Having gotten caught up on all eight Dungeon Crawler Carl books, while we wait for Book 9 and for news about the Dungeon Crawler Carl TV show, I've turned my attention toward the fandom and the lore surrounding Matt Dinniman's mega-popular self-published books. As it happens, one of the recent tidbits I learned concerns both. Those who've been on board with the Dungeon Crawler Carl books from the start -- particularly those who are subscribed to Matt Dinniman's Patreon -- will likely already know this one, especially if they were around years ago, when he launched the poll that included a certain book, which would prove to be extremely relevant to the series.Dungeon Crawler Carl spoiler alert! 🟠If you're not caught up on the series, there may be plot and character references you won't want to know about yet!My mind was blown to learn that the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook -- the item Carl selects as a prize in Book 3 -- was added to the series as the result of a Patreon poll. Matt Dinniman mentioned this fact recently during the Matt Dinniman Spotlight panel at SDCC in July, saying:The people in my Patreon are equivalent to the intergalactic audience in Dungeon Crawler Carl, so they get to vote for things that happen in the book. For example, they voted for the Dungeon Anarchist Cookbook to exist. They voted for Cuba. They voted for Mordecai's form in Book 9. Cuba is a big part of the setting for Book 6 (The Eye of the Bedlam Bride). Books 9 and 10 are on the way, so how Mordecai's form impacts the story remains to be known. And then there's the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook, which is not just a key item in Carl's inventory, but the whole title of the third book in the DCC series! The Introduction Of The Dungeon Anarchist's CookbookThe Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook is an item Carl selects from a prize carousel. He has a variety of promising-looking options to select from, but something about the book catches his eye. After he selects it, it seems like a dud of a prize on the surface, as it appears to be nothing more than a Chicken and Goblin recipe book. Upon later inspection, he discovers that it's a book that's been passed on from crawler to crawler over the years, and is filled with helpful advice, thoughts and tips to survive, as well as the ultimate mission to take the system down. The Cookbook is referenced throughout the series, so it's not like this is a weapon or tool that plays is part and later blurs into the history of the series with so many other collected items. It's a big deal and relevant through the most recent book in the series.Matt Dinniman's Patreon PollObviously, after hearing what Matt Dinniman said about fans being responsible for voting that item into the story, I had to know more. Members of Matt Dinniman's Patreon can access content going back years, including the polls. Sure enough, there's a poll from June 29, 2020, which invites fans to pick what Carl wins in a fan box he's going to receive. The poll contains various items, including the Cookbook; however, that wasn't the actual winner. The winning choice of the poll was the very last item on the list: "A pop-up reward room where he's given all of the above choices, and he has to pick one himself." The second highest vote-getter in the poll was the Cookbook, listed as "A single book. 'The (Dungeon) Anarchist's Cookbook." So it seems Matt Dinniman really held true to the results. Carl wins the prize carousel, and he ends up selecting the Cookbook from the various options he's presented with. Matt Dinniman Does Have A Rule About The Patreon VotesIt's wild to me that such a vital item came into the story due to a fan vote. Would he have introduced the Cookbook in another way, had things not worked out how they did? Who can say, but it's impossible to imagine the series without it. Regardless, I love the lore here. Matt Dinniman went on to explain the rule he adheres to for the polls:I will never have them vote on things that Carl does or says, anything Donut does or says. But like items that get thrown on them that change the story, I will have them vote on. As a fan, it's comforting to know he's not rolling the dice on the fate of his core characters. He went on to explain why it's fun for him to give the fans a bit of control over the story, stating:It's fun. I enjoy them picking things that write me into a corner, because as someone who makes it up as he goes along, that's my favorite part of writing - is this is impossible to get out of. How do I get out of this, and I spend sometimes literally weeks trying to come up with a way when we all read it together, we're like, how it couldn't have possibly gone any other way, but that was pretty cool. Learning the backstory to some of the decisions Matt Dinniman has made while writing the series is almost as fun for me as actually reading the books. As relieved as I am that he ended up not separating Donut and Carl as he once considered, I'm equally relieved that those early DCC fans had the foresight to set the wheel in motion that would ultimately bring the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook into the story.