Dungeon Crawler Carl x Transmedia Storytelling

If you’ve been in a bookstore recently, chances are good you’ve seen a table stacked high with thick hardcovers with black covers and neon lettering. So of course, we had to talk about the currently unfolding contemporary phenomenon: the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman! Hannah leads us in a conversation all about LitRPG, transmedia storytelling, and participatory fan culture. Plus, she and Marcelle dig into the stellar audiobook production of the series and why these books are getting men reading. If you’ve never heard of Dungeon Crawler Carl or you’re already a fan, this episode is for you!

Related Listening:

Fourth Wing x Author Function

Wicked x Paratexts

Dungeons and Dragons x Ludology

Works Cited

Danis, Sam. “Dungeon Crawler Carl creator Matt Dinniman says LitRPG is just getting started.” Audible Blog, 11 February 2025, https://www.audible.com/blog/matt-dinniman-dungeon-crawler-carl-audio-interview.

Freeman, Matthew. Historicising Transmedia Storytelling: Early Twentieth-Century Transmedia Story Worlds. New York: Routledge, 2017.

GodTaoistofPatience. “[Royal Road] The History of Royal Road, or how a translation site of a niche Korean Novel became one of the pillars of Web Fiction in the West.” Reddit, 19 April 2026, https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1sq1xd9/royal_road_the_history_of_royal_road_or_how_a/.

Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

Jenkins, Henry. Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

Jenkins, Henry. “Rethinking ‘Rethinking Convergence/Culture.’” Cultural Studies 28, no. 2 (2014): 267–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.801579.