Player's Handbook · Chapter 1

How to Play

You are a crawler trying to survive one floor at a time. The dungeon can be ridiculous without being safe: bizarre rules, monsters, rewards, and System announcements still have real consequences. It rewards caution, nerve, creativity, spectacle, and sometimes terrible judgment. You are not expected to choose from a fixed menu of actions. Describe what you do; the world reacts.

The basic roll

When an action is uncertain and failure matters, roll:

2d6 + one relevant Stat + at most one relevant Skill Rank + at most one Edge vs Difficulty

The four Stats are Strength, Agility, Intellect, and Presence. Base Stats use a 1–4 scale; core Skill Ranks use 0–3. A Skill Rank applies only when that Skill directly fits the action.

Edge is the one favorable numerical modifier beyond Stat + Skill and never stacks. Ordinary situational advantages such as preparation, position, terrain, or an Assist provide at most Edge +1 for one roll. Edge +2 only applies when an authored Ability, item, or rule explicitly grants +2. A named hindrance such as Off-Balance or Slippery Footing changes the fiction but does not automatically become a reusable numeric bonus. A tool, Ability, weapon bonus, Assist, preparation, position, or temporary Difficulty reduction can provide the one Edge; when several apply, use only the strongest one.

Difficulty	Meaning
7	Routine under pressure
9	Standard danger
11	Hard
13	Extreme
15	Absurd but possible

Beat the Difficulty by 4 or more and you earn a strong success: the action works and you gain an extra result such as speed, position, information, or style. Miss by 1–3 and the situation usually moves forward with a failure or serious cost. Miss by 4 or more and the threat advances hard.

You do not roll for things your crawler already knows, facts already established in play, or actions with no uncertainty.

Play the situation, not the sheet

Your sheet tells you what your crawler is good at. It does not limit what you can attempt. Terrain, tools, enemies, doors, machinery, other crawlers, and the audience can all become part of a solution. Several good ideas can make an action possible or improve what success means without turning into a pile of stacked bonuses.

The dungeon is dangerous, but it should be readable. Pay attention to what the scene tells you, ask questions, and act on the answers.

Manual updated Sep 3, 2026.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

A lethal televised dungeon crawl where bizarre monsters, ridiculous rewards, audience attention, bad decisions, and a deeply opinionated System all matter.

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ENTER THE DUNGEON

Survive the floor. Level up. Don't die boring.

A lethal televised dungeon crawl where every floor is a new kind of bad idea. Fight impossible monsters, exploit ridiculous rules, earn loot with questionable design choices, attract an audience, survive Sponsor attention, and build your crawler through what actually happens in play. The System is watching, grading, rewarding, and occasionally making the situation much stranger than it needed to be.

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