Running a Dungeon Crawler Carl Compatible Campaign
Written October 2026. Dungeon Crawler Carl Compatible.
A Dungeon Crawler Carl compatible table has more moving parts than a fantasy campaign. Each crawler has a Health Bar and a Mana Bar, AI Favor, Popularity and a place, or not, on the Top Ten, and every floor runs on a clock. This walkthrough shows where each one lives in Threadfall, who can change it and what the players see, one screenshot at a time.
It describes what the app does, not what the game says. Your rulebook decides the rules; Threadfall holds the numbers your table writes down so they are still there next session.
What you will find here
- Where each crawler number lives: Live for running the table, Party for the assessment, GM Prep for the leaderboard.
- What only you can change, what the crawler's player can change, and what everyone sees.
- What Threadfall never does: nothing moves by itself, and the recording never touches a bar, a clock or a rank.
On this page (10 sections)
1.Start the campaign and bring in a crawler
Choose Dungeon Crawler Carl when you make the campaign. The Atlas becomes the Dungeon Map, the Party page and the Live screen speak the game's vocabulary, and each crawler gets a sheet built for it.
To add a crawler, use Import a sheet on the Party page. Upload a photo or a scan of the sheet, or the game's fillable PDF, or enter it by hand. A review screen always comes first: Threadfall shows what it read, flags anything that looks off, and saves nothing until you confirm. A photo can be misread, so look it over, especially the numbers.
Once a crawler is in, the sheet is theirs to keep current. Importing it again updates the stats you have not edited by hand, and keeps your notes and the portrait. It also clears what was tapped on the crawler's Health Bar, Mana Bar and Dying countdown, and leaves AI Favor alone, so re-import when you mean it.
2.The Live card and its two bars
Where to look: the Live screen is where you run the table, so each crawler's numbers and bars sit there.
Click a crawler in the left panel of the Live screen to open their card. At the top is the picture, then Evade, Damage Resistance, total hit points and maximum mana, then all five attribute modifiers. Below those are AI Favor, the Condition button, the Health Bar and the Mana Bar.
The Health Bar is ten slots, and the percent and total sit beside its name. Numbers follow the sheet: raise Constitution, Dexterity or Intelligence and the slot size, Evade and mana move with it. You can read every crawler's bars; a player can change their own.
The Mana Bar works the same way, with one tap to spend a point and one to put a point back. Everything you tap stays where you left it between sessions.
3.Damage, healing and Dying
What to know: the typed number is the shortcut; the slots are still yours to read.
To hurt a crawler, type the damage into the box beside the Health Bar. Threadfall takes the crawler's Damage Resistance off first, applies any resistance the sheet lists, and marks the slots that are lost. When a crawler has Damage Resistance, an ignore armor box appears for damage that skips it, so tick it for those hits. To heal, type the slots to restore.
When the last slot is gone, a Dying countdown appears over the empty bar. Tap it down as your table decides time or a hit has gone by. Healing a slot ends it, and when it reaches zero the card reads Dead. The countdown is a manual tap, not a round tracker, and pets and mounts do not get one.
4.Injuries, Fatigue and rests
The Condition button on a crawler's card adds an injury or Fatigue and shows what it costs and when it ends. Injuries and Fatigue add up into one penalty to the crawler's checks, shown on the card. The bed button next to it takes a rest and clears what a rest clears.
You and the crawler's player can add and clear conditions. Everyone else sees the effect.
5.AI Favor and Popularity
AI Favor sits on the crawler's card beside their name, with a plus and a minus to gain or spend one. Five pips show at a glance and the count keeps going past five. Popularity is the POP number first on the stats line; tap it to step it or type a new value.
Both belong to the crawler, so the GM and that crawler's player can change them. Popularity does not rank anyone: it is just a number, and the Top Ten below is yours to order. GM Prep's Popularity table shows the whole party at once, and it notes how far each crawler is from their next milestone. That note is a reminder to you, and nothing is granted for you.
6.The floor and its clock
Where to look: the floor clock sits above the map on Live, and has a fuller version on the Dungeon Map.
A new campaign has no clock yet. When the party enters a floor, press Start the clock and it begins at that floor's usual length. After that you step the floor, days, hours and minutes with the arrows on Live, type them in, or clear one with its x. Your players see only the numbers you have set.
Changing the floor number on Live only changes the number. To move the party down, use Descend on the Dungeon Map: it starts the next floor's clock fresh, and Undo brings the last move back. Nothing ticks on its own. The clock is your table's time, kept where everyone can see it.
7.The Leaderboard and bounties
What players see: places one to ten and nothing below, with the unplaced and the rest kept to you.
The Top Ten lives in GM Prep, under Popularity and Leaderboard. It is one list that you order by hand. Your party's crawlers start unranked, so add each one you want on the list with Add to the list, and add a non-player crawler from the Codex or just type a name. Move a row up or down a place, take one off, and edit a row's race, class or level.
Each place can carry a bounty. Threadfall fills it in for you, early floors may show none, and you can type your own over any one, with a small button to put it back. Everyone sees the same list on the Party page's Leaderboard section and on the Live screen: places one to ten with each crawler's name, race, class, level and bounty. A crawler on the list wears their rank and bounty on their Party card. Anyone you have not placed, and everything below tenth, stays in GM Prep.
A non-player crawler you place is marked GMC in the Codex, so you can filter to them.
8.The Party page
The Party page is the assessment, not the live table. Each crawler's card shows their totals (Evade, Damage Resistance, hit points, mana, Popularity), all five attributes on their own row and, if they are ranked, a sash with their rank and bounty. Current bars, conditions and AI Favor live on Live and on the sheet instead.
Beside the cards, What the party can do lists who can heal others, who fights at range or up close, who casts attack spells, and who has First Aid, Stealth, Perception or Persuasion, read from each crawler's skills and spells. A row nobody covers says so, which makes the gaps easy to spot. It reads names it knows, so a skill you invented yourself may not be counted.
9.Achievements, pets and mounts
The GM can award several Achievements in a session. A player can suggest one from the chapter recap, and each suggestion comes to you tagged with who sent it so you can approve it.
A crawler's pet and mount come in from the sheet as Companions with their own Health Bar. They show up on the Party page and in the Codex like the rest of the cast.
10.Dungeon Crawler Carl compatible campaigns FAQ
How do I run a Dungeon Crawler Carl compatible campaign in Threadfall?
Choose Dungeon Crawler Carl when you create the campaign, then bring each crawler in from a photo, a scan or the game's fillable PDF, or type the sheet in by hand. Threadfall shows what it read for you to check before anything saves, then keeps each crawler's Health Bar, mana, AI Favor and Popularity where the whole table can use them.
Does Threadfall track damage and mana for me?
Not on its own. You, or the crawler's player, change a bar with a tap or a typed number. Typing a damage number takes Damage Resistance off and marks the slots for you, but nothing moves a bar by itself, and the recording never changes one.
Who can change AI Favor and Popularity?
The GM and the crawler's own player, from the Live screen. Popularity also has a table for the whole party in GM Prep.
What do my players see of the Top Ten?
Places one to ten, with each crawler's name, race, class, level and bounty. A crawler who is not on the list, and any place past ten, stays with you.
Is Threadfall a virtual tabletop for this game?
No, and on purpose. Dice, tokens and the fight itself stay at your table. Threadfall keeps what carries from one session to the next: the sheet, the Health Bar and mana, the floor, the leaderboard and the story.
Can the floor clock move by itself?
No. You start it and move the floor, days, hours and minutes as time passes at your table, and your players see the numbers you have set.
More: Threadfall for Dungeon Crawler Carl compatible campaigns · running countdowns, the craft side of a clock · what makes a good session recap · all Threadfall guides
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a trademark of Matt Dinniman LLC. Threadfall is compatible with Dungeon Crawler Carl and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Matt Dinniman LLC or the publishers of the game.