Carl's Doomsday Scenario (DCC Book 2): Do the NPCs Know They're Trapped? | Random Review | Original Geek

Some of the monsters know they're monsters. And they can't leave.

Book two of Dungeon Crawler Carl drops Carl and Princess Donut onto the third floor — and starts quietly asking a question the games we grew up on never did: what if the NPCs are aware? Jeff and Steve roll the d20 and let the dice decide how they review Carl's Doomsday Scenario — no plan, no idea what topic's coming until they're already saying it.

This roll landed on the good stuff: the creeping cosmic horror of self-aware NPCs and whether Dinniman planted that dread too early, Carl's slow turn from "they're better off dead" to realizing they're real, and Audette's first sneaky moves — the specialized-build advice, the manager skill, and how a former-child-actor class quietly reels Mordecai in. Plus the case for why every D&D player owes it to themselves to read these for the class design alone.

Haven't seen our full Dungeon Crawler Carl episode yet? Start there — link below — then come back for the book-by-book Random Reviews. And if you haven't let Jeff Hayes narrate these to you yet, fair warning: it ruins every other audiobook for you.

Book three's coming.

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Transcript

Jeff Shaw (00:00)
there sure were a lot of babies in there, Carl.

Steve (00:03)
hey. You know how I feel about babies, Carl.

Welcome to the original geek random review. We set the topic, the dice set the direction. We know what we're reviewing, just not how. Hi, I'm Steve Scarfo.

Jeff Shaw (00:22)
All right, yeah, we're rolling for a review of Carl's Doomsday Scenario, book two of the DCC.

Steve (00:30)
The wonderful,

the wonderful world of Dungeon Crawler Carl. So like we said in the the major episode, if you haven't seen the full episode, go back and watch our re our Dungeon Crawler Carl. We do a full episode about the the series and the book, and we do a review of book one of the same name, Dungeon Crawler Carl. But this is gonna be for Carl's Doomsday scenario, essentially set on the third floor of the dungeon. And I get to roll for Jeff first. For those of you who haven't been here before.

we have a list of topics we don't know what they are. 20 sided dice tells us which one we're gonna pick. We don't know what we're saying until we say it. So here we go. I rolled you an eight. The awakened NPC secrets questioning why certain NPCs possess self-awareness. Creeping cosmic horror. Reviews reviewers point to the unsettling lore questions building around building under the surface.

Why are some NPCs aware while others aren't? How stable are former crawlers forced into NPC roles? It adds a layer of existential dread to every conversation.

Jeff Shaw (01:39)
So interesting. I I feel like Gemini put this here a little too soon. Now there is, you know, some inklings that we get with some of the NPCs, particularly ones either that were like former crawlers or even in the book one when the goblin's like, I almost made it down, I almost I could have gotten to the next

floor and then that things would get better. And so, you know, there's this, it starts to plant the seed. Cause when you go into this, you're thinking, and actually, you know, when we played Dungeon Dragons, it's like, these are the enemy. And you kill them and then you move on. And so it complicates things when it's like, no, they're victims as well. And and yeah, so as you read through these books and these NPCs

are forced into this life of servitude and Carl goes back and forth between saving them and freeing them by killing them. Like they're better off dead. no wait, no, I wanna save What can we do? How can we save them? So it's a little bit of back and forth. So there is that I agree with that existentialism. It's coming in a little bit early on this, but the the seeds were planted on the fr in the first book. So

Steve (03:03)
Yeah, I think we see some of the growing of Carl. I've been hearing a lot more reviews lately. everybody's trying to be us, Jeff. They're all reviewing the books, but we got there like 90 seconds but still we're here. but the deal is he starts off very kind of cold and calculating. He doesn't know what he's doing, he's trying to stay alive.

And in his view, like you said, the best thing for these NPCs, because that's how he thinks of them, is they're non player characters, non-people characters. They are just game generated interactions. It's better for them to be dead. That's what his first thought is. But he starts to learn, I think, in this second book on the third floor with Serena Signet and with with the sh the Shimankas, I think it's on floor two.

But they they have, like you said, they they are aware of what's going on. And he starts to realize, there's more to them than just being a generated character. He was, I think he was thinking of them as not real. And he goes to believe and understand that they are real. But I think you're right. I think this is a little early for this so the for the reveal of how much. But

Jeff Shaw (04:18)
But hey, there sure were a lot of babies in there, Carl.

Steve (04:22)
hey. You know how I feel about babies, Carl.

I won't even attempt a a donut, but I could do a a bizarrely high pitched British accent, but it won't be Jeff Hayes' donut. Rolling for me.

Jeff Shaw (04:34)
Right, rolling for you.

And we got a 10. Successful

Steve (04:40)
Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (04:40)
perception. The galactic broader view. Glimpse the political chaos occurring outside the crawl. I'm going to re-roll this one because this is too early. This is too early. We already had one that is too early. So let's go with six successful stealth stealth.

Check. Audette's sneaky advice selecting classes under the radar. Tactical cunning. Guided by Audette, Carl and Donut get sneaky with their race and class selections. Instead of picking obvious power builds, they pick specialized system gaming synergies that keep their true potential hidden from corporate sponsors.

Steve (05:30)
Yeah. All right. Good call on re-rolling that. So just again, we let AI, and I know how a lot of you feel about AI, but we let and not the AI, because we have no foot fetish in here yet. I have to say yet. AI develops this list for us. So we don't know what this list is gonna be. We've told you before, it's to keep it fresh. So what happens sometimes is the list goes off the rail, much like the AI, in I think book six with the toe sucking, but we won't talk about that till later.

Jeff Shaw (05:58)
Gone

primal.

Steve (05:59)
It has gone primal. So this one is definitely fits book two.

And it really does, and it's it's very cool. If you've seen the if you've read all of these, if you've listened to all of them, you know that Audette's part becomes larger and larger. but this is sort of the beginnings you don't really see everything yet, but you see the beginnings of her machinations of how to manipulate. And then we find out later books why she's manipulating, but this is her helping them.

and I think I almost want to put helping them in air quotes, but she does get them, and this is how they get Mordecai to stay with them because she can kind of convinces them that one of them needs to have the manager skill. And Donut picks a former child actor as her

Jeff Shaw (06:50)
Yes.

Steve (06:51)
as her her class, which gets them the manager, which gets their Mordecai. And she has ulterior motives for that, which you'll find out later. But yeah, she definitely

And I wish I had better quotes for the actual conversation they had, but she's definitely sneaky about how she gets that in and and they, you know, cause disruptions so that they can speak off the record, sh you know, at different times. But yeah. I I think her character is a great character in general too, so but I agree with this

Jeff Shaw (07:21)
Yeah,

Steve (07:22)
one.

Jeff Shaw (07:22)
and to slight digression and talk about classes, yeah, because in our full episode I talked about how the these books kind of changed my perspective on being a dungeon master in D D, like there these are your classes, and they're like fighter, mage, and there was a few subclasses. Then they started getting more creative. If you have not read the DCC yet, and you're D D

fan, please go read these because it'll blow your mind, these different very creative classes. I you know, at Deniman, I'm I'm envious because I I thought I had some creative ideas, and then he's just outside the box. Former child actor as a class

Steve (08:10)
Yes.

Jeff Shaw (08:10)
is just phenomenal. Phenomenal. And and

Steve (08:14)
and then the

the skills too. We can get into that in another time. The skill some of the skills are

Jeff Shaw (08:19)
yeah. Yeah, there's so so much.

Steve (08:21)
great.

Jeff Shaw (08:22)
Yeah, but on a debt, and the you know, her you know what are her motivations? At this time it looks like she's being you know, she says she wants to keep them alive. She's making money off of them. And that's that's true too. So there are other motivations there we

Don't discover in this book, but she says right out loud, I want you to survive. And so having Mordecai as their guide is key for their survival. And the even in this book, even though he gets drunk and passes out and

Steve (09:04)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Shaw (09:04)
is useless initially, you know, he's he is giving them good advice, which they don't always follow. So

Steve (09:13)
No, and it's

i it goes beyond the money too because she's got a personal connection to Mordecai, which again we find out later, but they lay but they lay that

Jeff Shaw (09:21)
Yeah. But you don't know that now.

Steve (09:24)
in now, yeah. But you know, with the with the ability to have we're not spoiling anything if you haven't read this book. She she

Jeff Shaw (09:31)
I know. She she does say it. She does say it.

Steve (09:33)
definitely talks about that, but I think it's a very cool call out too that

Mordecai goes from Game Guide, which is sort of this in de well, they're all indentured servants. they get out, you know, former crawlers who get who have to sign on to an indenture for fur future seasons so that they don't have to stay in the dungeon. And he's stuck with this crap job of always helping these crawlers. And

you see his not disdain, but he doesn't really care much one way or the other. He's trying to give them good advice, but doesn't really care. And it's not till this book when he becomes the manager, where like you said, he sort of freaks out and gets drunk because he's like, god, I'm stuck with these two. And then obviously future books change that relationship. But all right, so

That is Carl's Doomsday Scenario. That is our random review, the original Geek random review. You need to go now watch the whole episode of Dungeon Crawler Carl, and at which point we will tell you, and we'll tell you again. If you haven't read, listened to, and consumed every bit of the DCC, then there's some huge chunk of your life missing. There's a hole in your soul that you need to fill with Carl's big foot with the toe ring. That's all I'm gonna say.

Jeff Shaw (10:48)
Yeah. And if you have if you've never listened to an audiobook, this is a great entry. It'll actually spoil you for all of the other audiobooks. If you you're like, wow, I really loved the Jeff Hayes

Steve (10:59)
Yes.

Jeff Shaw (11:01)
audio. I'm gonna go listen to something else. You won't like it nearly as much. It's amazing. So please do listen and or read these books.

Steve (11:11)
Yes. So as always, like, subscribe, follow, share, tell your friends about us, and we will see you guys for book three.

Jeff Shaw (11:20)
G's