. You know I’m pretty sure you have a bow in your inventory.
REWARD: You’ve received a Gold Ranged Weapon Box”
New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.
“You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that’s talent.
REWARD: Ha.”
New Achievement! You Monster!
“You have killed an infant! An infant!
Okay, okay. Unless you’re a complete psychopath, we know you probably didn’t wake up this morning and tell yourself, ‘Today is the day I’m going to slaughter a child.’ Well, let us put your mind at ease. All children mobs who die within this dungeon don’t actually perish. They’re transferred to a holding area where they’re safe and treated nicely and gently until they can be reunited with their loving parents at the end of the season.
Feel better? Good.
REWARD: These past twenty seconds, when your conscience started to ease? That was your reward. It was also a lie. That baby is dead, and it’s dead because of you. You’re totally going to hell.”
This achievement is one where you really start to get a sense of the AI going crazy.
In trying to come up with my own snarky achievement reward, I drew a complete blank. I am nowhere near as talented as the author of these books. Frankly, my achievement is probably:
New Achievement! Awkward!
Yes, your ideas were boring, uninspired and just plain awkward.
REWARD: You get to finish this blog post and move on.
I looked back through the Blaugust Discord to see who else had a DCC post and only found one. If I missed yours and you notice this post, please ping me with the link. Kelly Adams talks about his favorite achievement, and it is a really good one. The reward from this one sets up a lot of the interactions in the books and is a key element in the crawlers’ plans.
Note: This blog post was back dated to August 14th because life happened and I was traveling to funerals.
I loved the group project! It inspired me to start reading the Dungeon Crawler Carl series at the beginning of August and I’m on book seven now! DEFINITELY WORTHY OF AN ALL-CAPS DONUT STYLE CALLOUT.