Book Chat: ‘Carl’s Doomsday Scenario’ by Matt Dinniman
Matt Dinniman is a best-selling writer and artist from Gig Harbor, Washington. He is the published author of dozens of short stories and a gaggle of books. In addition, his art publications — from greeting cards to stationery kits to calendars — can be found in boutique and stationery shops around the world.
"The training levels have concluded. Now the games may truly begin."
The ratings and views are off the chart. The fans just can't get enough. The dungeon gets more dangerous each day. But in a grinder designed to chew up and spit out crawlers by the millions, Carl and Princess Donut need to work harder than ever just to survive.
They call it the Over City. A sprawling, once-thriving metropolis devastated by a mysterious calamity. But these streets are far from abandoned. An undead circus trawls the ruins. Murdered prostitutes rain from the sky. An ancient spell is finally ready to reveal its dark purpose.
Carl still has no pants.
They call it Dungeon Crawler World. For Carl and Donut, it's anything but a game.
Characters
Carl: He is a buff, 27-year-old U.S. Coast Guard Veteran, who worked as a Marine Technician. He has a strong sense of right and wrong. He also has “grit”, refusing to let the system break him. While not charismatic, he is the sort who will assume leadership if nobody else steps up. He is a loyal and trustworthy crawler, willing to take risks if he can help others, which engenders a great deal of loyalty from other crawlers.
Donut: She is the secondary protagonist of the book. She is a tortoiseshell Persian cat that belonged to Carl’s ex-girlfriend Beatrice and is the party leader of The Royal Court of Princess Donut. Being a cat she is rather vain caring about how things look on her and being appalled if they do not look good. Donut does not like getting dirty or being hurt so she is more comfortable fighting from a distance with her magic.
Mongo: Pet owned by Princess Donut. He is the mascot and royal steed of the Royal Court of Princess Donut.
Mordecai: Carl and Donut’s guide for the dungeon. He is an indentured servant for Borant, tasked with helping the corporation run crawls. Originally an avian race called a Skyfowl, Mordecai chose Changeling as his race when he was a crawler.
Zev: She is a Borant Corporation Assistant Communications Representative and Dungeon Admin. She is also the PR Agent to the Royal Court of Princess Donut. Donut and her are friends, bonding over their shared interest in Earth television. - Dungeon Crawler Carl Wiki
Tsarina Signet: Elite Half Naiad Half High Elf Summoner and part of the Vengeance of the Daughter story. She has many tattoos on her body, which she can bring to life as paper monsters through a blood sacrifice in a duel between other foes. Loves Grimaldi and prizes family above all else.
Grimaldi: Leader of the undead circus on the 3rd floor and part of the Vengeance of the Daughter story. He is a special vine monster with a collective conscious. Loves Signet, saving her in the past and prizes family above all else.
***SPOILERS BELOW***
Quotes
“I wouldn’t kick you out of bed for eating crackers.” Donut upon seeing Mordecai’s Incubus form.
“The good news is the next book has clowns and dead hookers in it.” - Matt Dinniman at the end of book one. He wasn’t lying.
Carl - “That attitude. That we had to wear a mask even toward our family…it was one I could never understand. A lot of people, men and women, thought like that and I didn’t get it.”
Mordecai - “I want this to sink deep into your skull. You can’t save them all. The people running this know who you are. They will always be baiting you.”
Carl - “Cats don't drink cocktails,' I said.
Donut - 'Cats don't shoot lasers from their eyes, either, but here we are, Carl. Mama needs a night off.”
Carl - "Donut, we have a choice. Save ourselves. Or we try to save Katia and those other 80 people. I have an idea, but it probably won't work. We need to decide. Quick."
"I, uh, I don't know," Donut said, looking about. She seemed to deflate on my shoulder. "We should try to save the others. It's the right thing to do." I didn't answer. I just reached up and scratched her.
“Carl,” she asked.
I looked down into her large, glowing eyes. “Yeah?”
“I’m not as dumb as I pretend to be. I know she’s dead.”
“I know.” I wrapped myself around her. We both closed our eyes and braced for the end.“You probably don’t know this,” Tucker said, “but openly using tunnels to advocate for system sedition against a member state is a crime.”
“If that’s true,” I said, “then you’re ALL in that same pot.” I turned to look at the audience. “All of you. If a government is afraid of what its people say, then maybe there’s a reason for it. … Besides, what are they gonna do? Throw me in the dungeon?”
THEMES
Loyalty
Family
Desensitization
Purpose
The Other
Rule Bending/Breaking
Talking Points book Chat Part 1
If Carl was woken up by a bad dream, are we playing with fate here?
Talk about world-building and establishing events that take place. Did you find you were asking questions about the event? Was the exposition/tutorial too much, or did it help make sense of it all?
A first-person narrator can mean they’re unreliable. Do we think that’s the case with Carl?
Talk about Carl & Donut’s strengths and weaknesses
If you weren’t in freezing conditions, would you still enter the dungeon?
Mordecai is the guild master/tutorial guide - is he an asset? Help not to feel too lost?
If you were to enter a video game like this, how would you really fare? Talk about the realities of this, and how difficult it would be
The enemies are just humans ‘repurposed’, is this a take on the exploitation of people?
What would your stats be:
DEX, STR, CHA, INT, CON
Carl’s: Strength: 6, Intelligence: 3, Constitution: 5, Dexterity: 5, Charisma: 4
Run into a dead body, another crawler has been killed. Carl identifying the truth of Frank Q
Carl’s backstory is hinted at and feels surprisingly character-rich for LITRPG- lousy dad, cheated on by Beatrice
Meeting another group of crawlers - an unfortunate situation with nurses and maintenance men of an aged care facility, and a homeless ‘bat’ who seems unstable. Would you feel responsible for them? What allies would you try to make, or would you seize an opportunity to ‘level up’ or survive?
The dungeon crawlers get interviewed or put on intergalactic shows like Odette’s or the Death Watch in between trying to survive the dungeon. What kind of show would you make or what questions would you ask the crawlers?
Odette’s show! We see the true reason behind the dungeon: this is entertainment
Carl has a catchphrase: GODDAMNIT DONUT!
We see how addicted to fame Donut is: Do you think this will help or hinder her and Car’s time in the dungeon?
Even Aussies made it into the AI: Dingoes! The Narrator actually did a very good impersonation, no surprise there
Agatha’s shopping cart: interesting inventory. She was edited OUT of the footage. She’s been awol level 2. Is she working for the aliens? What’s your theory
Carl struggles with having integrity in the dungeon
Whilst levelling up, we see Donut gain more sorcery/spells and Carl levels up bare fist (and foot) fighting. Can you guess what kind of class they’ll take on by level 3?
People in this dungeon have been dying too fast (due to blips and tech errors), so they’re speeding up the time in Lvl 2. The rules are awfully flexible
Punishment for urinating publicly was a Rage Elemental showing up
Limit to 3 Patrons to person, that won’t matter YET but do you think it’s important to mention?
Learn about the theme of Lvl 2: Rev Up Pyramid Scheme - complete with Karens and moonshine, enemies with the Taint
Need to find the ingredients of the smoothie to battle the boss
The history between Mordecia and Odette
Carl & Donut are so popular, they now have a publicist called Zev
Was Carls outburst to Zev warranted?
Yolanda, Armani, Chris and Brandon made a carriage/train platform to transport the elderly
Jack is a crude old man, we’re made to dislike him. He urinates and releases a Rage Demon
Zev got suspended, and allocated a new publicist who puts them on the worst show ever
We meet Maestro - and the impressionable young audience. GROSS. Carl instantly hates it.
GLURP GLURP
Lei Jun and his friend are pulled from a near-death moment to be in the show to win their way back. It’s sadistic and cruel. Carl interjects to shift gears
Next guests: Frank Q & Maggie My. We find out the dynamite he planted went off and hurt their daughter Yvette. Maggie consoles and then strangles her daughter, infuriating Carl. Maggie is fuming and Frank is broken. This is only level 2.
Maestro gifts a pair of boots to Carl, knowing it’ll hurt not help his stats
Maggie can now track crawlers
“Pork Boy”, the generated fan art sex tape video with Carl and Maestro
Neighbourhood boss is defeated easier by using kindness
Dingoes were hurt in cages, Carl feeds pet biscuits
Discover a reward room, can choose a pet! Meet Mongo, who needs to bond with a crawler asap. Donut mothers Mongo
Talking Points Book Chat Part 2
We get to see the Desperado Club! Lucia Marr was already in there recently, the dogs killed two handlers and she cast a massive spell to freeze the floor, kill an elite and steal tequila. They’re nerfing the comp due to crawlers levelling too fast. What do you think Lucia’s deal is?
Donut has her first alcoholic beverage and shit talks the rottweilers. This stirs controversy in the shows. What else do you think the AI has in store for them?
We learn about communication bubble spells, blitz sticks, and more about Mordecai’s role as a manager. He’s more protected and can’t ‘die’ in game, but there’s still a lot he’s not saying
Carl is introduced to HogLobs and Boom Sticks - welcome to his class proficiency
Vicente the elf attacks the duo… calling them by their names.
They open prize boxes: Donut gets a framed picture of Bea, the very one that caused Carl to dump Bea. Carl realizes that with everything that’s happened with the Dungeon… this no longer bothers him. Are we seeing Carl grow or tire due to the stress of the dungeon?
He gets a cesta punter ‘glove’ contraption known as a jai alai [pic reference] to help lob his new bombs
The City Elves are in a strange cult to protect the Skyfowl, they’re prepping for the doomsday
Gum Gum is found dead with two letters on her. City pass for the guards and a necromancy letter in strange writing, covered in blood. Donut also now feels responsible for Gum Gum, is the AI purposely using their compassion against them? Is this helping or hurting them? Trials, audience numbers etc
In these battles, we see Carl testing out his new bombs and they pack a punch, a little tooooo much. Blows up the office. Carl passes out from the explosion while Donut and Mongo take care of enemies, leaving her covered in gore
They go on the Danger Zone with Ripper Wanton and shit goes DOWN
Carl was told to subtly rile up the Stalwarts, he instead plants the seeds for a full government upheaval.
Stalwarts attack what they believe to be Carl and Donut’s trailer, end up killing a very successful pop-star… who’s a lucrative earner for their system. Was this too much of a narrative curveball? Did Carl’s objective seem on point with his character?
Carl believes they were set up and that the King’s statement was too prepared, and that Borrant benefits from this chaos
Who’s playing whom?
Also the unfunny comedian’s name was Tucker…. Lol
Quest moves on and Carl/Donut find where the hookers are being turned into Crasseu
We meet Daniel Bautista II - he’s lost his entire family. Duo stumbled upon the dead sisters (donut wears one of their anklets) and Dave regrets not staying true to his original form, he looks like a bright orange Thundercat.
Duo finds ‘Remix’ who’s the end of the quest, give his lines of ‘dialogue’. This is his final dungeon before he’s freed - audience numbers are huge
The ‘soul gem’ is about to explode, levelling half the city. Carl remembers the magical glass case to stop it. This then triggers another, bigger bomb that requires them to remove all magical items. They barely survive. Carl is naked, trying to save Katya and other crawlers/npc’s
Katya blows up their originally planted sticks of dynamite upon entering the next level.
Epilogue is MAMMOTH: reveals second bomb never went off, the dynamite killed the npc guards
Every crawler that survived was given an upgraded x2 legendary box to a celestial, meaning obtaining items that render you nearly invincible until lvl 10. Most crawlers left the level, Quan CH (who called them fucking assholes) managed to open his celestial box before Borrant used their one and only VETO to negate the 83 celestial boxes which would have rendered the company absolutely bankrupt.
Donut SUPER PISSED he got the loot for not doing anything, when it was hers and carl’s prize
They were rewarded their mass XP for the dynamite going off - Carl gaining 6, Donut getting 7 and Katya a whopping 12 levels.
Scoreboard is announced - They’re 6 and 7 respectively.
Lucia Marr #1, Hekler #2.
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